Di Stéfano had led Real to back-to-back titles in ‘54 and ‘55 but in 1956 with Madrid’s attentions diverted by the inaugural European Cup win, Athletic Bilbao pipped Barcelona for the title by one point with Real 10 points back. Accordingly, Spain had two representatives for the 1956/57 season which was to be the first to only include domestic Champions (and the holders). The field had also been padded by additional countries participating; Bulgaria (CDNA Sofia – now known as CSKA Sofia), Czechoslovakia (Slovan Bratislava), Luxembourg (Spora Luxembourg), Romania (Dinamo Bucharest), Turkey (Galatasary). Honved featuring Puskás and Koscis, perennial Scottish power Rangers, West German National Champions Borussia Dortmund, FC Porto and first-time Serie A winners Fiorentina were all looking to make their mark on the continent. But the most notable addition to the competition were English Champions, Manchester United.

United had won the league by eleven points over nearest challengers Blackpool. Their entry into the tournament had been driven through by their Scottish coach, Matt Busby. After receiving an invitation from FA Secretary and later FIFA President Stanley Rous, Busby met with the United board and impressed on them his desire to compete, citing the financial and playing benefits the team could achieve but also impressing his progressive views on the sport. As he told his Chairman, ‘football has become a world game. It no longer belongs exclusively to England, Scotland and the British Isles. This is where the future of the game lies.’^

The United Board may have agreed, but again the Football League objected. They had decided to launch their own midweek tournament to cash-in on the popularity of floodlight football, and in doing so, create another roadblock for clubs looking to play in Europe. The Football League Cup as it came to be known would launch in 1960 but by that point, the horse had well and truly bolted.

Busby went to meet with Rous and FA President Arthur Drewry and got the FA’s backing should the League continue to cause them issues, which they did. However, based on the FA support and as United had already begun planning for the tournament, they got their way. United had appointed Busby following the war where he had gained his first coaching experience with the Army Physical Corps. During one trip he encountered the former West Brom player the Welshman Jimmy Murphy whom he would make his assistant manager. Aside from the damage to Old Trafford, Busby and Murphy inherited and built a strong a squad led by the Irish full-back Johnny Carey. United would finish runners-up in four seasons in the late 40s and early 50s and would lift the FA Cup in 1948. They would finally win the title in 1952.

During this period Busby, who had been given full oversight of all player selection, training and transfers, a rare occurrence for managers in those days, began a process of identifying talent youngsters who could join United at the age of 16. His chief scout was Joe Armstrong who knocked on doors across country and charmed parents in their front room on the merits of Manchester United. They secured the best talent in the greater Manchester area and supplemented them with a couple of gems from further afield, notably Duncan Edwards of Dudley in the midlands and Bobby Charlton from Ashington in the North-East. Armstrong would identify them and Jimmy Murphy would develop them. The strength of the program was illustrated in the FA Youth Cup. Launched in 1952 to mirror the senior competition, the early years would be dominated by United who swept to five consecutive titles. Crowds of 10-15 thousand would regularly attend youth and reserve fixtures during this time.

By 1953 the transition of these players into the first team was beginning to take shape and Edwards would become the youngest player to play in the English top flight when he made his debut in April at the age of 16 years and 185 days. United would finish 4th in 1954, 5th in 1955 but in 1956 they would win the title by 11 points over Blackpool. The average age of the team was 22 and there was a conveyor belt of talent rolling into the first team.

The side that took to the field in United’s first ever European game was as follows: Ray Wood (25) Bill Foulkes (24), Roger Byrne (27), Eddie Colman (19), Mark Jones (22), Jackie Blanchflower (23), Johnny Berry (30), Liam Whelan (21), Tommy Taylor (24), Dennis Viollet (22) and David Pegg (20). Edwards 19 at the time, missed the first leg but was fit for the home leg by which time he’d turned 20. Of that team only Wood, Berry and Taylor had not come through the ranks at United. Taylor was Busby’s only real splurge. A prolific Centre forward signed from Barnsley for a pound short of £30,000, Taylor had been down the pits himself , was outstanding in the air and had hit 75 goals league goals in his first three full seasons.

Drawn against Belgian champions Anderlecht in the preliminary round. United would win 2-0 in Belgium thanks to goals from Viollet and Taylor and an excellent goalkeeping performance from Wood. One of the final stumbling blocks in United’s entry to the European Cup was that Old Trafford had no floodlights, so whilst they waited for those to be erected, they rented Maine Road for use with the hope that if they made the latter stages, their own ground would be ready. Old Trafford had been bombed during the war so United had used Maine Road in Busby’s early days at the club so it wasn’t unknown territory. The arrangement worked out well for City who received over £3,000 for the games they hosted.

Anderlecht were managed by Bill Gormlie a former Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper and a Lancashire man but he was to have no happy homecoming as United destroyed Anderlecht 10-0 in Manchester. Taylor grabbed three, Viollet four and United produced a ‘display of high-speed scientific football that turned the ripping night into a thing of wonder’^ sending a statement throughout Europe. The English had made the party, fashionably late.

United faced Dortmund in the next round. 30,000 additional spectators packed into Maine Road for a crowd of 75,000 and a ringing endorsement for the attraction of European football. Dortmund had commissioned a set of neon yellow shirts from Umbro, specially designed for floodlight matches but it must have taken 45 minutes for the effects to be fully realized as the Germans were 3-0 down at the half. A stirring second period saw them score twice ensuring the second leg would be no dead rubber. On a cold night in the Ruhr, United managed a professional 0-0 to ensure to take their place in the quarter-finals. Dortmund would take their revenge, 40 years later, in a rare season in which they played again in neon yellow kits.

Britain’s other representatives, Rangers, did not make it past the first round after they lost in a playoff to Nice after two 2-1 victories for the home team. Venues for the playoff games were chosen by both clubs and in this case Rangers agreed to play the deciding match in Paris, clearly an advantage for Nice, although the location was probably the closest mid-way point. Rangers lost 3-1 and Nice would meet Real in the last eight.

The Scots were not the only side who would rue their choice of venue for a deciding game. Rapid Vienna had surprised the continent by forcing a third game with the holders. After a 4-2 loss in Madrid, Ernst Happel, later to win the tournament twice as a manager, scored a hat-trick in the stadium that now bears his name as Rapid won 3-1. The ever shrewd Bernabéu offered Rapid an even share of the gate receipts if the game was played in Madrid. Rapid saw dollar signs and they were duly rewarded as 100,000 fans attended the pivotal match. Unfortunately, for the Austrians, Kopa’s first European goal for Real adding to a first minute strike from Joseíto saw them return to Vienna, defeated but not quite, empty-handed.

The political realities of the continent were again shown during the Athletic Bilbao vs Honved tie. On the 23rd of October, a student protest had grown into a wider revolt against the oppressive Soviet policies placed on the country, leading to the Hungarian revolution, which lasted until November 10th before it was crushed by the Soviet government. Because of the obvious challenges with playing football matches, UEFA agreed to let Honved switch the ties around and play the first leg in Spain, with a view to playing the return leg once things had calmed down in Budapest. The Honved players left Hungary on October 29 and undertook a tour of Europe to prepare. They also added a new coach in Bela Guttmann, who stepped in to lead his countrymen. In the opposite dugout would be Ferdinand Daučík, brother-in-law of another Hungarian star, László Kubala. Whilst Real Madrid had been trying to woo Kubala to Madrid, Kubala made employing Daučík a prerequisite of any move. Real refused, Barca obliged, but after four years in Catalonia he had now joined Bilbao. In front of 40,000 at El Catedral, the San Mames Stadium, Bilbao won 3-2 setting up a mouthwatering second leg. With continued unrest in Hungary, UEFA scheduled the second leg to be played in Brussels. With a month between games, Honved scheduled friendlies against Barcelona and a combined Real-Atletico Madrid which saw Ferenc Puskás come up against Di Stéfano and Guttmann offered the Atleti job following a 5-5 tie.

When the second-leg was played an early injury to the Honved keeper Lajos Faragó with the match poised at 1-1 reduced them to 10-men and resulted in the loss of the attacking threat of Czibor who ended up in goal. Bilbao took advantage and went 3-1 ahead. Despite goals from Budai and Puskás in the final 10 minutes to make it 3-3, the Spanish Champions advanced.

With the defeat, Hungarian football’s place at the top table of European club football was over. The European Cup came too late for the Honved side and the revolution and subsequent domestic turmoil would gradually see their game fade into the periphery. The players and coaches, however, were not finished and would write another couple of chapters in the amazing Hungarian football story.

The Quarter-Finals saw Red Star Belgrade emulate their bitter rivals’ Partizan’s achievement of the year previous, as they took care of CDNA Sofia, 4-3 on aggregate. Madrid, were comfortable winners over Nice as were Italian Champions Fiorentina over Grasshoppers. Busby’s United would face Bilbao in the tie of the round as the English Champions took on the Spanish.

Like many Spanish clubs, Bilbao had strong English roots and their most famous manager, Fred Pentland ‘El Bombin’ was from Wolverhampton. During this time they had been forced to change their name by the Franco regime to the Spanish Atlético Bilbao, rather than their original, and current, English version Athletic. There was no winter-month hiatus in the tournament at this time and the game was played in January, leading to terrible conditions for the first-leg in Spain. A storm in the days prior created a mess of a playing surface littered with snow and a bog underneath. Not that the weather affected Bilbao who raced into a 3-0 lead at half-time. United reduced the deficit to 3-2 shortly after half-time but two quick goals from Armando Merodio and José Luis Artetxe looked to have built an insurmountable advantage at 5-2. With five minutes remaining United’s quiet Irish winger, Billy Whelan, cut in from the left and curled a shot into the far right corner. It was not an away goal as we would know it, but it had the same feel and changed the complexion for United ahead of the return leg.

United would encounter troubles on the way home as the cold weather had left snow and ice on the plane when they returned to the airport on Thursday morning (the game was played on the Wednesday night). With a league game against Sheffield Wednesday on the Saturday, Busby realised the need to get home that day and ensure there would be no potential ramifications from the Football League administration eager for any excuse to punish the team that had disobeyed their orders. Players were ordered to help get the plane ready by brushing the precipitation off and despite a bumpy ride home, they made it back in time for their league match. Although they would lose the game to Wednesday, they were on course for back-to-back titles and would be competing in the tournament for the 1957-58 season regardless of whether or not they won the competition this season.

That seemed a distant dream as the two sides kicked off at Maine Road, however the ‘home’ fans created a tremendous atmosphere prompting Daučík to state: ‘In all my years in football, I have never heard such noise.’^ It took United some time to give the 70,000 crowd something to cheer though, as Dennis Viollet put them 1-0 ahead on the night and one behind in the tie on 42 minutes. With 20 minutes remaining, Taylor, made his mark on the European Cup, equalizing before setting up the decisive third, for Johnny Berry with five minutes to go.

It was that night, at Maine Road of all places, that United’s love affair with the tournament began. The iconic late comebacks that remain synonymous with their history started that February evening. The English Press were similarly smitten, with George Follows of The Daily Herald summing up the giddiness describing the game as, ‘the greatest football match I have seen . . . the greatest football crowd . . . and the greatest centre-forward display.’^

Athletic, for so long Spain’s premier team, would not play again in the European Cup for 27 years, and it would be English opposition who would end their dreams in 1983 also. Ian Rush’s goal for Liverpool at the San Mames would be the difference.

Matt Busby’s next continental stop off would be at a slightly more upmarket coastal city, across the Pyrenees, to the Côte d’Azur. He was there to see United’s next opponents, the winner of the Nice v Real Madrid tie. With the French side trailing 3-0 from the first leg, Busby could focus on the Madrileños although this did not provide him with too much comfort. It is a remarkable reminder of how groundbreaking the European Cup was, that Busby was seeing Real Madrid, the Champions of Europe, play for the first time. And they did not disappoint. Winning 3-2 without breaking too much of a sweat, Busby was transfixed with Di Stéfano: ‘I have just witnessed Alfredo the Great!’ ^ he wrote while back in Manchester. ‘In a lifetime of football I have never seen a better player, he is simply unique.’

The match up between Real and United was one of the biggest game in the tournament’s opening few years and another major milestone in its ascension to the pinnacle of the European game. Real’s reputation was growing in the UK and the opportunity to see the highest-paid players in the World on British soil captured the imagination, and as ever it would be an opportunity to remind the continentals who the masters of the game were. In Spain too there was a fervour. 120,000 tickets sold in record time, with 250,000 applications. An English team added legitimacy to the competition, and it ensured (other than the Soviets) that all the leading nations were represented. Could Real really claim to be the best in Europe if no English team had competed? They still retained a prominent position as a benchmark for the rest of the World, so the tie provided an opportunity (another one) to remind the British that the game had moved on. Yet Busby’s Babes did not fit the stereotype. They were young and dynamic and played a brand of football that would not be out of place in Italy or Spain.

On the eve of the Real Madrid-Manchester United clash, Busby proclaimed ‘Real will need at least three goals to take back to Manchester.’^ The Scotsman had directed Eddie Colman to pick up Di Stéfano, following his scouting mission. Colman and United frustrated their counterparts in the first half, but were undone by two goals just after the hour mark. An unmarked Rial stole in at the back post to send a diving header past United keeper Harry Gregg and minutes later Di Stéfano chipped the Northern Irishman to make it 2-0. After a goalmouth scramble, Tommy Taylor nicked one back for United but soon after, Enrique Mateos, enjoying his standout season for his hometown team, made it 3-1 to Madrid. Real had the three goals Busby said they would need for their trip to Manchester. Bobby Charlton who was not part of the squad and watching from the stands, was less confident remarking: ‘I saw Di Stéfano and these others, and I thought to myself, these people just aren’t human. It’s not the sort of game I’ve been taught.’^

The semi-final was not United’s first famous European night, but it was Old Trafford’s. The floodlight installation project was now completed. Busby had attempted to follow Cullis’s lead from the famous Wolves-Honved game and douse the pitch with water, but photos from the Daily Mail alerted Real and they demanded the sprinklers be shut off or they would not play the match. The 62,000 crowd were hoping to witness another comeback against Spanish opposition, but instead they saw Real at their very best, killing the tie within the first 35 minutes through goals from Kopa and Rial. United brought it back to 2-2 through Taylor and Charlton but the tie was over by that point. The game was echoed in 2003 when a clinical Real killed any chance of a United comeback at Old Trafford as they attempted to overturn a 3-1 advantage.

The match was a tedious affair with United fans booing the Real players who had ruined their night. Daily Express journalist Desmond Hackett wrote the next day how he had ‘never felt so ashamed of an English soccer crowd in all my life.’ There was however high praise for the Real forward line with Rial, Kopa and Gento getting special mentions but it was Di Stéfano who was the object of most affection via the typewriter. Hackett was ‘left without words to use for that odd man out among the continentals, Alfredo Di Stéfano from the Argentine.’ The Guardian compared him to the orchestra conductors Thomas Beecham and John Barbirolli, and for The Times, he ‘blossomed out as the attacker-teasing, flicking the ball here and there, using body check, and generally being more crafty even than a cuckoo.’

Busby accurately noted that ‘Real Madrid beat Manchester United because a great experienced side will always triumph over a great, inexperienced side.’^ It was true. Real’s team had an average age of 28, United 21. With United heading for a second straight title, Busby had cause for optimism: ‘I still believe my boys possess the potential to beat Real Madrid in a short time. If not next year then the one after. Manchester United are coming.’ The United players received some gold for their efforts as Bernabau presented them all with gold watches at the post-match banquet. His efforts to recruit Busby to Spain, however, were unsuccessful.

Real advanced to their second final in a row and thanks to a short-lived process (short-lived based on Real’s dominance) that saw the winners from the year previous host the next final, their second final was at home, at the house Santiago built.

They would play Fiorentina who progressed by way of a 1-0 aggregate win over Red Star. La Viola were coached by Fulvio Bernandini, a trained accountant and a cultured midfielder who had been a star of Roma in the inter-war period. In 1944 Bernardini, now retired had been appointed as the commissioner for the Italian Football Federation and organised the early elements of Italy’s post-war football recovery. A noted anti-fascist, Bernandini retired from the position because of disagreements with his boss Giulio Onesti whose approach to dealing with former fascists was not strict enough for Bernandini’s liking. Ironically, Bernandini would later end up at Bologna, a club who enjoyed great success during Mussolini’s reign under Leandro Arpinati, and played in a stadium that formerly featured a statue of Il Duce on horseback.

His Fiorentina side played a variant of the developing Catenaccio system that would bring success for Milan and Inter in later years however their side featured some exciting talent including the Brazilian Julinho and the Argentine Miguel Angel Montouri. The decisive goal against Red Star had been scored in the first-leg, two minutes from time by Maurilio Prini, an early exponent of a tornante, a winger who tracked back and took on defensive duties.

It was planned for the match to be the grand opening for the floodlights that had now been installed, but Fiorentina refused to play the game at night and it kicked off at 5:30pm local time.

The Dutch referee Leo Horn, was in charge of the final and was familiar with Real having been the man in the middle in the first-leg of the semi vs. Manchester United. Horn was an interesting character. A black belt in Judo, he fought with the Dutch resistance in the War and had been suspended by the Dutch FA in 1941 on account of being Jewish. His brother, Edgar, had died in a concentration camp. Horn would referee the 1958 final also, but to this day, his role in Real’s opening goal is heavily criticised in Florence.

After a frustrating first-half for Real, in front of a crowd 124,000, a final attendance second only to the 1960 final held at Hampden Park, Mateos again had a major contribution following his goal against United. Sent clean through, Horn ignored the linesman’s flag and flagged for a penalty when Mateos was brought down by the trailing leg of Ardico Magnini. Reports and recaps suggest the foul was outside the box and on review, it’s likely he was caught just outside the penalty area. This was tight and not quite as egregious an error as the offside which looks clear as the early evening light. Di Stéfano stepped up to blast the penalty past Giuliano Sarti who had advanced to his 6-yard box by the time the kick was struck. Sarti was a fine keeper who had made an excellent save from Di Stéfano in the first half and would later win two finals with Il Grande Inter in the mid-1960s. He was off his line again, to narrow the angle on Gento who had been released by Kopa but the winger was too quick and he scooped the bouncing ball over the keeper to seal the title with 15 minutes remaining.

In the stadium that he’d built, watching the team he’d carefully constructed, in the country ruled by the regime he had fought for, Santiago Bernabéu watched General Franco present his captain Miguel Muñoz with the European Cup, a competition he helped create. He could have been guilty of thinking things could not get any better for his Real Madrid. He would be wrong.