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GALLERY '50 / 1950 Decade / 1956 European cup final tickets
1956
Final-Parc
des Princes, Paris
13-06-56 Real Madrid VS. Stade de Reims 4-3
[Alfredo Di Stéfano 14, Héctor Rial 30, 79,
Marcos "Marquitos" Alonso 67; Michel Leblond 6,
Jean Templin 10, Michel Hidalgo 62]
Real
Madrid:
Juan Alonso; Angel Atienza, Marcos "Marquitos"
Alonso,Rafael Lesmes, Miguel Muñoz (c), José María Zárraga, José
"Joseito" Iglesias, José Ramon Marchal, Alfredo Di
Stéfano, José Héctor Rial, Francisco Gento;coach: José
Villalonga.
Stade de Reims: René Jacquet; Simon Zimny, Robert Jonquet (c), Raoul Giraudo, Michel Leblond, Robert Siatka, Michel Hidalgo, Léon Glovacki, Raymond Kopa, René Bliard, Jean Templin; coach: Albert Batteux.
ref: Arthur E. Ellis (England)
The
first ever European Cup game took place on the afternoon of 4th
September 1955 in Lisbon when Sporting Lisbon played out a 3-3 draw
with Partizan Belgrade, and the first European Cup goal was scored by
Sporting's Joao Baptista Martins, but the most significant game of
the first round came four days later in Geneva. On 8th September,
Miguel Munoz scored a 74th minute goal that sent Real Madrid on their
way to a 2-0 win against Servette in the first leg of their first
round tie. Nobody knew it at the time, but that was the beginning of
five years of dominance by the Spanish champions.
The money
and vision of Real president, Santiago Bernabeu had provided the
Madrid club with not only a stadium that was the envy of Europe, but
had also started to put together a team that would dominate the
opening years of the Champions Cup. With the forward line that they
posessed, under the guidance of coach Jose Villalonga, they were able
to paper over some of the deficiencies that they had at the back, for
few defences could cope with the likes of the great Alfredo Di
Stefano from Argentina, Hector Rial from Uruguay and the lightning
quick Francisco Gento when they were in full flow. The Swiss of
Geneva were blown away by seven goals in the first round of the
inaugural competition and, the Yugoslavs of Partizan Belgrade
appeared to be as good as out after a 4-0 Christmas Day defeat in
Madrid in the second round. But the second leg in wintry Belgrade saw
Partizan leading 3-0 when a shot on goal only failed to croos the
line thanks to the amount of slush in the penalty area. The Real
defenders cleared the ball and they were now into the semi-finals,
but there they were likely to be even more severely tested when they
came up against the Italians of AC Milan.
In the other half of
the draw, the French team Stade de Reims had also made it through to
the last four. Reims were the major club in France when the European
Cup began and they cornered the market in domestic talent. Guided by
their manager Albert Batteux, Reims were League champions and Latin
Cup winners in 1953, before winning the French championship again in
1955. Their inspirational player was Raymond Kopa, a mesmeric forward
whose touch and vision catapulted Reims through the first two rounds.
Winning aggregate scores of 4-2 over Denmark’s Aarhus and 8-6
against Voros Lobogo of Hungary saw the French side progress to a
semi-final against Hibernian. Hibs were one of several of the clubs
invited to take part in this first European Cup who were not, in
fact, reigning champions of their respective countries. They were
regarded as being one of the top teams in Scotland, having won the
Scottish title in 1950 and 1953, but the main reason for their
invitation was that they were the only team in the country who had
floodlights installed at their ground – a fairly important
prerequisite for taking part in a midweek floodlit competition. The
first British team to take part in the European Cup had little
trouble in getting past Rot Weiss Essen and Djurgaarden, but a Kopa
inspired Stade de Reims was to prove a much harder proposition in the
semi-finals.
The first legs of the two semi-finals saw both
home teams take a decisive step to the final. In Paris, Stade de
Reims led Hibernian by just a single Leblond goal as the game entered
the closing stages, but a last minute strike from Bliard gave the
Frenchmen a more convincing 2-0 lead. In Madrid, Real ran out 4-2
winners. Neither of the defeated sides could recover from that. One
Glovacki goal (his sixth in six games) from a Kopa pass for the
French team in the second leg saw Reims into the final, while Real
edged through after a 2-1 defeat in Milan. And so, the first ever
European Cup Final would see the same two teams that had played out
the Latin Cup Final twelve months earlier play in the same stadium –
Real hoping that the 2-0 score line would also be the same.
On
June 13, 1956, 38,000 spectators paying around £20,000, gathered at
the Parc des Princes to see who would be crowned the first
ever European champions. After ten minutes there seemed little doubt that that team
would be the one that the majority of the crowd were supporting -
Stade de Reims. After six minutes, Reims were ahead as a free kick
from Kopa – who had already been signed by Real to play for them
from the start of the following season – reached the head of Michel
Leblond who sent the ball looping over Alonso in goal – although
the Real players complained that the ball had not crossed the line -
and a Jean Templin goal soon afterwards gave the Frenchmen a two goal
lead. Moments later a shot from Kopa was cleared off the Madrid goal
line. A fine run and shot from Di Stefano brought Real back into the
game, however, with a 14th minute goal and Rial’s header from a
corner brought the scores level before half-time. In the second half,
Di Stefano began to take control and his pass found Joseito who sent
the ball past Jacquet and into the net, only for the goal to be
disallowed for offside. But when future French national coach Michel
Hidalgo headed Reims into a 3-2 lead from another Kopa free kick just
after the hour, the game had swung back in their favour. Just when
Real needed something special it was a surprise run and strike from
centre-back Manuel Marquitos on 67 minutes that changed the game once
again. Marquitos’s shot appeared to be heading wide of the goal,
but a deflection off the leg of a defender sent it past Jacquet in
the Reims goal to bring the scores level. With eleven minutes
remaining, a second from Rial, after a great run and cross from
Gento, gave Madrid the lead for the first time in the match. Two
minutes from time the Spaniards were given a scare when Reims’s
Templin hit the bar, but they eventually managed to hold out and win
the match 4-3.
The European Cup Final had shown football fans
throughout the continent what a force Real Madrid were and what a
star player they had in the shape of Di Stefano. The Real bound
Raymond Kopa commented: ‘After what I have seen in this game, I
don’t know why Real need me. Their team is complete.’ The trophy
was presented to Real captain Miguel Munoz by UEFA president Ebbe
Schwartz. The European Cup was now in the hands of Real Madrid, and
it would stay there for many years to come.