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1961
European Cup Final (Berne)
Benfica 3 vs. Barcelona 2
Benfica: Pereira, Joao, Germano, Angelo, Neto, Cruz, Jose Augusto, Santana,
Aguas (capt), Coluna, Cavem
Scorers: Aguas, Ramallets (og),
Coluna
Barcelona: Ramallets (capt), Foncho, Garay, Gracia, Verges, Gensana, Kubala,
Suarez, Evaristo, Kocsis, Czibor
Scorers: Kocsis, Czibor
In
the modern days of the Champions League, the top sides are carefully
seeded and separated to ensure that they are kept apart until the
later stages of the competition. Back in 1960, however, the teams
were simply drawn out of a hat and would play whoever they were drawn
against, whether it was the first round or the semi-finals. This is
why, in that year, the two apparently dominant teams in Europe met
each other in the second round of the European Cup rather than the
final.
Despite having won the Spanish Championship two years
in a row, despite having a ground that was at least as large and
spectacular as that of Real Madrid, and despite having players that
they believed could match the likes of Di Stefano, Puskas and Gento,
Barcelona could not get close to matching the way that their Real
Madrid rivals were perceived around Europe because of one simple fact
– Real had won the first five European Cups while Barcelona had
none. Barcelona’s defeat by Real in the previous years competition,
followed by the incredible performance in the final by Di Stefano,
Puskas and co, had merely served to accentuate the general perception
that Real were a much greater club and team than their Catalan
rivals.
As early as the second round of the 1960/61
competition, however, Barcelona had the chance to end Real’s
amazing run and to establish themselves as the dominant force in
European football. Having beaten the Belgian side Lierse by five
goals in the first round, Barcelona were drawn once again with Real
Madrid who had received a bye through to the second round. With
Herrera having been dismissed as manager following Barca’s defeat
in the previous season’s semi-finals, Yugoslavia’s Ljubisa Brocic
was now in charge, and in the first leg in Madrid he achieved
something that no manager had previously managed during the first
five years of the European Cups life. Up until November 9th 1960,
Real Madrid had played 15 home ties in the European Cup and had won
them all with a combined aggregate score of 66-8, but on that day
their run came to an end. Twice Real took the lead – through Mateos
after only two minutes and Gento on the half hour – but twice their
defence, which had to play without the giant Uruguayan Santamaria due
to injury, was unable to prevent an equaliser. It was Luis Suarez who
scored both goals for Barcelona, the first from a free-kick and the
second a hotly disputed penalty just three minutes from the end. Put
through by Evaristo, Kocsis sped into the box before being sent
tumbling to the ground by the chasing defenders. The linesman put his
flag up, but there was some dispute over whether he was flagging for
a foul or if he was signalling that Kocsis was offside. English
referee Arthur Ellis decided that it was a penalty and Suarez calmly
converted the spot kick that saw Barcelona emerge as the first side
ever to return unbeaten from the Bernabeu Stadium in a European tie.
There was, however, still plenty for Barcelona to do. Real had
Santamaria back for the second game and the forward line that had
demolished Eintracht at Hampden was in place.
Barcelona
started the second leg in style as they immediately put the Real goal
under pressure. Early in the game, Evaristo found the Madrid net,
only to be denied by the linesman’s offside flag. Moments later,
Gento cleared a Villaverde shot off the line as the European
champions hung on desperately. Slowly, however, having survived the
initial storm, Real took control of the game as they began to
dominate possession, and on 25 minutes they appeared to have made the
breakthrough when Del Sol latched onto a Canario pass to beat
Ramallets in the Barcelona goal. English referee Reg Leafe, however,
disallowed the goal for handball. Nine minutes later and Real were
still on the attack, but Barcelona managed to break away and force a
corner. From the corner kick, a shot came in from Verges which was
saved by the goalkeeper Vicente, but hit the Real defender Pachin on
the foot and rebounded into his own net for an own goal. The defender
rolled on the ground in anguish before Di Stefano ran back to hustle
him back into action.
Undaunted, Real continued to press
forward in search of a goal. Even when the unfortunate Pachin picked
up a leg injury on the hour and was forced, in those pre-substitute
days, to hobble around in attack, the pressure was relentless. Pachin
nearly redeemed himself when he put the ball into the net again –
this time at the correct end of the pitch - only for the goal to be
disallowed for offside, and Di Stefano became the third Real player
to have a goal ruled out when his headed strike was also deemed
offside. Ramallets was having an inspired game in the Barcelona goal
as he pulled off a string of sensational saves, including one from a
Di Stefano shot which he turned onto the inside of the post and away
to safety. And yet, despite being denied only by goalkeeping heroics
and goal line clearances, as the game entered its last ten minutes,
Real found themselves going further behind. Once more Barcelona broke
away and won a corner, and once again they scored from it, this time
courtesy of an acrobatic flying header by Evaristo. The celebrating
Barca captain, Segarra, somersaulted along the ground in
delight.
And yet still the Madrid team threw everything
forward. First Gento crashed a shot against the crossbar and then, on
85 minutes, the Barcelona defence finally cracked as a Del Sol pass
found its way past the wall of defenders and Canario guided the ball
home from close range. The Catalan crowd which had exploded with joy
just moments earlier descended to a nervous hush as Real laid siege
to the Barcelona goal for the remainder of the game. With such
pressure it was inevitable that a final chance would come for Real
and, in the dying seconds, it did as Marquitos, who had been thrown
forward from defence, found himself unmarked with the ball at his
feet just five yards out from goal. Back in 1956 in the first
European Cup Final it had been Marquitos who had sensationally scored
the winning goal against Stade de Reims to begin Real Madrid’s long
reign as European champions, but now more than four years later, his
wild shot which flew over the bar signalled the end of their
invincibility. Moments later the final whistle blew and Real Madrid
had been beaten at last. Any team that had finally ended Real’s
European run would have celebrated wildly, but the fact that it was
Barcelona, their deadliest rivals, meant that the celebrations were
especially joyous with fireworks punctuating the Catalan night. Back
in the visitors dressing room, the Real players and officials were
left to rue their luck. After seeing three goals disallowed, the post
hit and numerous goal line clearances, they were understandably
frustrated. After five glorious years of domination, their European
reign was over, but any luck that they may have used up over those
years had finally deserted them in Barcelona as Santiago Bernabeu
himself recognised when he awarded each player a bonus for ‘a moral
victory.’ Whoever the moral victors were, however, the score sheet
showed that Real Madrid were out of the competition for the first
time ever, a fact that sent shockwaves through European football. The
Real era was over,
but would their conquerors take over from them at the European
summit, or would another team emerge to claim the trophy that had
resided in Madrid for so long?
One team who might have hoped
to benefit from Real’s exit was Stade de Reims – twice beaten by
the Spaniards in the European Cup Final – but they were to exit at
the same second round stage as they were knocked out in a thrilling
tie against Burnley.
After a 2-0 win for the English champions in the first leg, the tie
seemed to be over when Robson put Burnley ahead on 33 minutes in
Paris, but goals from Piantoni and Rodzik brought Reims back to
within a goal on aggregate. Throughout the game, the Burnley players
had had to cope with the intimidating French crowd that had roared
their team on to the accompaniment of fireworks being fired across
the pitch, but that crowd would be whipped into an even greater
frenzy as the game approached the hour mark. Throughout the game the
French players had made a practice of stealing ground at free-kicks,
but as they rolled the ball forward once more, the intensity of the
occasion got to Burnley manager Harry Potts as he ran onto the pitch
to move the ball back to its original spot. The French players were
incensed and one of them attempted to hit Potts as he was dragged off
by club officials. The French police then had to protect the beleaguered Potts from the angry home crowd.
The atmosphere did not improve when Connelly ran from his own half
past five defenders and slotted the ball home to give Burnley a 4-2
aggregate lead. With 15 minutes left, Rodzik scored again to increase
the tension once more, but Burnley held on to scrape through to the
next round, although the Reims players refused to shake their hands
at the end. Elsewhere, Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt recovered from a 3-1
defeat in Vienna to beat Rapid 2-0 in their home leg, only to lose
the replay 1-0 in Basel.
In the Quarter-Finals, Barcelona had
few problems against Spartak Hradec Kralove who had qualified for the
competition after their one and only Czech championship win.
Barcelona won their home leg 4-0, and a goal on 24 minutes from Luis
Suarez in Prague ended any hope the Czechs might have of a comeback,
despite the fact that they managed to claim a 1-1 draw on the night.
There were also comfortable wins for Benfica – 7-2 winners over
Aarhus – and Rapid Vienna who won both legs 2-0 against Malmo. The
other quarter-final tie, however, was a much closer and more
thrilling affair. Having disposed of Stade de Reims in the previous
round, Burnley now came up against the powerful Germans of Hamburg
who had reached this stage by putting eight goals past Young Boys
Berne.
Hamburg were very much a home grown side. They had not
signed anyone for several years but based their team around a group
of players who had been with the club since leaving school. This
inevitably engendered a real team spirit and this had given them the
sort of confidence that had seen them drop only one point in 16
league games with Gerd Dorfel at outside left and Uwe Seeler, one of
the top centre forwards in Europe, particularly standing out. Manager
Guenther Mahlmann knew, however, that they had a difficult task ahead
of them saying ‘we love playing against English teams and Burnley,
as we all know, are one of the greatest teams in the world today.
Everyone here is looking forward to our matches with them.’
The
first leg in Lancashire, however, was not very enjoyable for Mahlmann
and his team as they were comprehensively outplayed. With just 15
minutes to go, the likes of Pointer, Mcllroy and Connelly had
inspired Burnley to a well deserved 3-0 lead. Moments later it could
have been four as Mcllroy appeared to be brought down in the Hamburg
penalty area. The referee waved away the Burnley penalty appeals,
however, and the Germans immediately broke away for Doerfel to score.
The game finished 3-1 and Burnley were installed as second favourites
for the trophy behind Barcelona, but they would eventually rue the
loss of that crucial final goal at Turf Moor.
The second leg
in Hamburg’s imposing Volkspark Stadium could hardly have been more
different from the first game. Roared on by a capacity 90,000 crowd,
the German forwards, led by the inspirational Uwe Seeler, tormented
the Burnley defence and soon halved their deficit when Sturmer opened
the scoring after only nine minutes, hurling himself through the air
to head into the top corner. Just before half-time it was Seeler
himself who dived to head the ball home from a corner and level the
aggregate scores. With the home crowd whipped up into a frenzy and
the Hamburg team on a roll, Burnley’s task looked hopeless, but
they fought back bravely and, early in the second half, edged ahead
once more thanks to a blistering 25 yard shot from Harris which left
Schnoor helpless in the Hamburg goal. Jubilant Burnley fans ran onto
the pitch, waving their scarves and banners, but sadly for them that
was to be only a brief moment of hope. Just three minutes later,
Seeler set up Dorfel to put Hamburg level again, then Seeler scored a
goal on his own, beating four defenders and the goalkeeper to give
his team the lead. That was far from being the end of the excitement
as, two minutes from time, Mcllroy looked about to secure a replay in
Amsterdam, but he could only turn Connelly’s centre onto the inside
of the post. The ball crept along the goal line and was cleared by a
Hamburg defender as the Burnley players protested that it had crossed
the line. The referee consulted his linesman but no goal was given –
Burnley were out. After the game, as the Hamburg supporters
celebrated a momentous victory, a reporter approached Burnley skipper
Jimmy Mcllroy and asked him ‘with an F.A.Cup semi-final just three
days away, have Burnley any injuries?’ Mcllroy replied ‘no, just
eleven broken hearts.’
As seemed to have happened on so many
occasions in the short history of the European Cup, the two
favourites within the last four were drawn against each other in the
semi-finals as Hamburg now found themselves up against Barcelona –
whose poor league form had seen their coach Brocic replaced by his
assistant Enrique Orizaola - for a place in the final. This meant
that either a team from Portugal or Austria would reach the final for
the first time as Benfica and Rapid Vienna met in the other
semi-final. It was Benfica who seemed to have sewn up their place in
the final when they won the first leg in Lisbon by 3-0, and when they
scored the opening goal just after the hour in the return match, the
tie was as good as over. The most controversial moment, however, was
still to come. Rapid had equalised soon after Benfica’s goal, but
they still trailed 4-1 on aggregate when, with less than five minutes
remaining, they were denied what they thought should have been a
penalty. When the referee refused to award the spot kick, the
Austrian players and spectators ran riot and forced the game to be
abandoned. UEFA reacted by sentencing Rapid to a three year ban on
European ties being played in their stadium and awarded the match to
Benfica. Sadly, however, it was not to be the last time that the
European Cup would be affected by hooliganism.
In the other
semi-final, the drama was confined to the football, but there was no
shortage of it. Having managed to gain only a slender one goal
advantage from the first leg, thanks to a goal from Evaristo,
Barcelona looked to be heading for a surprise exit when goals from
Wulf after 58 minutes and Seeler on 68 minutes gave Hamburg the lead
overall in Germany. With the clock ticking down and Hamburg heading
for the final, Barcelona were saved by a last minute goal from the
head of Kocsis – who had been injured for the first leg - which
earned them a replay in Brussels a week later. When the teams met
again, another Evaristo goal, this time just before the interval, was
enough to see the Spanish champions through to the final in
Berne.
Few people around Europe doubted that, having squeezed
past the dangerous Germans of Hamburg, Barcelona would inherit Real
Madrid’s title of champions of Europe. Not only had they knocked
Real out of the competition – something that no other team had
achieved in the first five years of the tournament – but they had a
forward line that was comparable to that which had famously dominated
the European Cup so far. Instead of Canario, Puskas, Gento, Di
Stefano and Del Sol, Bacelona had the skill and dribbling ability of
Kubala, the powerful heading and shooting of Kocsis, the speed and
finishing of Evaristo, the creativity and imagination of Suarez and
the pace and power of Czibor. Behind them was Ramallets, the captain
and first choice Spanish goalkeeper for a decade. Now 37, he was
close to retirement and saw the European Cup Final as the perfect way
to crown his career. Kubala at 34 was also to retire after the game,
while, due to Barcelona’s financial problems resulting from the
building of their new stadium, Suarez was about to be sold to
Internazionale to rejoin his old coach, Helenio Herrera. In addition,
Barcelona also had some experience of playing in European finals. The
success of the European Cup had now led to the introduction of the
European Cup-Winners Cup and, before that, teams from the continents
major cities had taken part in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup which
Barcelona had won twice.
In Benfica’s only previous European
Cup campaign, they had been knocked out in the first round. Not that
this came as a great shock to anyone as the same had happened to the
Portuguese representatives in four out of the competitions five years
– the exception being Sporting Lisbon who reached the dizzy heights
of the second round in 1958-59. It had, therefore, been an
achievement to get past Hearts (5-1) in the opening round and then
Ujpest Dozsa (7-4), but for Benfica to then beat Aarhus and Rapid
Vienna to reach the final was beyond their wildest dreams. One man
who was probably less surprised than most, however, was Bela
Guttmann. Guttmann was a Hungarian who had played for MTK Budapest
before turning his hand to management. He had gone to Holland where
he won the Dutch title with Enschede, then to Italy where he won with
Milan, before going to South America where he won championships with
Penarol in Uruguay and Sao Paolo in Brazil, and then moving to
Portugal where he won the league with Porto. In 1959 he joined
Benfica where he signed a two year contract on the cool and logical
assumption that if he won the league he would wish to guide them in
the European Cup the following season. Despite making only one
signing in Jose Augusto, who would go on to become arguably the
finest right winger in Europe, Guttmann transformed the team by
changing their previous 4-2-4 team system to a WM formation. Sure
enough, Benfica won the championship in his first campaign, losing
only one match in the process, and now here they were in the European
Cup Final. Guttmann had created a formidable team based around the
big, brave and agile Pereira in goal, the rock-like Germano in the
centre of defence, the creativity and intelligence of Coluna in
midfield, and the remarkable goal scoring of Aguas who averaged a
goal a game over the course of nearly 500 matches in Portugal and had
already scored ten goals in eight European Cup games up until the
final.
Despite the various qualities that Benfica possessed,
however, they were rated as clear outsiders for the final and, as the
game began in Berne’s Wankdorf Stadium, it came as no surprise that
Barcelona were the overwhelmingly dominant team. The opening quarter
of the match saw the Spaniards control the game and pepper the
Benfica goal. Time and again the Portuguese goal came under attack as
Suarez pulled the strings in the middle of the field, only for Barca
to be denied by the tackles and interceptions of Germano or the
athleticism of Pereira. Such desperate defending could not stop
Barcelona for long, however, and a sweeping move down the right
involving Kubala and Suarez on 21 minutes ended with Suarez crossing
to Kocsis who headed powerfully into the net. 1-0 to Barcelona and
the script was being followed perfectly. But then, ten minutes later,
came the remarkable events that changed the game completely.
A
rare Benfica attack saw Cavem send in a low cross from the left wing
towards the edge of the penalty area. For no apparent reason, the
experienced and dependable Ramallets charged out of his goal without
any chance of getting to the ball. The ball went straight to Aguas
who merely had to guide it into the empty net gaping in front of him
for the eleventh and simplest goal of his European Cup campaign. As
if that was not enough for Barcelona, worse followed just moments
later. From the kick-off, Benfica were back on the attack, but the
ball fell to Barcelona’s right-back Foncho to clear. Unfortunately
for him, Foncho sliced the ball up into the air. As Ramallets came
out to punch it away he was blinded by the late afternoon sunlight
which shone in his eyes and, as he and the hapless Foncho came
together he sent the ball back onto his own post and into the
net.
Ramallets was never the same again. The man who had
guarded his goal so dependably for so many years for both Barcelona
and Spain had been found wanting on the biggest occasion of his
career. He said later: ‘Yes it was a really big disappointment. You
can imagine. I was 37 and I thought of retiring. I managed to play a
few more games after that but it affected me a lot.’
Ramallets
was not the only one to be affected. The whole Barcelona team had
been so sure that they would win that this double blow appeared to
knock the stuffing out of them. For the rest of the first half it was
complete Benfica domination apart from one incident which saw a
Kocsis header cleared off the line by Joao. The interval gave the
Spanish side some respite, but it changed nothing as the Benfica
dominance continued into the second half and it came as no surprise
when a Coluna volley from 25 yards out found the net to put Benfica
even further ahead.
There was still half an hour left, but the
way that Benfica had controlled the game since they first took the
lead convinced most observers that the game was effectively over.
There was, however, still plenty of drama remaining. With the
situation now desperate, Kubala decided to move inside to the centre
of midfield and he immediately took hold of the game. Now the waves
of attacks were heading in the opposite direction as Barcelona’s
collection of stars suddenly showed what they were capable of.
Benfica were forced into desperate defending as the shots rained in
on their goal. Pereira in goal was forced into a number of crucial
and spectacular saves, while Kocsis amazingly headed the ball against
a post when presented with an open goal.
With 15 minutes to
go, Czibor hit a long range shot that soared over the defence, past
Pereira and into the top corner of the net to bring the score back to
3-2. Now it really was a case of backs to the wall for Benfica. It
seemed impossible for the Portuguese defence to hold out until the
end of the game. Evaristo hit the bar, Czibor caught the outside of
the post, while Kubala, with time nearly out, hit a shot that struck
the inside of the left hand post, rebounded behind Pereira onto the
right post and came out for Benfica to clear again. Barcelona shirts
swarmed around the Benfica penalty area and created chance after
chance, but in the end, time ran out and Benfica held on to become
European champions.
Barcelona were crushed. They had been so
sure that they would win the Final and now here they were, beaten by
an unrated Portuguese side and, having lost out to Real Madrid in the
Spanish Championship, unable to attempt any assault on the European
Cup for at least another year. In European terms, Barcelona were to
stay in Real Madrid’s shadow for many years to come. They had been
the first side to dent Real’s European invincibility, but they had
no trophy to show for it and, having squandered what had seemed to be
a golden opportunity to inherit what had belonged to Madrid for so
long, it would take them another 30 years to finally get their hands
on the European Cup.
Benfica, meanwhile, had begun the new
European era as the champions and were able to celebrate a triumph
that had been widely unexpected outside Lisbon. Now, however, their
challenge had really begun as they set out to prove that this win was
no mere flash in the pan. Next season Real Madrid would be back,
along with a host of other top teams from around the continent.
Could Benfica replicate the sort of dominance that Real Madrid had
held over the European Cup, or would they turn out to be just one
season wonders