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GALLERY '50 / 1950 Decade / 1959 European cup final tickets
1959
European Cup Final (Stuttgart)
Real Madrid 2 Stade de Reims 0
Real
Madrid: Dominguez, Marquitos, Santamaria, Zarraga (capt), Santisteban, Ruiz,
Kopa, Mateos, Di Stefano, Rial, Gento
Scorers: Mateos, Di
Stefano
Stade
de Reims: Colonna, Rodzik, Jonquet (capt), Giraudo, Penverne, Leblond,
Lamartin, Bliard, Fontaine, Piantoni, Vincent
1958/59
saw most of the foreign teams that were expected to challenge Real
fall away in the early stages of the competition. Manchester United
were forced by the Football Association and the Football League, on
the grounds that they were not the champions, to withdraw from the
tournament after they had been drawn against Young Boys of Berne in
the First Round. United instead played two friendlies in which they
beat the Swiss side, who would go on to reach the semi-finals, 3-2 on
aggregate. The remaining English representatives in the competition,
however, league champions Wolverhampton Wanderers who had been
proclaimed the best in Europe just four years earlier, were knocked
out in the First Round. Following the appearances of Fiorentina and
Milan in the previous two European Cup Finals, much was expected of
the Italian champions Juventus with their star forward pairing of
John Charles and Omar Sivori, but incredibly they were thrashed 7-0
in Austria by Wiener SK in the Preliminary Round. The representatives
from major footballing countries such as Yugoslavia, Scotland,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary were also eliminated before the
quarter-final stage. All this in a season when Real Madrid had been
strengthened even further by the addition of the great Hungarian
forward Ferenc Puskas. Having stayed in the west ever since the 1956
Hungarian revolution, Puskas had been trailing around the continent
leaving him overweight and almost penniless. Real had gambled on
signing him, but they were to be rewarded handsomely in time. Among
the teams that reached the last eight and were out to stop Real and
Puskas were their Madrid neighbours Atletico who disposed of Wolves
conquerors Schalke 04 by four goals to one. Meanwhile Real beat
Wiener SK 7-1 with Di Stefano scoring four in their home leg after a
goalless draw in Vienna.
This left four more unexpected teams
completing the quarter-final line-up. The biggest name was that of
Stade de Reims, finalists in the first competition in 1956. With four
of the team that had run Real Madrid so close in Paris still in the
side, Reims had strengthened their teame with three big signings.
Jean Vincent had arrived from Lille and Roger Piantoni from Nancy,
but the big addition was the free scoring Just Fontaine, signed from
Nice to replace Raymond Kopa up front. Fontaine scored 34 goals in 26
league games as Reims won the French championship once more, and
ensured that Reims were still a force to be reckoned with. They
struggled without the injured Fontaine in the first leg of their
quarter-final away to Standard Liege as they went down 2-0, but they
stormed back in the second game with a 3-0 win with Fontaine scoring
the winner ten minutes from the end. In the other tie, Young Boys
Berne of Switzerland overcame the East Germans of Wismut
Karl-Marx-Stadt after a replay in Amsterdam.
If the draw had
allowed it, the final would almost certainly have been an all Madrid
affair, but the chances of that were lost when Real and Atletico were
paired together in the semi-finals. Real might have brushed aside the
Spanish challenge of Seville by eight goals a year earlier, but their
local rivals were to provide a much sterner test with the likes of
Brazilian World Cup star Vava and the Portugese striker Mendonca in
their line-up. The opening game in the Bernabeu saw Atletico take the
lead through Chuzo after 15 minutes. Real, without the injured Kopa,
struck back immediately with a goal from Rial, before a Puskas
penalty gave the home side the lead. Vava, however was less
successful from the spot as his penalty for Atletico was saved by
Real’s new goalkeeper Rogelio Dominguez to leave Real with a one
goal lead to take across the city. With Kopa back in the side in
place of Puskas, Real’s lead lasted only until the 43rd minute of
the second leg when Atletico winger Enrique Collar scored the only
goal of the match and set up the first ever replay in a European Cup
semi-final. The deciding game took place in Zaragoza and turned out
to be just as close as the previous two matches had been. Di Stefano
gave Real the lead after 16 minutes, but this time it was the turn of
Atletico to reply immediately as Collar equalised just three minutes
later. In the end, however, it was another penalty from the recalled
Puskas five minutes before half-time that decided the outcome and
Real were through to the Final once more after a 2-1 win.
While
Real were reaching their fourth successive final in Zaragoza, Stade
de Reims were attempting to overhaul a one goal deficit from their
first leg tie away to Young Boys Berne. Having already scored ten
goals in six European Cup games that season, it was Just Fontaine who
Reims were looking towards to provide the necessary goals, but as it
turned out it was two goals from Piantoni and one from Penverne that
gave the French side a 3-0 win and set up a repeat of the first ever
European Cup Final.
In Stuttgart’s Neckarstadion, Real
Madrid, even without the injured Puskas in the team, eased to yet
another European Cup Final victory against an uninspired Reims side.
Ahead after only two minutes through a Mateos goal, Real should have
been two ahead after 13 minutes when German referee Albert Dusch
awarded them a penalty, but the scorer of the opening goal was denied
by Reims goalkeeper Colonna whose save kept the deficit down to one
goal. The second half, however, started just as the first had when,
just two minutes after the break, the great Di Stefano scored to keep
his record of having found the net in every European Cup Final. Even
with Kopa playing most of the game as a virtual passenger after being
taken down from behind by Vincent, 2-0 was the final score and once
again the European Cup trophy returned to the Bernabeu Stadium in
Madrid for another year. Now the competition was gripping the
continent and this was all down to Real Madrid. Could they be beaten,
and if so, who would be the team that finally got the better of them?
The top clubs from all around Europe were desperate to have a crack
at the undefeated champions of Europe, but there was still no sign
that any of them could beat the great Real.