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1962
European Cup Final (Amsterdam)
Benfica 5 vs. Real Madrid
3
Benfica: Pereira, Joao, Germano, Angelo, Cavem, Cruz, Jose Augusto, Eusebio,
Aguas (capt), Coluna, Simoes
Scorers: Eusebio 2, Aguas, Cavem,
Coluna
Real
Madrid: Araquistain, Casado, Santamaria, Miera, Felo, Pachin, Tejada, del
Sol, Di Stefano, Puskas, Gento (capt)
Scorer: Puskas 3
In
order to defend
their title,
Benfica would have to get past the champions of their own league,
Sporting Lisbon, the first team to win the English League and F.A.Cup
‘double’ in the twentieth century, Tottenham Hotspur, the side
that had just won their third Italian Championship in four years,
Juventus, and the winners of the previous five European Cups, Real
Madrid.
Benfica received a bye into the second round as
holders, and Real Madrid were to join them there with few problems as
they beat Vasas Budapest 5-1 on aggregate. The other expected
challengers, however, had more interesting first round games.
Juventus made it through after a close tie with Panathinaikos which
they eventually won 3-2 on aggregate, while Sporting Lisbon fell at
the first hurdle, losing 2-0 to Partizan in Belgrade after a 1-1
draw. The real drama, however, came in the tie between Tottenham and
Gornik Zabrze of Poland. The English side were much fancied to
challenge for the Cup, but seemed to be out of it after 48 minutes of
the first leg in Chorzow as the home side took a 4-0 lead. Torn apart
by the pace and footwork of the two Gornik wingers, Wilczek and
Lenter, Tottenham faced an embarrassing score line and an ignominious
first round exit. But then the Polish left half, Kowalski, was
injured by a Mackay tackle which left him as little more than a
passenger for the final half hour of the game. The 90,000 Poles in
the stadium whistled their discontent at what they saw as Spurs
brutal tactics, but Tottenham ignored the jeers and took advantage of the situation as a late rally
saw goals from Jones after 70 minutes, and Dyson three minutes later
give Tottenham a chance for the second game. The return game a week
later saw Tottenham quickly impose the kind of superiority that had
been expected from the start. Ten seconds from the kick off, Allen
crashed a shot against the angle of the crossbar and post, and
immediately the crowd and the home team were brought to life. After
only 26 minutes they were 3-0 up on the night and ahead in the tie. A
goal from Pol for Gornik briefly evened things up on 28 minutes, but
within 10 minutes the home side had scored twice more, and by the
full time whistle they had managed to run up eight goals. In the end,
Tottenham had come from 4-0 down to win the tie 10-5 in what must be
one of the greatest turnarounds in the competitions history.
The
second round progress of the four main challengers proved to be much
smoother. Real Madrid racked up a total of twelve goals against the
Danes of Odense with Di Stefano and Puskas both scoring three while
del Sol and Gento chipped in with two each. Tottenham effectively
knocked Feyenoord out with a 3-1 first leg win in Rotterdam, while
Juventus followed a 2-1 first leg away win with the 5-0 defeat of
Partizan Belgrade in Turin. The holders returned to the European Cup
fray away to Austria Vienna. Benfica followed a 1-1 draw in Vienna
with a 5-1 victory at home.
The fourth Benfica goal at the
Stadium of Light was scored by a new addition to the team who went by
the name of Eusebio - a player who would go on to become one of the
all time great European Cup players.
The likelihood was that
two of the four fancied teams left in the competition would be drawn
against each other in the quarter-finals and, sure enough, Real
Madrid and Juventus found themselves paired together. That should
have left Benfica and Tottenham with a clear run to the semi-finals,
but they both had to come from behind before progressing to the next
round. Without the injured Eusebio, Benfica – with the quick and
skilful seventeen year old winger Antonio Simoes making his first
appearance - took an early lead in Germany against Nuremberg, but
were beaten 3-1 in the first leg. They came back emphatically in the
second game, however, running out 6-0 winners with both Eusebio and
Jose Augusto scoring twice. Tottenham also lost their first game,
going down 1-0 to a dangerous Dukla Prague side that contained
several members of the Czech squad that would reach the World Cup
Final the following summer. A 4-1 win in blizzard hit London,
however, thanks to two goals each from Smith and Mackay, saw Spurs
safely through. Afterwards the Spurs captain Danny Blanchflower
commented: ‘The Czechs are nice people but they play soft football
– they are not realistic enough. They couldn’t adjust themselves
to the conditions and didn’t seem aware of defence at times.’
The
big game of the round turned out to be as close as expected, although
when Real Madrid came away from Turin with a 1-0 win courtesy of a
classic Di Stefano goal which saw him shake off two defenders and
blast the ball into the roof of the net, few thought that Juventus
had much chance at all. Juve had been totally outclassed by Real and
had only kept the deficit down to one thanks to a heroic defence
marshalled by Welshman John Charles. The Italians, however, turned
the tie around with a 1-0 away win when Sivori sidefooted a Charles
cross home on 38 minutes to register Real’s first home defeat in
European competition. Two days after Juventus’ win in Madrid, the
two teams met again in Paris. Real Madrid took an early lead through
Felo, but Sivori scored again for the Italians on the half hour to
level the scores. In the second half, however, del Sol and Tejada
scored for Real and kept them on course to reclaim the trophy that
they had held for so long.
Real’s reward for coming through
such a tough tie was to be drawn against what appeared to be the
weakest team left in the semi-finals. Standard Liege had scored 15
goals in disposing of Fredrikstad, Valkeakosken and Rangers in the
previous rounds. Rangers had reached the last eight after a
controversial tie with the East Germans of ASK Vorwaerts. The Scots
had won the first leg 2-1 in East Berlin, but the East Germans were
refused visas to enter Britain for the return game. The second leg
was then moved to Malmo in Sweden, but with Rangers leading 1-0 in
the rearranged match, the fog came down and the game was abandoned.
With Rangers having to return home for a league game on the following
Saturday, the match was then played at 10 o’clock on the Thursday
morning with Rangers winning 4-1 in front of less than 2,000
spectators. The subsequent quarter-final game against Standard Liege
in Glasgow was notable for the fact that the 75,000 fans heading to
Rangers Ibrox ground had caused such congestion that the home sides
18 year old right winger Billy Henderson did not make it to the
stadium until just minutes before kick-off, by which time his place
had been taken by a not completely fit Alex Scott. Rangers did win
the match 2-0, but this was insufficient to overturn the 4-1 lead
that Standard had earned from the first leg. Standard Liege thus
became the first Belgian side to reach the last four of the European
Cup.
Real Madrid, however, would prove to be a very different
proposition. The semi-final tie was effectively over after the first
leg in Madrid which saw Real not only win by four goals to nil, but
prove to onlookers that they were still more than capable of winning
back their trophy. Despite their advancing years, Gento still had
electric pace on the wing, Di Stefano could still cover the pitch as
he controlled the game, and Puskas was still deadly in front of goal.
Standard were completely outclassed and, with both Puskas and Gento
thumping shots against the post, the margin of victory might have
been even greater. The second leg was little more than a formality as
goals from Puskas and del Sol in Liege finished off the Belgian side
and sent the former champions into the final with an emphatic 6-0
aggregate win.
The first leg of the second semi-final saw
Tottenham travelling to Lisbon to take on Benfica. Guttmann saw his
opponents as one of the stiffest tests that his team had faced in
Europe so far saying: ‘I saw Spurs beat Dukla and I believe all
round that they are better than us. We must win by at least three
goals for safety. Our problem is how to achieve those goals.’ The
English side had built their reputation on flowing attacking
football, but during their European campaign they had switched from
their normal 3-4-4 to a more defensive formation for away games with
a fourth defender being added. Although this had brought mixed
results – they had lost two out of three away games so far –
manager Bill Nicholson persisted with the same system for the
semi-final. Once again, the change was unsuccessful, although the
game was not without controversy.
Within twenty minutes,
Tottenham’s tactical change appeared to have backfired as poor
defending saw them go two goals behind through goals from Aguas and
Jose Augusto, although Tottenham’s free scoring centre-forward,
Jimmy Greaves had had a goal disallowed in between the two Portuguese
strikes. A headed goal by Smith from a Blanchflower cross brought the
Londoners back into the game just after half-time, but Jose Augusto
then scored his second of the match from a Simoes corner to make it
3-1. Nine minutes from the end, Greaves crossed from the right for
Smith to beat Pereira in the Benfica goal. The referee pointed to the
centre circle to signal a goal, but then he saw his linesman flagging
for offside and another Tottenham goal was disallowed. Benfica had a
healthy lead to take to England, but not the three goal cushion that
their manager had felt was needed.
Tottenham had little choice
but to attack in the second leg, but their hopes appeared to be
dashed after just fifteen minutes of the return when Aguas put
Benfica 4-1 up on aggregate. The home side, however, refused to give
up. On their next attack Spurs hit the post and, on 23 minutes, they
looked to have cut the deficit when Greaves scored from close range.
Danish referee Aage Poulsen pointed to the centre circle, but the
Portuguese players dragged him over to the linesman who had
momentarily flagged but then put his flag down. For the third time in
two games, Tottenham had a goal disallowed. The home side continued
to pour forward, however, and with seven minutes to go till
half-time, Smith crashed a shot home to equalise on the night. Four
minutes after the break Tottenham scored again as Blanchflower sent
Pereira the wrong way from the penalty spot after White had been
fouled by Cruz. Before the games ended there were screams from the
home crowd as Germano appeared to handle the ball in his own area,
but the referee waved play on, while in the final moments of the
match, Mackay blasted the ball against Pereira’s crossbar.
Eventually, however, time ran out for Tottenham and Benfica
progressed with a 4-3 aggregate win. Guttman said afterwards: ‘It
was the hardest game of my life. I thought Spurs would equalise in
the last ten minutes. They can win the European Cup soon.’ Forty
years later, Tottenham had yet to play another European Cup
game.
And so the European Cup Final was the game that many had
hoped for, the undisputed masters of European Cup football against
the young pretenders who had taken their crown. Would
Real Madrid re-impose their superiority or would Benfica confirm that
they were now the major force in Europe? A crowd of over 60,000 gathered in Amsterdam’s Olympic Stadium
hoping to witness a memorable clash of the titans, and they were not
to be disappointed.
The first half of this classic final was
dominated by Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas. For 45 minutes, Di
Stefano lay deep and controlled the game for Real Madrid, while
Puskas provided the killer touch in front of goal. On 18 minutes Di
Stefano volleyed the ball down field to Puskas who killed it with his
first touch, raced forwards 50 yards and flashed a shot into the
corner of the net for the first goal of the game. Five minutes later
Puskas doubled Real’s lead with a swerving 30 yard shot which Costa
Pereira got a hand to but could not keep out, and appeared to have
put the young upstarts of Benfica in their place. The reigning
champions hit back, however, and within ten minutes were back on
level terms. First Eusebio crashed a shot against a post and Aguas
scored from the rebound, and then Cavem thumped home a deflected
Aguas effort. Despite this setback, Real reclaimed their hold on the
game and with six minutes left before the interval, Di Stefano
threaded a stunning through ball past the Benfica defence and Puskas
was on hand once more to complete his hat trick.
Benfica were
only a goal behind at half-time, but Guttmann knew that he had to
change things around if his team were to successfully defend their
European crown. Although it was Puskas who had scored all three goals
for Real, he knew that it was Di Stefano who was causing the real
damage and it was the Argentinean who had to be stopped. Guttmann
sent Cavem out to mark Di Stefano in the second half and hoped that
things would turn around.
The decision proved to be a
tactical masterstroke. With Di Stefano effectively shackled and
Puskas now starved of service, Benfica took over the game and soon
found themselves back on level terms through Coluna’s 50th minute
strike from 25 yards out. Then it was the turn of their young
superstar to take over as Eusebio was brought down in the box after
outpacing the tiring Di Stefano, before converting a penalty on 64
minutes. Then, just five minutes later, the ‘Black Pearl’ took a
short free kick from Coluna to crash a powerful shot home. There was
still time, however, for Di Stefano to be brought down in the box for
what nearly everyone in the stadium thought should be a Real penalty,
but the referee thought otherwise and Benfica were able to control
the rest of the game. There were no further goals and Benfica ran out
5-3 winners of a match that was later dubbed ‘the night of the long
shots.’ On the final whistle Eusebio raced 30 yards to exchange his
red shirt for the blue one worn by Ferenc Puskas. As the aging
Hungarian handed his jersey to the young star, he seemed to be
symbolising the passing of the great Real side and the coronation of
a new and exciting team from Lisbon. Eusebio was then carried
shoulder high from the pitch by flag waving Benfica supporters. A
famous victory had been won. Di Stefano, meanwhile, left the pitch in
a rage, followed by his teammates with their heads bowed.
To
have beaten both Barcelona and Real Madrid in successive European Cup
Finals was proof that Benfica were worthy holders of the title
‘European Champions.’ They had beaten the best and had done so in
thrilling fashion. Not only that, but they now had one of the most
exciting players in world football in Eusebio under the guidance of Bela Guttmann, arguably the most successful
coach of all time. Benfica had shown that they were the best around
and that they were more than just one season wonders, but
could they go on to dominate for years as Real Madrid had done? That
was a question still to be answered.