On this day 31 May 1961 (Exactly 59 years ago today) SL Benfica became first Portuguese winners of the European Cup after beating FC Barcelona 3-2 in Berne.
After five years of Real Madrid CF dominance, Benfica finally wrested the European Champions’ Club Cup away from the Spanish capital, though FC Barcelona were to run them close in the final at Berne’s Wankdorf Stadium
Football’s muses had been kind to Real Madrid CF. But by 1960/61, its monopolies’ commission had tired of the men in white. So the mantle of power moved from one Iberian capital to another, Lisbon.
In fact, SL Benfica did not even have to beat the holders; that task fell to FC Barcelona, who succeeded where they had failed the previous year, eliminating the Merengues 4-3 on aggregate in the first round. Two goals from Spanish international Luis Suárez made Barcelona the first team to avoid defeat in Madrid in the competition’s history.
Barcelona were touted as comfortable favourites for the final clash in spite of Benfica’s wonderful route to the final. In fact, allegedly one Spanish newspaper claimed that only one of Benfica’s players, Mário Coluna, would actually make it into the Barca line-up.
Barcelona begun the game like a house on fire, correlating with the predictions before the game that they would dominate. The pressure paid off in the 20th minute when Suarez crossed in for Hungarian, Koscis to powerfully head home. Blaugrana could easily have been out of sight and put the game to bed shortly after if it hadn’t have been for the incredible saves being pulled off by Benfica goalkeeper, Alberto da Costa Pereira.
Yet ten minutes later, in the space of two unforgettable minutes of football, the game was flipped on its head. After the game had been played exactly to script, Benfica did the unthinkable. Barcelona veteran shot stopper, Antoni Ramallets became the villain of the show. In the 30th minute, Coluna delivered an incisive through ball to Domiciano Cavém on the edge of the penality area. Ramallets, in an illogical move, darted towards Cavém, who was able to lay off the ball to the prolific Águas, to fire the ball into to the deserted goal, his eleventh goal of the tournament.
Things got much worse for Ramallets and Barca only a minute later. A seemingly harmless ball was served into the box, for the right back Foncho to head clear. However, Foncho was unable to deal with the delivery, and off balance he skewed the ball off his head towards the far post. Seemingly blinded by the late afternoon sun, Ramallets was hapless as he flapped at the ball and was unable to prevent it from looping over the line. Barcelona were stunned.
Whilst Barcelona did have a great opportunity to equalise deep into first half, where Mário João managed to use his torso to prevent Koscis from heading a second on the line, Benfica had the wind in the sails and continued to dominate. Barca escaped down the tunnel with their tails between their legs, after an unbelievable passage of play.
Benfica returned for the second half and continued the form they had shown in the back half of the first period. They received just reward for their work just ten minutes after the restart, when Coluna showed superb technique, precision and power to fire home a sublime volley from the just outside the penalty arc. O Monstro Sagrado (‘The Sacred Monster’) had lived up to the pregame hype in the Spanish papers and delivered on the biggest stage. Surely his goal was to be enough to seal a historic win and become only the second European Cup winners.
However, the Catalan’s showed great spirit and tried to fight their way out of the massive hole they had found themselves in. Koscis missed an open goal after a mix up between the defence, and Kubala, who was showing signs of real class, had a shot which was ruled not to have crossed the line. With the lack of camera angles it is difficult to see whether a goal should have been ruled, yet the English commentator, Tony Jones certainly thought it had crossed the line!
Yet with 15 minutes to go they were rewarded for their work. Zoltán Czibor hit a phenomenal left footed volley from range to put Barca back in contention. Barcelona continued to overload the box but a combination of stupendous saves from Pereira, the frame of the goal and some poor finishing from the Catalans, meant that the Eagles just held on. It was a brilliant spectacle and a fitting game to bring to an end the European reign of Real Madrid.
Benfica were to become a dominant force on the European stage for the majority of the 1960’s as they reached a further four finals in that decade, winning one more trophy in 1962. It became a period symbolised by the dominance of Brazilian, Eusébio. However, for Barcelona, it would take them over 30 years to land the European Cup, securing their first crown at Wembley in 1992.
SL Benfica; Alberto Costa Pereira, Mario Joao, Germano de Figueiredo, Angelo Martins, Jose Neto, Fernando Cruz, Mario Caluna, Jose Agusto, Joaquim Santana, Domimciano Cavem, Jose Aguas (C)
Manager: Bela Guttman
FC Barcelona: Antoni Ramallets (C), Foncho, Eric Gensana, Sigfrid Gracia, Marti Verges, Jesus Garay, Laszlo Kubala, Luis Suarez, Sandor Kocsis, Zoltan Czibor, Evaristo de Mercado
Manager: Enrique Orizaola
On this day 31 May 1972 (Exactly 48 years ago today) Johan Cruyff scored twice in the Rotterdam final as AFC Ajax captured the footballing zeitgeist with a 2-0 European Champion Clubs’ Cup final win against FC Internazionale Milano.
AFC Ajax were again the team to beat in 1971/72, and that no one managed to stop them shows how firm a grip they had on the European game. Not even a change of coach, the Romanian Stefan Kovacs replacing Rinus Michels, could halt the perpetual motion of Johan Cruyff and friends.
- FC Dynamo Dresden, Olympique de Marseille, Arsenal FC and SL Benfica, all were swept aside as the holders marched to a third European Champion Clubs’ Cup final in four years. Benfica ran them close before losing to a single Cruyff goal over the two legs of their semi-final; but Ajax were through to meet Internazionale FC at the Feyenoord stadium.
While the venue was Dutch, events along the road to Rotterdam suggested the football fates could yet throw up an Italian victory. Indeed, conspiracy theorists might have pointed to Inter’s second-round defeat of VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach, when thrashed 7-1 in Germany in the first leg, the Italian side had been lucky to earn a reprieve from UEFA amid complaints that centre forward Roberto Boninsegna had been hit by a drinks can thrown from the crowd.
The Nerazzurri eventually prevailed 4-2 on aggregate, then overcame Celtic FC on penalties after a goalless semi-final. But hopes of an Inter hat-trick in the competition were extinguished at De Kuip.
Aided and abetted by Neeskens, Blankenburg, Muhren, Haan and Krol, Cruyff was twice on target in a comprehensive Ajax victory. The final score: Total Football 2 Catenaccio 0
On this day 31 May 1970 (Exactly 50 years ago today) The 9th FIFA World Cup started in Mexico with the host and the Soviet Union playing to a goalles draw.
It was the first World Cup tournament staged in North America, and the first held outside Europe and South America.
With the advancements in satellite communications, the 1970 finals attracted a new record television audience for the FIFA World Cup as games were broadcast live around the world and, in a few cases, in colour – the first time that this was the case.
Contrary to popular belief, while a small number of viewers worldwide did watch the tournament on colour television and colour footage and photos have since widely been circulated in popular representations of the tournament, the majority of those who watched the tournament did so in black-and-white.
By: George ‘Alan Green’Mahamah
