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1955–56 European Cup

The Parc des Princes in Paris hosted the final.
Tournament details
Dates	4 September 1955 – 13 June 1956
Teams	16 (from 16 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Real Madrid (1st title)
Runners-up	Reims
Tournament statistics
Matches played	29
Goals scored	127 (4.38 per match)
Attendance	900,021 (31,035 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Miloš Milutinović (Partizan) 8 goals
1956–57 →

The 1955–56 European Cup was the first season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. It was won by Real Madrid, who defeated Reims 4–3 in the final at Parc des Princes, Paris, on 13 June 1956.

UEFA had been officially inaugurated on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland after consultation between the Italian, French, and Belgian associations. The first round pairings were fixed by the organisers and not drawn as would be the case for all future European Cup matches. The clubs participating in the first season of the European Cup were selected by French football magazine L'Equipe on the basis that they were representative and prestigious clubs in Europe.

When the tournament started, Real Madrid, Anderlecht, AC Milan, Rot-Weiss Essen, Reims, Djurgården and AGF were the reigning champions of their respective national leagues. English champions Chelsea initially agreed to compete and were drawn against Swedish side Djurgården; however, under pressure from the Football League, who saw the tournament as a distraction to domestic football, they later withdrew from the competition, and were replaced by Gwardia Warsaw of Poland. In addition, Holland Sport, Honvéd and AB rejected the opportunity to represent the Netherlands, Hungary and Denmark, being replaced by PSV Eindhoven, Vörös Lobogó and AGF respectively.

Scottish champions Aberdeen were controversially overlooked by the SFA in favour of Hibernian who finished in fifth place. They were considered one of the best teams in Scotland, having won the Scottish title in 1950–51 and 1951–52, but the main reason they were invited was because they were the only team in the country to install floodlights on their grounds. Dynamo Moscow, the champions of the Soviet Union, did not participate due to climatic restrictions. This was also the only UEFA tournament to include a representative of Saarland, unified into West Germany in 1957.

Teams

A total of 16 teams participated in the competition.

Rapid Wien (3rd)	Anderlecht (1st)	AGF (1st)	Reims (1st)
Vörös Lobogó (2nd)	Milan (1st)	PSV Eindhoven (3rd)	Gwardia Warsaw (4th)
Sporting CP (3rd)	Saarbrücken (3rd)	Hibernian (5th)	Real Madrid (1st)
Djurgården (1st)	Servette (6th)	Rot-Weiss Essen (1st)	Partizan (5th)

Bracket

	First round						Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	Servette	0	0	0
	Real Madrid	2	5	7
							Real Madrid	4	0	4
							Partizan	0	3	3
	Sporting CP	3	2	5
	Partizan	3	5	8
													Real Madrid	4	1	5
													Milan	2	2	4
	Rapid Wien	6	0	6
	PSV Eindhoven	1	1	2
							Rapid Wien	1	2	3
							Milan	1	7	8
	Milan	3	4	7
	Saarbrücken	4	1	5
																			Real Madrid	4
																			Reims	3
	AGF	0	2	2
	Reims	2	2	4
							Reims	4	4	8
							Vörös Lobogó	2	4	6
	Vörös Lobogó	6	4	10
	Anderlecht	3	1	4
													Reims	2	1	3
													Hibernian	0	0	0
	Djurgården	0	4	4
	Gwardia Warsaw	0	1	1
							Djurgården	1	0	1
							Hibernian	3	1	4
	Rot-Weiss Essen	0	1	1
	Hibernian	4	1	5

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sporting CP	5–8	Partizan	3–3	2–5
Vörös Lobogó	10–4	Anderlecht	6–3	4–1
Servette	0–7	Real Madrid	0–2	0–5
Rot-Weiss Essen	1–5	Hibernian	0–4	1–1
Djurgården	4–1	Gwardia Warsaw	0–0	4–1
AGF	2–4	Reims	0–2	2–2
Rapid Wien	6–2	PSV Eindhoven	6–1	0–1
Milan	7–5	Saarbrücken	3–4	4–1

First leg

Sporting CP	3–3	Partizan
Martins 14', 78' Quim 65'	Report	M. Milutinović 45', 50' Bobek 73'

Vörös Lobogó	6–3	Anderlecht
I. Szimcsák 8' Palotás 25', 59', 80' Hidegkuti 28' Sándor 83'	Report	Vanderwilt 7' Van den Bosch 39', 79'

Servette	0–2	Real Madrid
	Report	Muñoz 74' Rial 89'

Rot-Weiss Essen	0–4	Hibernian
	Report	Turnbull 35', 53' L. Reilly 44' Ormond 81'

Djurgården	0–0	Gwardia Warsaw
	Report

Rapid Wien	6–1	PSV Eindhoven
A. Körner 12', 62', 82' Mehsarosch 55' Hanappi 56' Probst 60'	Report	Fransen 18'

AGF	0–2	Reims
	Report	Glovacki 7', 72'

Milan	3–4	Saarbrücken
Frignani 15' Schiaffino 33' Dal Monte 37'	Report	Krieger 5' Philippi 43' Schirra 67' Martin 69'

Second leg

Partizan	5–2	Sporting CP
M. Milutinović 15', 29', 64', 74' Jocić 88'	Report	Brandão 49', 77'

Partizan won 8–5 on aggregate.

Real Madrid	5–0	Servette
Di Stéfano 29', 61' Joseíto 44' Rial 46' Molowny 54'	Report

Real Madrid won 7–0 on aggregate.

Gwardia Warsaw	1–4	Djurgården
Baszkiewicz 14'	Report	Eriksson 5', 17', 22' Sandberg 29'

Djurgården won 4–1 on aggregate.

Hibernian	1–1	Rot-Weiss Essen
Buchanan 5'	Report	Abromeit 47'

Hibernian won 5–1 on aggregate.

Anderlecht	1–4	Vörös Lobogó
Van den Bosch 38'	Report	Hidegkuti 25' Lantos 78' Palotás 85' Kovács I 86'

Vörös Lobogó won 10–4 on aggregate.

Reims	2–2	AGF
Glovacki 47' Bliard 60'	Report	Erik Bechmann Jensen 77' Bjerregaard 83'

Reims won 4–2 on aggregate.

PSV Eindhoven	1–0	Rapid Wien
Fransen 9'	Report

Rapid Wien won 6–2 on aggregate.

Saarbrücken	1–4	Milan
Binkert 32'	Report	Valli 8', 77' Puff 75' (o.g.) Beraldo 86'

Milan won 7–5 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Djurgården	1–4	Hibernian	1–3	0–1
Reims	8–6	Vörös Lobogó	4–2	4–4
Real Madrid	4–3	Partizan	4–0	0–3
Rapid Wien	3–8	Milan	1–1	2–7

First leg

Djurgården	1–3	Hibernian
Eklund 1'	Report	Combe 18' L. Reilly 49' Olsson 86' (o.g.)

Reims	4–2	Vörös Lobogó
Glovacki 14' Leblond 33', 57' Bliard 42'	Report	Szolnok 34' Lantos 77' (pen.)

Real Madrid	4–0	Partizan
Castaño 12', 23' Gento 36' Di Stéfano 70'	Report

Rapid Wien	1–1	Milan
R. Körner 26' (pen.)	Report	Nordahl 20'

Note – differences in information: RSSSF website indicates that the goal scored on 26th minute was scored by Robert Körner, while UEFA website indicates that it was scored by his younger brother Alfred Körner.

Second leg

Hibernian	1–0	Djurgården
Turnbull 70' (pen.)	Report

Hibernian won 4–1 on aggregate.

Vörös Lobogó	4–4	Reims
Lantos 11' (pen.), 74' (pen.) Palotás 53', 82'	Report	Glovacki 6' Bliard 20', 44' Templin 52'

Reims won 8–6 on aggregate.

Partizan	3–0	Real Madrid
Milutinović 24', 87' Mihajlović 46'	Report

Real Madrid won 4–3 on aggregate.

Milan	7–2	Rapid Wien
Mariani 15' Nordahl 23', 50' Ricagni 26', 63' Frignani 56' Schiaffino 75'	Report	Golobic 35' Dienst 59'

Milan won 8–3 on aggregate.

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Reims	3–0	Hibernian	2–0	1–0
Real Madrid	5–4	Milan	4–2	1–2

First leg

Reims	2–0	Hibernian
Leblond 67' Bliard 89'	Report

Real Madrid	4–2	Milan
Rial 6' Joseíto 25' Olsen 40' Di Stéfano 62'	Report	Nordahl 9' Schiaffino 30'

Second leg

Hibernian	0–1	Reims
	Report	Glovacki 57'

Reims won 3–0 on aggregate.

Milan	2–1	Real Madrid
Dal Monte 69' (pen.), 86' (pen.)	Report	Joseíto 65'

Real Madrid won 5–4 on aggregate.

Final

Real Madrid	4–3	Reims
Di Stéfano 14' Rial 30', 79' Marquitos 67'	Report	Leblond 6' Templin 10' Hidalgo 62'

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Miloš Milutinović	Partizan	8
2	Léon Glovacki	Reims	6
	Péter Palotás	Vörös Lobogó
4	René Bliard	Reims	5
	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Real Madrid
	Héctor Rial	Real Madrid
7	Mihály Lantos	Vörös Lobogó	4
	Michel Leblond	Reims
	Gunnar Nordahl	Milan
10	Hippolyte Van den Bosch	Anderlecht	3
	Giorgio Dal Monte	Milan
	John Eriksson	Djurgården
	Joseíto	Real Madrid
	Alfred Körner	Rapid Wien
	Juan Alberto Schiaffino	Milan
	Eddie Turnbull	Hibernian

Notes

1. Match switched to Glasgow due to a frozen pitch in Sweden.

References

1. "Madrid bounce back to start era of dominance". UEFA.com. UEFA. 1 September 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
2. "60 years at the heart of football" (PDF). UEFA. 18 May 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
3. L'Équipe
4. Glanvill, Rick (2005). Chelsea FC: The Official Biography. London: Headline. p. 254. ISBN 0755314654.
5. Ferris, Ken (2004). Manchester United in Europe: Tragedy, Destiny, History. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. p. 34. ISBN 1840188979.
6. "Aberdeen FC - Dons in Europe | 1956 European Cup story". AFC.co.uk. Aberdeen. 9 June 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
7. "Hibernian reach the first European Cup semi-finals 1956". A Sporting Nation: Rock 'n' Roll Era 1950–1959. BBC. November 2005. Retrieved 18 April 2010.

External links

• 1955–56 season at UEFA website
• 1955–56 All matches – season at UEFA website
• All scorers 1955–56 European Cup according to protocols UEFA
• European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
• "50 years of the European Cup" (PDF). UEFA. October 2004. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
• 1955-56 European Cup – results and line-ups (archive)

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Oceania	OFC – Champions League
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See also: International women's club football

• 1955–56 European Cup
• 1955–56 in European football
• UEFA Champions League seasons