Madrid's European Cup finals -- a look back

This weekend two English teams will take each other on in Atletico Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano in the Champions League Final. 63,000 fans will pack into the venue that opened less than two years ago and 42 cameras will capture the TV images that will be beamed to more than 200 countries.

As part of our build up to Saturday’s Final, which extratime.ie will be covering from the stadium, John Manning looks back on the previous finals played out in the Spanish capital.

Four times previously the destination of the Blue Riband of European club football has been decided in the city of Madrid but on each occasion the final took place in the home ground of Real Madrid. 

The Santiago Bernabéu stadium first played host to the European Champions Cup final on May 30th, 1957. It was the climax to just the second staging of Europe’s premier club tournament. Real Madrid made optimum use of home advantage to retain the title they won the previous year in Paris.

Second-half goals from Alfredo di Stefano and ‘Paco’ Gento at the Bernabéu clinched a 2-0 victory over Italy’s Fiorentina for the Spanish giants before a massive crowd of 124,000 – the second highest final attendance in history.

Fiorentina had offered stout resistance until Real were awarded a 69th minute penalty, which di Stefano converted. It was a controversial call from Dutch referee Leo Horn who ignored a linesman’s offside flag in the build-up to a foul on Enrique Mateos, which some claimed occurred outside the penalty area.

If only he had VAR available to him it might have been a different outcome! Gento’s strike six minutes later made the game safe for Los Blancos. 

There was a huge reduction in the attendance for the next European Cup Final at the Bernabéu. Less than 32,000 (the second lowest all-time) fans paid into the stadium on May 28^th1969 to see AC Milan trounce Ajax 4-1 thus emulating neighbours Inter Milan by clinching a second crown.

An early goal by Pierino Prati gave the Italians the advantage and the Italian international added his second before half-time to give Milan a 2-0 lead at the break.

Serbian defender Velibor Vasovic pulled one back for the Dutch side from the penalty spot on the hour mark but Angelo Sormani restored Milan’s two goal cushion just seven minutes later before Prati completed his hat-trick with fifteen minutes to play.

Prati is one of three players, along with Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas, to hit three goals in a European Cup final.

The late 1970s and early 1980s brought a period of domination by English clubs in the European Cup. Nottingham Forest, managed by the mercurial Brian Clough, retained the Cup and won the second of their two titles with a 1-0 over SV Hamburger at the Bernabéu on May 28^th1980.

A long range shot from winger John Robertson in the 20^thminute clinched the victory for Forest in a tight match. Englishman Kevin Keegan, playing his last game for the German champions, did his best to rescue the match for Hamburg but a resolute Forest defence held firm.  

The most recent European Cup final on the Bernabéu turf brought together Inter Milan and Bayern Munich – the first time since the inception of the Champions League that the decider had been hosted in the Spanish capital.

On May 22^nd 2010, in the first final to held on a Saturday evening, Inter scored in each half to see off Bayern 2-0 and win their third European Cup and a first since 1965.

Two strikes from Argentine international Diego Molito gave José Mourinho’s men the European Cup to add to wins in the Serie A and the Italian Cup – a treble never before achieved by an Italian club.

extratime.ie reporter Macdara Ferris will be in Madrid this weekend to cover the game and give a flavour of events from the Spanish capital as Spurs battle it out with Liverpool to be crowned champions of Europe.

#OTD in 2010, Inter made history! #UCLfinalpic.twitter.com/Ok8SPzPNhO

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 22, 2019