1955–56 European Cup facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
1955–56 European Cup

The Parc des Princes in Paris hosted the final.
Tournament details
Dates	4 September 1955 – 13 June 1956
Teams	16
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. The tournament was won by Real Madrid, who defeated Stade de Reims 4–3 in the final at Parc des Princes, Paris, on 13 June 1956.

The participating clubs in the first five seasons 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, Milan, Rot-Weiss Essen, Stade de Reims, Djurgården and AGF Aarhus 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 Warszawa of Poland. Scottish champions Aberdeen withdrew under similar circumstances. In addition, Holland Sport, Honvéd and AB rejected the opportunity to represent the Netherlands, Hungary and Denmark respectively, being replaced by PSV Eindhoven, Vörös Lobogó and AGF Aarhus (PSV and Vörös Lobogó becoming the last teams until 1997–98 to qualify for the European Cup not by either winning a domestic league or being current title holders). This was also the only UEFA tournament to include a representative of Saarland, unified into West Germany in 1957.

The first round pairings were fixed by the organisers and not drawn as would be the case for all future European Cup matches.

Teams

Rapid Wien	Anderlecht	AGF Aarhus	Reims
Vörös Lobogó	Milan	PSV Eindhoven	Gwardia Warszawa
Sporting CP	Saarbrücken	Hibernian	Real Madrid
Djurgården	Servette	Rot-Weiss Essen	Partizan

Bracket

First round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

1

Servette

16

Real Madrid

Real Madrid

Partizan

8

Sporting CP

9

Partizan

Real Madrid

Milan

5

Rapid Wien

12

PSV Eindhoven

Rapid Wien

Milan

4

Milan

13

Saarbrücken

Real Madrid

4

Reims

3

6

AGF Aarhus

11

Reims

Reims

Vörös Lobogó

3

Vörös Lobogó

14

Anderlecht

Reims

Hibernian

7

Djurgården

10

Gwardia Warszawa

Djurgården

Hibernian

2

Rot-Weiss Essen

15

Hibernian

First round

Team #1	Agg.	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 Warszawa	0–0	4–1
AGF Aarhus	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

4 September 1955 18:00 (CET)	Sporting CP	3–3	Partizan	Estádio Nacional, Lisbon Attendance: 30,000 Referee: Dean Harzic (France)
	Martins  14', 78' Quim  65'	Report	M. Milutinović  45', 50' Bobek  73'

7 September 1955 20:00 (CET)	Vörös Lobogó	6–3	Anderlecht	Népstadion, Budapest Attendance: 35,000 Referee: Friedrich Mayer (Austria)
	Szimcsák I  8' Palotás  25', 59', 80' Hidegkuti  28' Sándor  83'	Report	Vanderwilt  7' Van Den Bosch  39', 79'

8 September 1955 16:45 (CET)	Servette	0–2	Real Madrid	Charmilles Stadium, Geneva Attendance: 7,000 Referee: Robert Sautelle (France)
		Report	Muñoz  74' Rial  89'

14 September 1955 20:00 (CET)	Rot-Weiss Essen	0–4	Hibernian	Georg-Melches-Stadion, Essen Attendance: 5,000 Referee: Johann Bronkhorst (Netherlands)
		Report	Turnbull  35', 53' L. Reilly  44' Ormond  81'

20 September 1955 20:00 (CET)	Djurgården	0–0	Gwardia Warszawa	Stockholm Olympic Stadium, Stockholm Attendance: 3,574 Referee: Jarl Hansen (Denmark)
		Report

21 September 1955 20:00 (CET)	AGF Aarhus	0–2	Reims	Idrætsparken, Copenhagen Attendance: 18,000 Referee: Klaas Schipper (Netherlands)
		Report	Glovacki  7', 72'

21 September 1955 16:00 (CET)	Rapid Wien	6–1	PSV Eindhoven	Pfarrwiese, Vienna Attendance: 10,000 Referee: Emil Schmetzer (West Germany)
	A. Körner  12', 62', 82' Mehsarosch  55' Hanappi  56' Probst  60'	Report	Fransen  18'

1 November 1955 20:00 (CET)	Milan	3–4	Saarbrücken	San Siro, Milan Attendance: 18,000 Referee: Gottfried Dienst (Switzerland)
	Frignani  15' Schiaffino  33' Dal Monte  37'	Report	Krieger  5' Philippi  43' Schirra  67' Martin  69'

Second leg

12 October 1955 16:30 (CET)	Real Madrid	5–0	Servette	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid Attendance: 40,318 Referee: Riccardo Pieri (Italy)
	Di Stéfano  29', 61' Iglesias  44' Rial  46' Molowny  54'	Report

Real Madrid won 7–0 on aggregate.

12 October 1955 15:00 (CET)	Partizan	5–2	Sporting CP	Partizan Stadium, Belgrade Attendance: 15,000 Referee: György Dankó (Hungary)
	M. Milutinović  15', 29', 64', 74' Jocić  88'	Report	Brandão  49', 77'

Partizan won 8–5 on aggregate.

12 October 1955 20:15 (CET)	Hibernian	1–1	Rot-Weiss Essen	Easter Road, Edinburgh Attendance: 30,000 Referee: Arthur Edward Ellis (England)
	Buchanan  5'	Report	Abromeit  47'

Hibernian won 5–1 on aggregate.

12 October 1955 20:00 (CET)	Gwardia Warszawa	1–4	Djurgården	Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw Attendance: 25,000 Referee: Dean Harzic (France)
	Baszkiewicz  14'	Report	Eriksson  5', 17', 22' Sandberg  29'

Djurgården won 4–1 on aggregate.

19 October 1955 20:00 (CET)	Anderlecht	1–4	Vörös Lobogó	Émile Versé Stadium, Anderlecht Attendance: 33,000 Referee: Johan Bronkhorst (Netherlands)
	Van Den Bosch  38'	Report	Hidegkuti  25' Lantos  78' Palotás  85' Kovács I  86'

Vörös Lobogó won 10–4 on aggregate.

26 October 1955 20:00 (CET)	Reims	2–2	AGF Aarhus	Stade Auguste Delaune, Reims Attendance: 5,845 Referee: Alfred Bond (England)
	Glovacki  47' Bliard  60'	Report	Erik Bechmann Jensen  77' Bjerregaard  83'

Reims won 4–2 on aggregate.

1 November 1955 14:15 (CET)	PSV Eindhoven	1–0	Rapid Wien	Philips Stadion, Eindhoven Attendance: 8,000 Referee: Aloïs Smidts (Belgium)
	Fransen  9'	Report

Rapid Wien won 6–2 on aggregate.

23 November 1955 14:15 (CET)	Saarbrücken	1–4	Milan	Ludwigspark Stadion, Saarbrücken Attendance: 15,000 Referee: Klaas Schipper (Netherlands)
	Binkert  32'	Report	Valli  8', 77' Puff  75' (o.g.) Beraldo  86'

Milan won 7–5 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

Team #1	Agg.	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

23 November 1955	Djurgården	1–3	Hibernian	Firhill Park, Glasgow Attendance: 21,962 Referee: Arthur Edward Ellis (England)
	Eklund  1'	Report	Combe  18' Mulkerrin  49' Olsson  86' (o.g.)

14 December 1955	Reims	4–2	Vörös Lobogó	Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 36,088 Referee: Gottfried Dienst (Switzerland)
	Glovacki  14' Leblond  33', 57' Bliard  42'	Report	Szolnok  34' Lantos  77' (pen.)

25 December 1955	Real Madrid	4–0	Partizan	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid Attendance: 105,532 Referee: Dean Harzic (France)
	Castaño  12', 23' Gento  36' Di Stéfano  70'	Report

18 January 1956	Rapid Wien	1–1	Milan	Pfarrwiese, Vienna Attendance: 18,000 Referee: Jaroslav Vlček (Czechoslovakia)
	R. Körner  26' (pen.)	Report	Nordahl  20'

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

Second leg

28 November 1955	Hibernian	1–0	Djurgården	Easter Road, Edinburgh Attendance: 31,346 Referee: Arthur Edward Ellis (England)
	Turnbull  70'	Report

Hibernian won 4–1 on aggregate.

28 December 1955	Vörös Lobogó	4–4	Reims	Népstadion, Budapest Attendance: 35,000 Referee: John Husband (England)
	Lantos  11' (pen.), 74' (pen.) Palotás  53', 82'	Report	Glovacki  6' Bliard  20', 44' Templin  52'

Reims won 8–6 on aggregate.

29 January 1956	Partizan	3–0	Real Madrid	Partizan Stadium, Belgrade Attendance: 40,000 Referee: Josef Gulde (Switzerland)
	Milutinović  24', 87' Mihajlović  46' (pen.)	Report

Real Madrid won 4–3 on aggregate.

12 February 1956	Milan	7–2	Rapid Wien	San Siro, Milan Attendance: 35,000 Referee: Leo Horn (Netherlands)
	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.	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

4 April 1956	Reims	2–0	Hibernian	Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 35,486 Referee: Manuel Asensi Martín (Spain)
	Leblond  67' Bliard  89'	Report

19 April 1956	Real Madrid	4–2	Milan	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid Attendance: 129,690 Referee: Dean Harzic (France)
	Rial  6' Iglesias  25' Olsen  40' Di Stéfano  62'	Report	Nordahl  9' Schiaffino  30'

Second leg

18 April 1956	Hibernian	0–1	Reims	Easter Road, Edinburgh Attendance: 44,941 Referee: Arthur Edward Ellis (England)
		Report	Glovacki  57'

Reims won 3–0 on aggregate.

1 May 1956	Milan	2–1	Real Madrid	San Siro, Milan Attendance: 30,000 Referee: Erich Steiner (Austria)
	Dal Monte  69' (pen.), 86' (pen.)	Report	Iglesias  65'

Real Madrid won 5–4 on aggregate.

Final

13 June 1956 20:30 CET	Real Madrid	4–3	Reims	Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: 38,239 Referee: Arthur Edward Ellis (England)
	Di Stéfano  14' Rial  30', 79' Marquitos  67'	Report	Leblond  6' Templin  10' Hidalgo  62'

Top goalscorers

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

See also

In Spanish: Copa de Campeones de Europa 1955-56 para niños