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 very first season of the European Cup. This was a big football tournament for top club teams in Europe, organized by UEFA. Real Madrid won the tournament. They beat Stade de Reims 4–3 in the final match. The final was held in Paris, France, on June 13, 1956.

For the first few years, a French football magazine called L'Equipe helped pick the teams. They chose clubs that were famous and strong in Europe. Many teams that won their national leagues played in this first European Cup. Some of these included Real Madrid, Milan, and Stade de Reims. However, some teams like Chelsea from England decided not to play. Their national football league thought the tournament would distract them from local games. Other teams also chose not to join for various reasons. This first tournament was also special because it included a team from Saarland, which later became part of West Germany.

The first matches were set up by the organizers. They didn't draw teams randomly like they do now.

Teams That Played

Sixteen teams from different countries played in the first European Cup. Here are the clubs that took part:

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

Tournament Path

This bracket shows how the teams played against each other in the tournament. The winner of each match moved on to the next round.

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 Matches

The first round had eight matches. Each match was played over two games, one at each team's home stadium. The team with the most goals after both games moved on. If the score was tied, the team with more away goals sometimes won, or they played extra time.

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 Games

These were the first games played in the first round.

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 Games

These were the second games played in the first round. The total score from both games decided who moved on.

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

The eight winning teams from the first round played in the 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

Quarter-Final First Legs

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'

Quarter-Final Second Legs

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

Only four teams made it to the semi-finals. They played two-leg matches to decide who would go to the final.

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

Semi-Final First Legs

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'

Semi-Final Second Legs

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.

The Final Match

The very first European Cup final was played between Real Madrid and Stade de Reims.

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 Goal Scorers

Here are the players who scored the most goals in the 1955–56 European Cup:

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

Images for kids

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  Location of teams in the 1955–56 European Cup.