The 1957–58 European Cup was the third season of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, Europe's premier club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament. The competition was won by

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, who beat

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

3–2 in the final, following a 2–2 draw after 90 minutes. This was Real Madrid's third European Cup title in a row. However, the 1957–58 season was marred by the air disaster in Munich, when eight

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

players died on their way home from

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, after a 3–3 draw in the quarter-final second leg with

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

. The English champions were ultimately defeated in the semi-finals by the eventual runners-up, A.C. Milan of Italy, after being highly touted to win the competition and dominate European football for many years like

before them, with the “

Busby Babes The "Busby Babes" were the group of footballers, recruited and trained by Manchester United F.C. chief scout Joe Armstrong and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, who progressed from the club's youth team into the first team under the management of ...

” having an average age of only 22. It was the first time that teams from the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

participated, while Turkey could not send any club, since the Turkish FA failed to register

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

for the draw in time.

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

was invited despite having been runners-up in Spain the year before, as Spanish champions Real Madrid had already qualified as holders; the two Spanish sides met in the quarter-finals, the first time two sides from the same country played against each other in the competition. Shamrock Rovers, Stade Dudelange, Wismut Karl Marx Stadt, Sevilla, Benfica, Vasas, Glenavon, Saint-Étienne, Young Boys, CCA București, Royal Antwerp, Dukla Prague and Ajax made their debut appearances in the European Cup while Rapid Wien, AGF Aarhus and Real Madrid marked their third.

Bracket

Preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round took place at the headquarters of the

French Football Federation The French Football Federation ( FFF; french: Fédération Française de Football) is the governing body of football in France. It also includes the overseas departments ( Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion), the over ...

in Paris on Tuesday, 23 July 1957.''

Corriere dello Sport ''Corriere dello Sport'' is an Italian national sports newspaper based in Rome, Italy. It is one of three major Italian sports daily newspapers and has the largest readership in central and southern Italy, the fourth most read throughout the co ...

, 24 July 1957. As title holders, Real Madrid received a bye, and the remaining 23 teams were grouped geographically into three pots. The first four teams drawn in each pot, and four more teams in pot 1, would play the preliminary round in September, while the remaining clubs received byes. The calendar was decided by the involved teams, with all matches to be played by 30 September. ¹ SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt qualified due to a

coin toss A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

, after their play-off against Gwardia Warsaw was abandoned after 100 minutes due to floodlight power failure with the result of 1–1. ² To allow an evening kick-off at Dalymount Park in Dublin, which had no floodlights, the teams agreed to change over at half-time without a break. Consequently, the Irish part-timers ran out of steam and Manchester United's 1–0 half-time lead increased to 6–0. The second leg, played under lights at Old Trafford with the normal half-time break, produced a closer scoreline. ³ Milan beat Rapid Wien 4–2 in a play-off to qualify.

First leg

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Second leg

''Rangers won 4–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Aarhus won 3–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sevilla won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Red Star Belgrade won 14–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 9–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Vasas won 7–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Milan 6–6 Rapid Wien on aggregate.'' ---- ''Gwardia Warsaw 4–4 SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt on aggregate.''

Play-off

''Milan won play-off 4–2.'' ---- ''Wismut Karl Marx Stadt qualified due to a

, after their play-off against Gwardia Warsaw was abandoned with the result of 1–1 after 100 minutes due to floodlight power failure.''

First round

¹ Borussia Dortmund beat CCA București 3–1 in a play-off to qualify for the quarter-finals.

First leg

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Second leg

''Red Star Belgrade won 4–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Ajax won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 8–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Vasas won 3–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sevilla won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Borussia Dortmund 5–5 CCA București on aggregate.'' ---- ''Milan won 6–1 on aggregate.''

Play-off

''Borussia Dormund won the play-off 3–1.''

Quarter-finals

First leg

---- ---- ----

Second leg

''Manchester United won 5–4 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 10–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Vasas won 6–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Milan won 5–2 on aggregate.''

Semi-finals

First leg

----

Second leg

''Real Madrid won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Milan won 5–2 on aggregate.''

Final

Top scorers

The top scorers from the 1957–58 European Cup were as follows:

References

External links

1957–58 All matches – season at UEFA website
* All scorers 1957–58 European Cup (excluding preliminary round) according t

+ all scorer

– results and line-ups (archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:1957-58 European Cup 1957–58 in European football European Champion Clubs' Cup seasons