The 1961 European Cup Final was held at the

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Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

on 31 May 1961, and contested by

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

side Benfica against

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side

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. This was the first final not to include

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 had won the previous five finals. Benfica lifted the trophy for the first time, beating Barcelona 3–2. Benfica midfielder

Mario Coluna is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

broke his nose in the eighth minute of the match; not wanting to risk further damage, when

Domiciano Cavém Domiciano Barrocal Gomes Cavém (21 November 1932 – 12 January 2005) was a Portuguese footballer who played mainly for Benfica in several positions, but mostly as a left winger and right back. He appeared in 420 official games for his main c ...

put over a cross in the 55th minute, Coluna hung back outside the penalty area. The ball was cleared directly to him and he volleyed it home for Benfica's third goal of the match.

Route to the final

Five-time defending champions

were knocked out in the first round by

, their bitter domestic rivals. After defeating Czechoslovak champions

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in the quarter-finals, Barcelona initially drew 2–2 on aggregate with West German champions

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

in the semi-finals. Since this was before UEFA competitions began using the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

, in order to determine who would advance to the final, a replay was scheduled to be played at a neutral site on 3 May. ''Barça'' would qualify for the final by winning the replay 1–0 at the

King Baudouin Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium (french: Stade Roi Baudouin , nl, Koning Boudewijnstadion ) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. Located in the Heysel district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau in v ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, with

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scoring the decisive goal. Meanwhile, Benfica reached the final of the competition by eliminating Austrian champions

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

in a 4–1 semi-final aggregate win. This marked the first time that a team from Portugal had ever progressed this far into the competition.

Match

Details

Notes

References

External links

1960–61 season at the UEFA website
{{FC Barcelona matches 1 European Cup Final 1961 European Cup Final 1961

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

European Cup Final 1961

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