The 1956–57 European Cup was the second 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 ...
tournament. The competition was won for the second time 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
Fiorentina
ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...
2–0 in the final at the
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, on 30 May 1957.
After the great success of the first tournament, six new nations entered representatives:
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
,
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
,
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
and
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
. The English
Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...
("FA") had not allowed
Chelsea to enter in 1955, and continued its stance on the European Cup as it being a "distraction". However, against the wishes of the FA,
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 Salford to the west. The ...
entered the competition as English champions, becoming the first English team to play in Europe. An additional place was awarded to Real Madrid as the competition's reigning champions, occupying the free berth left by
Saar
Saar or SAAR has several meanings:
People Given name
* Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player
* Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist
* Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor
Surname
* Ain Saar (born 1968), E ...
after its reunification with
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
.
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
, meanwhile, became the first association to provide two representatives to the premier European competition.
Bracket
Preliminary round
The draw for the preliminary round took place in
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...
headquarters in Paris on 29 June 1956. The 21 challengers of Real Madrid were grouped geographically into three pots. The first four teams drawn in each pot would play the preliminary round in September, while the remaining three clubs received byes.
The calendar was decided by the involved teams, with all matches to be played by 1 October.
First leg
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Second leg
''Borussia Dortmund 5–5 Spora Luxembourg on aggregate; play-off needed.''
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''Slovan UNV Bratislava won 4–2 on aggregate.''
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''Manchester United won 12–0 on aggregate.''
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''Athletic Bilbao won 5–3 on aggregate.''
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''Nice won 6–2 on aggregate.''
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''Dinamo București won 4–3 on aggregate.''
Play-off
First round
1 Second leg played at
Heysel Stadium,
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 ...
First leg
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Second leg
''Red Star Belgrade won 6–3 on aggregate''
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''Nice 3–3 Rangers on aggregate; play-off needed.''
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''Real Madrid 5–5 Rapid Wien on aggregate; play-off needed.''
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''Manchester United won 3–2 on aggregate''
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''Fiorentina won 2–1 on aggregate''
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''Grasshopper won 2–1 on aggregate''
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''Athletic Bilbao won 6–5 on aggregate''
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''CDNA Sofia won 10–4 on aggregate''
Play-off
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Quarter-finals
First leg
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Second leg
''Manchester United won 6–5 on aggregate''
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''Red Star Belgrade won 4–3 on aggregate''
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''Fiorentina won 5–3 on aggregate''
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''Real Madrid won 6–2 on aggregate''
Semi-finals
First leg
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Second leg
''Fiorentina won 1–0 on aggregate''
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''Real Madrid won 5–3 on aggregate''
Final
Top scorers
The top scorers from the 1956–57 European Cup (including preliminary round) were as follows:
1956/57 European Champion Clubs' Cup - Qualifying phase - Goals scored
/ref>
Notes
References
External links
1956–57 All matches – season at UEFA website
* All scorers 1956–57 European Cup (excluding qualifying round) according t
+ all scorer
* ttps://archive.today/20120712102559/http://en.archive.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/history/Season=1956/intro.html 1956-57 European Cup– results and line-ups (archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:1956-57 European Cup
1956–57 in European football
European Champion Clubs' Cup seasons