The 1956–57 European Cup was the second season of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

, Europe's premier club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament. The competition was won for the second time by

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, who beat

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

2–0 in the

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at the Santiago Bernabéu,

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, on 30 May 1957. After the great success of the first tournament, six new nations entered representatives:

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The

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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 United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

entered the competition as English champions, becoming the first English team to play in Europe. An additional place was awarded to third in 1955–56 La Liga Real Madrid as the competition's reigning champions, occupying the free berth left by

Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name * Sarr 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

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. As a result,

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became the first association to provide two representatives to the premier European competition and it was only for Manchester United, who had won against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

in the quarter-finals, that first ever meeting between two sides from the same country in the competition didn't happen. This edition was the first to utilize play-off matches, after two legs were not enough to decide which team advances to the next round on three occasions:

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

won 7–0 against Spora Luxembourg in the

preliminary round A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, while

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionRangers and Rapid Wien in the

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

Teams

A total of 22 teams participated in the competition. AGF,

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, Rapid Wien and Real Madrid returned to the competition, after participating in the inaugural edition. Galatasaray was the only team, other than the title holder, who didn't enter as a national association champion, as

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

was not founded until 1959.

Preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round took place in

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

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

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

Second leg

''Borussia Dortmund 5–5 Spora Luxembourg on aggregate;

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

needed.'' ---- ''Slovan UNV Bratislava won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Athletic Bilbao won 5–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 12–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Nice won 6–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Dinamo București won 4–3 on aggregate.''

Play-off

''Borussia Dortmund won play-off 7–0.''

Bracket

First round

First leg

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

Second leg

''Red Star Belgrade won 6–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid 5–5 Rapid Wien on aggregate;

needed.'' ---- ''Nice 3–3 Rangers on aggregate;

needed.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 3–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Fiorentina won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Grasshopper won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Athletic Bilbao won 6–5 on aggregate.'' ---- ''CDNA Sofia won 10–4 on aggregate.''

Play-off

''Nice won play-off 3–1.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won play-off 2–0.''

Quarter-finals

First leg

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

Second leg

''Manchester United won 6–5 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Red Star Belgrade won 4–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Fiorentina won 5–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 6–2 on aggregate.''

Semi-finals

First leg

----

Second leg

''Fiorentina won 1–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 5–3 on aggregate.''

Final

Top goalscorers

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 UEFA Champions League seasons

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...