The 1957–58 European Cup was the third 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 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

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

3–2 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, in extra time 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 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 ...

players died on their way home from

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, 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 referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

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

Busby Babes The "Busby Babes" were the group of footballers, recruited and trained by Manchester United 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 the ...

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

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

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

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

for the draw in time.

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

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.

Teams

A total of 24 teams participated in the competition.

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, Benfica, CCA București,

Dukla Prague Dukla Prague () was a Czech football club from the city of Prague. Established in 1948 as ATK Praha, the club won a total of 11 Czechoslovak league titles and eight Czechoslovak Cups, and in the 1966–67 season, reached the semi-finals of the ...

, Glenavon, Royal Antwerp,

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

, Sevilla, Shamrock Rovers,

Stade Dudelange Stade Dudelange was a football club from Dudelange, in southern Luxembourg. It is now a part of F91 Dudelange, which was formed by the merger of Stade, Alliance Dudelange, and US Dudelange in 1991. Stade was one of the country's most successf ...

, Vasas, Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt and Young Boys made their debut appearances in the European Cup while Rapid Wien, AGF and Real Madrid marked their third. All participants were their respective associations champions, except for Sevilla and

Gwardia Warsaw WKS Gwardia Warszawa () was a Polish sports club based in Warsaw. The club was founded in 1948. The club was dissolved in 2018. Football It participated in the Polish 1st League from 1953 to 1960 (8 seasons), 1962–1966 (5 seasons), 1967–19 ...

Preliminary round

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

French Football Federation The French Football Federation ( FFF and 3F; or Triple F; , ) is the governing body of football in France. It was formed in 1919 and is based in the capital, Paris. The FFF is a founding member of FIFA and is responsible for overseeing all aspec ...

in Paris on Tuesday, 23 July 1957.'' Corriere dello Sport'', 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 October.

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;

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.'' ---- ''Gwardia Warsaw 4–4 Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt on aggregate;

needed.''

Play-off

''Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt qualified due to a coin toss, after their play-off against Gwardia Warsaw was abandoned with the result of 1–1 after 100 minutes due to floodlight power failure.'' ---- ''Milan won play-off 4–2.''

Bracket

First round

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.'' ---- ''Sevilla won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Borussia Dortmund 5–5 CCA București on aggregate;

needed.'' ---- ''Milan won 6–1 on aggregate.''

Play-off

''Borussia Dortmund won 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 goalscorers

The top scorers from the 1957–58 European Cup (including preliminary round) were as follows:

Notes

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 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 ...