History of Champions League (a.k.a European Cup) Part 1

The first ever European Cup game took place on the afternoon of 4th September 1955 in Lisbon when Sporting Lisbon played out a 3-3 draw with Partizan Belgrade, and the first European Cup goal was scored by Sporting's Joao Baptista Martins, but the most significant game of the first round came four days later in Geneva. On 8th September, Miguel Munoz scored a 74th minute goal that sent Real Madrid on their way to a 2-0 win against Servette in the first leg of their first round tie. Nobody knew it at the time, but that was the beginning of five years of dominance by the Spanish champions.

The money and vision of Real president, Santiago Bernabeu had provided the Madrid club with not only a stadium that was the envy of Europe, but had also started to put together a team that would dominate the opening years of the Champions Cup. With the forward line that they posessed, under the guidance of coach Jose Villalonga, they were able to paper over some of the deficiencies that they had at the back, for few defences could cope with the likes of the great Alfredo Di Stefano from Argentina, Hector Rial from Uruguay and the lightning quick Francisco Gento when they were in full flow. The Swiss of Geneva were blown away by seven goals in the first round of the inaugural competition and, the Yugoslavs of Partizan Belgrade appeared to be as good as out after a 4-0 Christmas Day defeat in Madrid in the second round. But the second leg in wintry Belgrade saw Partizan leading 3-0 when a shot on goal only failed to croos the line thanks to the amount of slush in the penalty area. The Real defenders cleared the ball and they were now into the semi-finals, but there they were likely to be even more severely tested when they came up against the Italians of AC Milan.