1964 European Cup final: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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The '''[[1964]] [[UEFA Champions League|European Cup]] Final''' was a [[Football (soccer)|football]] match between [[Inter Milan]] and at that time, the five time winners [[Real Madrid]], held at the [[Prater Stadium]], [[Vienna]]. Inter went on to lift the trophy for the first time, by beating Real Madrid 3-1.

==Match Summary==

The Final would present the [[Real Madrid]] veterans like [[Alfredo Di Stéfano]], [[Ferenc Puskás]] and [[Francisco Gento]] with the chance to show that they were still capable of succeeding at the highest level. Despite reaching the Final yet again, many viewed them as an ailing power with ageing players. Becoming European Champions once more would certainly put paid to such charges, but they would have to do that against one of the most formidable back lines in history. In [[Tarcisio Burgnich]], [[Aristide Guarneri]], [[Armando Picchi]] and [[Giacinto Facchetti]], Inter possessed a defensive foursome that had already frustrated the best teams in [[Italy]] and was now doing the same to the cream of [[Europe]]. The star of the Inter defence was undoubtedly Facchetti. Herrera spotted the young defender early on in his managerial reign and quickly promoted him to the first team. The coach later recalled: ‘I could see that this big tall player with an eye for goal was ideal for the left back slot.’ Facchetti was the prototype wing back as he surged forward and scored a remarkable number of goals. Considering that Italian football was, at that time, at its most defensive and that [[Internazionale]] were the masters of negative football, Facchetti’s 60 Serie A goals are mightily impressive. Goal scoring, however, was not Facchetti’s priority, that was the job of [[Sandro Mazzola]]. Mazzola was carrying on a family footballing tradition. His father Valentino had been tragically killed in the 1949 Superga air crash which wiped out the famous [[Torino]] team of the 1940’s. Mazzola senior had been the star of that Torino team and now, despite losing his father so tragically, Sandro had worked his way to assuming a similar mantle for another great Italian club side as he scored the goals that his team-mates could defend.

The Final was held in [[Vienna]], which provided the fanatical Inter supporters the opportunity to travel in their thousands to the game. For the first time in [[European Cup]] history there was a mass movement of fans from one country to another as the Inter hordes descended on [[Austria]]. A crowd of over 70,000 with many thousands of them from Italy, crammed into the Praterstadion to see if the attacking maestro’s of [[Madrid]] could outfox the young catenaccio kings from [[Milan]] on the biggest stage of all.

The match itself proved to be the end of an era as Inter powered their way to the European title. Despite their defeat, [[Real Madrid]] would return as a force in Europe’s major club competition, but the two men who had been so instrumental in the clubs success would never be seen in a European final again. Up against the dynamic efficiency of the Italian champions, Puskas and Di Stefano were no longer able to compete. Puskas found himself stranded up front, now totally reliant on the service from his team-mates, while Di Stefano was shackled by the Italian man markers and merely flitted in and out of the game. With Suarez running the midfield, Inter not only stifled their opponents, but also managed to puncture Real’s defence on three occasions through Mazzola on 43 and 76 minutes, and Milani on the hour. When Real did get forward they came up against a tight and ruthlessly marshalled defence which gave them little hope of success. Felo did score acrobatically from a Puskas corner on 70 minutes and the great Hungarian did strike a post, but Inter’s triumph was never seriously in doubt. Real’s defeat brought to an end the glorious era of Puskas and Di Stefano. These two greats had dominated the early years of the European Cup and had appeared, on occasion, to win games for Real Madrid on their own. The high point of their careers had almost certainly been that incredible [[Glasgow]] night when they tore [[Eintracht Frankfurt]] apart and scored all seven goals between them, but there had been many, many more games that would live long in the memory for the genius that they had shown on the football pitch. Now, their days of competing in European Finals was at an end, but they would go down in history as two of the most influential players in the history of the competition.

But what a bitter sweet night it must have been in [[Barcelona]]. On the one hand, Barca’s greatest rivals were humbled on the biggest stage and their two legends, Ferenc Puskas and the man who they had come so close to signing, Alfredo Di Stefano, were finally shown to be unable to compete with the best in Europe. But on the other hand, Inter’s triumph was masterminded by [[Helenio Herrera]] the man they had hounded out after a European Cup defeat, and the man of the match was their old hero [[Luis Suarez]]who had followed his coach to the [[San Siro]]. Many drinkers in the bars around the Nou Camp must have wondered about what might have been. But the cup was not going to Barcelona, it was headed back to the San Siro in Milan. This time, however, it belonged to Internazionale – the first team to win the European Cup without losing a game - and it was going to prove as difficult to wrench the trophy from their grasp as it was to get behind their door bolt of a defence.

==Match Details==

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|MF ||'''9''' ||{{flagicon|ITA}} [[Aurelio Milani]]

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|FW ||'''10''' ||{{flagicon|ESP}} [[Luis Suárez Miramontes]]

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|FW ||'''11''' ||{{flagicon|ITA}} [[Mario Corso]]

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|colspan=3|'''Manager:'''

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|MF ||'''9''' ||{{flagicon|ESP}}{{flagicon|ARG}} [[Alfredo Di Stéfano]]

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|FW ||'''10''' ||{{flagicon|HUN}} [[Ferenc Puskás]]

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|FW ||'''11''' ||{{flagicon|ESP}} [[Francisco Gento]]

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|colspan=3|'''Manager:'''