The 1961 European Cup Final was held at the

Wankdorf Stadium The Wankdorf Stadium (german: Wankdorfstadion, ) was a football stadium in the Wankdorf quarter of Bern, Switzerland, and the former home of Swiss club BSC Young Boys. It was built in 1925, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted se ...

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

on 31 May 1961, and contested by Portuguese side Benfica against

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side

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. This was the first final not to include

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, who had won the previous five finals. Benfica lifted the trophy for the first time, beating Barcelona 3–2. Benfica midfielder Mario Coluna broke his nose in the eighth minute of the match; not wanting to risk further damage, when Domiciano Cavém put over a cross in the 55th minute, Coluna hung back outside the penalty area. The ball was cleared directly to him and he volleyed it home for Benfica's third goal of the match.

Route to the final

Five-time defending champions

were knocked out in the first round by

, their bitter domestic rivals. After defeating Czechoslovak champions

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in the quarter-finals, Barcelona initially drew 2–2 on aggregate with West German champions

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

in the semi-finals. Since this was before UEFA competitions began using the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

, in order to determine who would advance to the final, a replay was scheduled to be played at a neutral site on 3 May. ''Barça'' would qualify for the final by winning the replay 1–0 at the

King Baudouin Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium (french: Stade Roi Baudouin , nl, Koning Boudewijnstadion ) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. Located in the Heysel district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau in ...

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 ...

, with Evaristo scoring the decisive goal. Meanwhile, Benfica reached the final of the competition by eliminating Austrian champions

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

in a 4–1 semi-final aggregate win. This marked the first time that a team from Portugal had ever progressed this far into the competition.

Match

Details

Notes

References

External links

1960–61 season at the UEFA website
{{FC Barcelona matches 1 European Cup Final 1961 European Cup Final 1961

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

European Cup Final 1961 European

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