HISTORY

The first five years Real Madrid won five consecutive European Cups. In 1957 Manchester United was on Uefa Champions League semi-finals and they returned to Manchester but the airplane crashed in Munich and it caused the death of eight members of the team, this event is called The Munich Tragedy.




The next two years Benfica of Lisbon won two European cups against Barcelona and Real Madrid. Benfica was going to win the third consecutive cup but they lost against AC Milan,
whose city rivals (Inter Milan) would win the cup in 1964 and 1965 beating Benfica and
Real Madrid.
The Inter era was ended by Real Madrid (who won against Inter in 1966 semi-final) because they won the sixth European Cup against Partizan of Belgrade in Brussels.

The first Scottish and British team who won the European Cup was Celtic of Glasgow in 1967 against Inter Milan in Lisbon.

In 1968 Manchester United became the first English team to win the European Cup beating Benfica 4-1 at Wembley Stadium (England). Bobby Charlton scored two goals in this match.
The next year Milan won the final against Ajax.

From 1970 to 1973 the winners of the European Cup were Dutch, first in 1970 Feyenoord of Rotterdam won against Celtic of Glasgow after the extra time.
The three next years Ajax won the European Cup three consecutively times beating Panathinaikos, Internazionale and Juventus. (The football legend Johaan Cruiff played in this team)














In the mid 70s Bayern Munich dominated the competition winning the European Cup three times consecutively, like Ajax in the previous three years. First they beat Atlético de Madrid (Spain) in the first final match which was played in two games. The following year, they won against Leeds United (England) and finally against ST.Etienne(France).













From 1977 to 1985 the English clubs dominated the competition, but this period ended in tragedy.This period was started by Liverpool Fc in 1977 and the English Clubs won the competition six consecutive times, and they won seven times in eight years.
First, Liverpool beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in the legendary Olympiastadium of Rome, and then in 1978 they became the first English club to win the competition two consecutive times,the second one they beat Brugge(Belgium) at Wembley.

The following English team to win the European Cup was Nottingham Forest who won the cup two consecutive years like Liverpool. First they defeated Malmo (Sweeden) 1-0 in Munich, next they beat Hamburg at Santiago Bernabeu for 1-0.
Liverpool returned to a final again in 1981 winning the cup against Real Madrid 1-0 in Paris, to follow the English dominance in the tournament, Aston Villa won in 1982 against Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam.
In 1983 Hamburg won the final against Juventus for 1-0, this final was the first final in six years with no English team.
In 1984 Liverpool striked back defeating AS Roma in Rome in one of the most famous penalty shootouts and Liverpool won their fourth European Cup.
The following, year Liverpool returned to the final against Juventus but they lost 1-0 in Heysel Stadium (Brussels) this final was remembered because 39 Juventus fans died there.












After that tragedy the English clubs were banned from participating in any European competition.
In 1986 Steua Bucharest (Romania) beat Barcelona in a penalty shootout in La Cartuja (Seville), and the following year Porto won against Bayern Munich in a very exciting final with an incredible backhell goal of Rabah Madjer. Here is the goal:


In 1988 PSV of Eindhooven won against Benfica in penalty shootout.
The following year, Steaua Bucharest got to the final but they lost against an amazing AC Milan for 4-0, and then in 1990 they won the cup aghain against Benfica 1-0.
Nowadays, the Red Star of Belgrade (former Yugoslavya) is a poor team, but in 1991 this team was a big team in Europe and they won against Marseille during the penalties after a goalless draw.
The 1991-1992 was the last edition of this competition with that name(European Cup) and it would became Uefa Champions League. Barcelona won its first European Cup beating Sampdoria 1-0 and the goal was scored by Ronald Koeman in a free-kick shoot.


In 1993 Marseille won the first Champions League against AC Milan, but this final was very controversial, because Marseille shot a wrong corner kick and they scored.