The 1958–59 European Cup was the fourth season of the European Cup, Europe's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by Real Madrid, who beat Reims 2–0 in the final at Neckarstadion, Stuttgart, on 3 June 1959. This was Real Madrid's fourth European Cup title in a row. The two finalists also competed in the final of the first European Cup in 1956.
It was the first time that a team from Finland participated, while Turkey's representative returned to the competition in the presence of Beşiktaş. They were drawn against Olympiacos, but Greece's first entrants withdrew for political reasons before playing their first tie.
Also, Manchester United were invited to the competition following Munich air disaster in the previous season, but were not allowed to participate by the Football League, meaning that first walkovers took place in the UEFA organised competition. Had they played, England would be first nation in European Cup history to have more than one team in the competition, apart from title holder's association.
Teams
A total of 28 teams were placed in the competition bracket, but finally only 26 participated.
The draw for the preliminary round took place in Cannes, France, on Wednesday, 2 July 1958.[1] As title holders, Real Madrid received a bye, and the remaining 27 teams were grouped geographically into three pots. The first drawn team in each pot also received bye, while the remaining clubs would play the preliminary round in August, September and October.
Pot 1 Western Europe
Pot 2 Central Europe
Pot 3 Eastern Europe
Drawn
France Republic of Ireland Northern Ireland Netherlands Belgium Scotland Portugal Spain
Switzerland West Germany Italy Sweden Denmark Luxembourg Austria Manchester United[2]
Poland Romania Turkey Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia Hungary East Germany Greece
The 1959 European Cup final was played on 3 June 1959 at the Neckarstadion in Stuttgart, West Germany. Real Madrid's victory was their fourth consecutive title, maintaining their status as the only team to have won the competition. Reims were runners-up for a second time, having already lost to Real in the inaugural final in 1956.
^Olympiacos withdrew due to international political issues, refusing to play in Istanbul following the long-standing tension between Turkey and Greece.[3].
^UEFA invited Manchester United to enter the competition after eight of the club's players were killed in the Munich air disaster while returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade the previous season; however, the Football League refused to allow the club to compete. As the draw had already been made for the preliminary round, Manchester United's drawn opponents, Young Boys, were given a bye to the first round of the competition. Instead, the two clubs played a pair of friendlies against each other, home and away; Young Boys won the first match 2–0 in Bern, but Manchester United won 3–0 at Old Trafford a week later. The two clubs were again drawn together in the group stage of both the 2018–19 and 2021–22 UEFA Champions League seasons, with the former happening almost exactly 60 years after they were originally due to play.[4]