Lat the end of next day it will be the first in the history of Real Madrid without Paco Gento. When his heart stopped beating on January 18, the life of the greatest soccer player in the european cup. In the first eight finals that he played his Real Madrid He galloped down the left wing, scored goals and gave them to achieve something that no one else has achieved: to be a six-time European champion. The other eight that the Madrid Since Gento retired, he lived them as a club legend, veteran of a thousand battles, honorary president and, above all, as a madridista.
The cover of MARCA on Thursday May 12, 1966 showed Gento kissing his great love, the European Cup trophy. He was the only one who repeated the final eight before, also at the foot of the Atomium Brussels, the real Madrid had beaten Milan. Was Puskas in the white team, but since November he had not played in the League and only counted for Munoz in cup matches.
With eleven Spaniards
The Sixth European Cup real Madrid It is unique in that collection that expects a new piece to arrive on the night of May 28. Among the 13 that are already there, the one from 1966 is unique. Because in Brussels Real Madrid defeated partisan with 11 players born in Spain.
That Madriddubbed the ye-ye team by a generation of budding 20-somethings taking charge (De Felipe, Velázquez, Pirri, GrossoTejada or the first appearances of the interior Garcia-Ramos), left Europe with its mouth open. Because nobody counted as a great contender for the title when the 31 contenders were launched in September. The white renewal placed him far behind teams like Inter, Milan, Benfica, Manchester United and even his rival in the final, a partisan that exhibited in Europe the splendor of the Yugoslav school.
It is an offering to Spain they have fought with a patriotic spirit
But that low-profile Madrid, which would be said today, left in the gutter Feyenoord, Kilmarnock, Anderlecht and in the semifinals to the defending champion, the Inter. Against the champion of the last two editions, and their executioner in the final two years earlier, the goals of pirri in Madrid (1-0) and Amancio in San Siro (1-1) they brought Madrid back to the final, the eighth in the 11 editions of the european cup.
The Sixth came with the house brand: a comeback, the magic word in Real Madrid, the one that gave him the First, the Third, the one that became sacred in the 80s and has been the flag behind which the players of Ancelotti they have battled to exhaustion to be in Paris in just over a week.
Because the partisan came forward in Brussels with a header from Vasović shortly after the break came back. The game progressed until one of those moments came when Madrid went into ecstasy. On May 11, 1966 it was between minutes 70 and 76. First it was a goal from Amancio born in a corner kick in favor of partisan and one against in which the Galician, before scoring, left two anthological dribbles; then a shoe from Serena, who in the front let the ball bounce so that it took the ideal height and hit it violently to beat Soskic.
field invasions
The three goals of the game were answered by a dangerous fashion created by the fans of the Liverpool in a party in glasgow. After the goal of serene the taking of the field of play was so exaggerated that it was feared that the referee of the match, the German kreitlein, get fed up and give up the final. It was with great difficulty that the madridistas were removed from the field and play resumed.
But there was one more left to generate a surreal situation. The agonizing end, with the partisan thrown over the goal araquistain, had to be extended because Kreitlein’s whistle was confused in the stands to signal a foul with the end of the game. Another avalanche, another invasion of madridistas from the lawn of Heysel.
The desired end came shortly after. The Madrid was champion again Europe. The capital was preparing for another great reception, this time to a team without the great stars of the past, full of Spaniards, but with the lord of the european cup as captain: sir Francisco Gento. She won it six times, more than anyone, and one day she sat down with MARCA to choose a moment: “The final against the Milan in which we played extra time and I scored the goal. I didn’t believe it, of course”. Without being there, he will be in Paris.
