# 1956–57 European Cup

The 1956–57 European Cup was the second season of the European Cup, Europe's premier club football tournament. The competition was won for the second time by Real Madrid, who beat Fiorentina 2–0 in the final at the Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, on 30 May 1957.
After the great success of the first tournament, six new nations entered representatives: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, England, Luxembourg, Romania and Turkey. The Football League had not allowed Chelsea to enter in 1955, and continued its stance on the European Cup as it being a "distraction". However, against the wishes of the FA, Manchester United entered the competition as English champions, becoming the first English team to play in Europe. An additional place was awarded to third in 1955–56 La Liga Real Madrid as the competition's reigning champions, occupying the free berth left by Saar after its reunification with West Germany. As a result, Spain became the first association to provide two representatives to the premier European competition and it was only for Manchester United, who had won against Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals, that first ever meeting between two sides from the same country in the competition didn't happen.
This edition was the first to utilize play-off matches, after two legs were not enough to decide which team advances to the next round on three occasions: Borussia Dortmund won 7–0 against Spora Luxembourg in the preliminary round, while Nice and Real Madrid won 3–1 and 2–1, respectively, against Rangers and Rapid Wien in the first round.

## Teams

A total of 22 teams participated in the competition.
AGF, Anderlecht, Rapid Wien and Real Madrid returned to the competition, after participating in the inaugural edition.
Galatasaray was the only team, other than the title holder, who didn't enter as a national association champion, as Süper Lig was not founded until 1959.
| Rapid Wien (1st) | Anderlecht (1st) | CDNA Sofia (1st) | Slovan UNV Bratislava (1st) |
| AGF (1st) | Manchester United (1st) | Nice (1st) | Budapest Honvéd (1st) |
| Fiorentina (1st) | Spora Luxembourg (1st) | Rapid JC (1st) | CWKS Warsaw (1st) |
| Porto (1st) | Dinamo București (1st) | Rangers (1st) | Athletic Bilbao (1st) |
| Real Madrid (3rd) | IFK Norrköping (1st) | Grasshopper (1st) | Galatasaray (1st) |
| Borussia Dortmund (1st) | Red Star Belgrade (1st) |

## Preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round took place in UEFA headquarters in Paris on 29 June 1956. The 21 challengers of Real Madrid were grouped geographically into three pots. The first four teams drawn in each pot would play the preliminary round in September, while the remaining three clubs received byes.
| | Pot 1 Eastern Europe | Pot 2 North-Western Europe | Pot 3 South-Central Europe |
| Drawn | Slovan UNV Bratislava | Nice | Porto |
| Drawn | CWKS Warsaw | AGF | Athletic Bilbao |
| Drawn | Galatasaray | Anderlecht | Borussia Dortmund |
| Drawn | Dinamo București | Manchester United | Spora Luxembourg |
| Byes | Budapest Honvéd | Rangers | Fiorentina |
| Byes | Rapid Wien | IFK Norrköping | Grasshopper |
| Byes | CDNA Sofia | Rapid JC | Red Star Belgrade |
The calendar was decided by the involved teams, with all matches to be played by 1 October.
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Play-off |
| Borussia Dortmund | 5–5 | Spora Luxembourg | 4–3 | 1–2 | 7–0 |
| Dinamo București | 4–3 | Galatasaray | 3–1 | 1–2 |
| Slovan UNV Bratislava | 4–2 | CWKS Warsaw | 4–0 | 0–2 |
| Anderlecht | 0–12 | Manchester United | 0–2 | 0–10 |
| AGF | 2–6 | Nice | 1–1 | 1–5 |
| Porto | 3–5 | Athletic Bilbao | 1–2 | 2–3 |

### Second leg

Borussia Dortmund 5–5 Spora Luxembourg on aggregate; play-off needed.
Slovan UNV Bratislava won 4–2 on aggregate.
Athletic Bilbao won 5–3 on aggregate.
Manchester United won 12–0 on aggregate.
Nice won 6–2 on aggregate.
Dinamo București won 4–3 on aggregate.

### Play-off

Borussia Dortmund won play-off 7–0.

## Bracket

| First round | First round | First round | First round | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final | |
| Real Madrid | 4 | 1 | 5 (2) | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Rapid Wien | 2 | 3 | 5 (0) | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Rapid Wien | 2 | 3 | 5 (0) | Real Madrid | 3 | 3 | 6 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | Nice | 0 | 2 | 2 | | | | | | | | |
| Rangers | 2 | 1 | 3 (1) | Nice | 0 | 2 | 2 | | | | | | | | |
| Nice | 1 | 2 | 3 (3) | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Nice | 1 | 2 | 3 (3) | | | | | Real Madrid | 3 | 2 | 5 | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | Manchester United | 1 | 2 | 3 | | | | |
| Athletic Bilbao | 3 | 3 | 6 | | | | | | | | | Manchester United | 1 | 2 | 3 | | |
| Budapest Honvéd | 2 | 3 | 5 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Budapest Honvéd | 2 | 3 | 5 | Athletic Bilbao | 5 | 0 | 5 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | Manchester United | 3 | 3 | 6 | | | | | | | | |
| Manchester United | 3 | 0 | 3 | Manchester United | 3 | 3 | 6 | | | | | | | | |
| Borussia Dortmund | 2 | 0 | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Borussia Dortmund | 2 | 0 | 2 | | | | | | | | | | Real Madrid | 2 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Fiorentina | 0 | |
| Rapid JC | 3 | 0 | 3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | Fiorentina | 0 |
| Red Star Belgrade | 4 | 2 | 6 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Red Star Belgrade | 4 | 2 | 6 | Red Star Belgrade | 3 | 1 | 4 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | CDNA Sofia | 1 | 2 | 3 | | | | | | | | |
| CDNA Sofia | 8 | 2 | 10 | CDNA Sofia | 1 | 2 | 3 | | | | | | | | |
| Dinamo București | 1 | 3 | 4 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dinamo București | 1 | 3 | 4 | | | | | Red Star Belgrade | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | Fiorentina | 1 | 0 | 1 | | | | |
| Fiorentina | 1 | 1 | 2 | | | | | | | | | Fiorentina | 1 | 0 | 1 | | |
| IFK Norrköping | 1 | 0 | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| IFK Norrköping | 1 | 0 | 1 | Fiorentina | 3 | 2 | 5 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | Grasshopper | 1 | 2 | 3 | | | | | | | | |
| Slovan UNV Bratislava | 1 | 0 | 1 | Grasshopper | 1 | 2 | 3 | | | | | | | | |
| Grasshopper | 0 | 2 | 2 | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## First round

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Play-off |
| Manchester United | 3–2 | Borussia Dortmund | 3–2 | 0–0 |
| CDNA Sofia | 10–4 | Dinamo București | 8–1 | 2–3 |
| Rangers | 3–3 | Nice | 2–1 | 1–2 | 1–3 |
| Slovan UNV Bratislava | 1–2 | Grasshopper | 1–0 | 0–2 |
| Real Madrid | 5–5 | Rapid Wien | 4–2 | 1–3 | 2–0 |
| Rapid JC | 3–6 | Red Star Belgrade | 3–4 | 0–2 |
| Fiorentina | 2–1 | IFK Norrköping | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| Athletic Bilbao | 6–5 | Budapest Honvéd | 3–2 | 3–3 |

### Second leg

Red Star Belgrade won 6–3 on aggregate.
Real Madrid 5–5 Rapid Wien on aggregate; play-off needed.
Nice 3–3 Rangers on aggregate; play-off needed.
Manchester United won 3–2 on aggregate.
Fiorentina won 2–1 on aggregate.
Grasshopper won 2–1 on aggregate.
Athletic Bilbao won 6–5 on aggregate.
CDNA Sofia won 10–4 on aggregate.

### Play-off

Nice won play-off 3–1.
Real Madrid won play-off 2–0.

## Quarter-finals

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Athletic Bilbao | 5–6 | Manchester United | 5–3 | 0–3 |
| Fiorentina | 5–3 | Grasshopper | 3–1 | 2–2 |
| Real Madrid | 6–2 | Nice | 3–0 | 3–2 |
| Red Star Belgrade | 4–3 | CDNA Sofia | 3–1 | 1–2 |

### Second leg

Manchester United won 6–5 on aggregate.
Red Star Belgrade won 4–3 on aggregate.
Fiorentina won 5–3 on aggregate.
Real Madrid won 6–2 on aggregate.

## Semi-finals

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Red Star Belgrade | 0–1 | Fiorentina | 0–1 | 0–0 |
| Real Madrid | 5–3 | Manchester United | 3–1 | 2–2 |

### Second leg

Fiorentina won 1–0 on aggregate.
Real Madrid won 5–3 on aggregate.

## Top goalscorers

The top scorers from the 1956–57 European Cup (including preliminary round) were as follows:
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals |
| 1 | Dennis Viollet | Manchester United | 9 |
| 2 | Tommy Taylor | Manchester United | 8 |
| 3 | Alfredo Di Stéfano | Real Madrid | 7 |
| 4 | Alfred Preissler | Borussia Dortmund | 6 |
| 5 | José Luis Artetxe | Athletic Bilbao | 5 |
| 5 | Jacques Foix | Nice | 5 |
| 5 | Bora Kostić | Red Star Belgrade | 5 |
| 8 | Jacques Faivre | Nice | 4 |
| 9 | Marc Boreux | Spora Luxembourg | 3 |
| 9 | Ernst Happel | Rapid Wien | 3 |
| 9 | Joseíto | Real Madrid | 3 |
| 9 | Alfred Kelbassa | Borussia Dortmund | 3 |
| 9 | Enrique Mateos | Real Madrid | 3 |
| 9 | Armando Merodio | Athletic Bilbao | 3 |
| 9 | Panayot Panayotov | CDNA Sofia | 3 |
| 9 | Ivan Kolev | CDNA Sofia | 3 |
| 9 | Billy Whelan | Manchester United | 3 |