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 Stadium, 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 Aarhus, 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.

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.

The calendar was decided by the involved teams, with all matches to be played by 1 October.


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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.

First round

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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

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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

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Second leg
Fiorentina won 1–0 on aggregate.

Real Madrid won 5–3 on aggregate.

Top scorers
The top scorers from the 1956–57 European Cup (including preliminary round) were as follows: