History

'From another universe'

Andy Roxburgh was at Hampden Park in 1960 to watch what is still considered the greatest European Cup final performance of all time. As Real Madrid prepared to meet Eintracht Frankfurt for the first time since then in the Super Cup, he looked back on a remarkable occasion

INTERVIEW Michael Harrold

Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

Read the full story
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Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

Frankfurt have to be complimented. They were a very good team, had a lot of quality and never gave up. But the other lot were unbelievable. At the end, the crowd wouldn’t go away. They just applauded. Some people said it was for 15 minutes.
By

“The next goal is a gem. The ball is whacked into the box. Puskás does one of those controls where you take the pace off the ball and turn all in one movement, and just smashes it into the top corner. He has now scored four goals. The crowd is going berserk. The intensity is building; this is going from being an interesting contest at the beginning to a masterclass. 

“And despite all of this, Frankfurt don’t give up. They’re 6–1 down and then Erwin Stein scores a minute later to make it 6–2. But the technical ability of the Real Madrid players was just exceptional, the fluid movement and combination play. For the last goal they played the combination through the middle and Di Stéfano races into penalty box and smashes it in the bottom corner. It was just fantastic. Unbelievably, Stein comes back again at 75 minutes and its 7–3. 

“Frankfurt have to be complimented. They were a very good team, had a lot of quality and never gave up. But the other lot were unbelievable. At the end, the crowd wouldn’t go away. They just applauded. Some people said it was for 15 minutes. Everyone was standing anyway except a few in the grandstand, but this was a genuine standing ovation. That Wednesday night in Glasgow was remarkable. In fading light, those white jerseys just seemed to stand out. 

“When I went to work at UEFA in the 1990s, I organised a course in Budapest and made a special request to the Hungarian FA to see if we could interview Puskás. It would also be my way of meeting my hero. They said of course and, you know, he came to the airport and met me! And he took me to see Honvéd play! And at night, he took me to a restaurant and he got up and sang with the group. It was incredible. At the UEFA course, I sat on the stage with him to do this interview. In front of the audience to break the ice, I said, ‘Now tell me Ferenc. You’re very left footed. Why was that?’ He’s got a great sense of humour and he goes, ‘Well it was quite simple. When I was young I realised that in football, you have to stand on one leg and swing with the other. And I decided to stand on my right leg.’ 

“Everybody laughed. He could have played a violin with that left foot. He was just fantastic. Sometimes people meet their heroes and they’re let down. But in this case, it was the complete opposite. He was a hero then and even today, he still remains so. He was just phenomenal. I remember reading a story which said that in one of Puskás’s first games he was through on goal and could score but instead played it square and let Di Stéfano score. Right from that moment there was a harmony between them. That also showed a bit of class from Ferenc Puskás. He was anything but arrogant; a very humble person, sense of humour, good singer and with a rather magical left foot. 

“Madrid have this belief in themselves and there is no doubt that when there is history like that, players are expected to play that way and deliver results. I’m certain that the standards set by that original Real Madrid team have made waves all the way through the history of this club. Today’s players have got to be good enough, they’ve got to be able to play; but the attitude and mentality of that club is to buy players who can do that. Luka Modrić is a good example. I can imagine Modrić playing in that game in 1960. He’d have been quite comfortable – but I’m not sure who he would have replaced!” 

History
Real Madrid 7–3 Eintracht Frankfurt

18 May 1960, Hampden Park, Glasgow

Goals:

0–1 Kress 18

1–1 Di Stéfano 27

2–1 Di Stéfano 30

3–1 Puskás 45+1

4–1 Puskás 56 pen

5–1 Puskás 60

6–1 Puskás 71

6–2 Stein 72

7–2 Di Stéfano 73

7–3 Stein 75

No items found.
History

'From another universe'

Andy Roxburgh was at Hampden Park in 1960 to watch what is still considered the greatest European Cup final performance of all time. As Real Madrid prepared to meet Eintracht Frankfurt for the first time since then in the Super Cup, he looked back on a remarkable occasion

INTERVIEW Michael Harrold

Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

Read the full story
Sign up now to get access to this and every premium feature on Champions Journal. You will also get access to member-only competitions and offers. And you get all of that completely free!
Frankfurt have to be complimented. They were a very good team, had a lot of quality and never gave up. But the other lot were unbelievable. At the end, the crowd wouldn’t go away. They just applauded. Some people said it was for 15 minutes.
By

“The next goal is a gem. The ball is whacked into the box. Puskás does one of those controls where you take the pace off the ball and turn all in one movement, and just smashes it into the top corner. He has now scored four goals. The crowd is going berserk. The intensity is building; this is going from being an interesting contest at the beginning to a masterclass. 

“And despite all of this, Frankfurt don’t give up. They’re 6–1 down and then Erwin Stein scores a minute later to make it 6–2. But the technical ability of the Real Madrid players was just exceptional, the fluid movement and combination play. For the last goal they played the combination through the middle and Di Stéfano races into penalty box and smashes it in the bottom corner. It was just fantastic. Unbelievably, Stein comes back again at 75 minutes and its 7–3. 

“Frankfurt have to be complimented. They were a very good team, had a lot of quality and never gave up. But the other lot were unbelievable. At the end, the crowd wouldn’t go away. They just applauded. Some people said it was for 15 minutes. Everyone was standing anyway except a few in the grandstand, but this was a genuine standing ovation. That Wednesday night in Glasgow was remarkable. In fading light, those white jerseys just seemed to stand out. 

“When I went to work at UEFA in the 1990s, I organised a course in Budapest and made a special request to the Hungarian FA to see if we could interview Puskás. It would also be my way of meeting my hero. They said of course and, you know, he came to the airport and met me! And he took me to see Honvéd play! And at night, he took me to a restaurant and he got up and sang with the group. It was incredible. At the UEFA course, I sat on the stage with him to do this interview. In front of the audience to break the ice, I said, ‘Now tell me Ferenc. You’re very left footed. Why was that?’ He’s got a great sense of humour and he goes, ‘Well it was quite simple. When I was young I realised that in football, you have to stand on one leg and swing with the other. And I decided to stand on my right leg.’ 

“Everybody laughed. He could have played a violin with that left foot. He was just fantastic. Sometimes people meet their heroes and they’re let down. But in this case, it was the complete opposite. He was a hero then and even today, he still remains so. He was just phenomenal. I remember reading a story which said that in one of Puskás’s first games he was through on goal and could score but instead played it square and let Di Stéfano score. Right from that moment there was a harmony between them. That also showed a bit of class from Ferenc Puskás. He was anything but arrogant; a very humble person, sense of humour, good singer and with a rather magical left foot. 

“Madrid have this belief in themselves and there is no doubt that when there is history like that, players are expected to play that way and deliver results. I’m certain that the standards set by that original Real Madrid team have made waves all the way through the history of this club. Today’s players have got to be good enough, they’ve got to be able to play; but the attitude and mentality of that club is to buy players who can do that. Luka Modrić is a good example. I can imagine Modrić playing in that game in 1960. He’d have been quite comfortable – but I’m not sure who he would have replaced!” 

History
Real Madrid 7–3 Eintracht Frankfurt

18 May 1960, Hampden Park, Glasgow

Goals:

0–1 Kress 18

1–1 Di Stéfano 27

2–1 Di Stéfano 30

3–1 Puskás 45+1

4–1 Puskás 56 pen

5–1 Puskás 60

6–1 Puskás 71

6–2 Stein 72

7–2 Di Stéfano 73

7–3 Stein 75

History

'From another universe'

Andy Roxburgh was at Hampden Park in 1960 to watch what is still considered the greatest European Cup final performance of all time. As Real Madrid prepared to meet Eintracht Frankfurt for the first time since then in the Super Cup, he looked back on a remarkable occasion

INTERVIEW Michael Harrold

Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

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Andy Roxburgh was a 16-year-old schoolboy on Queen’s Park’s books when Real Madrid met Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow. With the game at their home ground, Roxburgh and the other players, including a teenage Alex Ferguson, were able to see with their own eyes one of the greatest matches of all time. Ferenc Puskaś scored four, Alfredo Di Stéfano three, as Madrid put on a masterclass to defeat the German side 7–3. Roxburgh went on to become Scotland manager and then technical director at UEFA – a position he now holds at the Asian Football Confederation – but all this time and many hundreds of matches later the memory of that final still burns brightly. As Madrid and Frankfurt prepared to meet again in the UEFA Super Cup, Roxburgh recalls the game of a lifetime.

“I was a youth player at Queen’s Park and I remember asking our groundsmen if I could get into the training session on the Tuesday night, the day before the game. Hampden Park was our home ground. So there I was on the pitch with the Real Madrid team as they’re warming up. Paco Gento is smoking a cigarette while he’s juggling a ball. And the trainer shouts, ‘Right, sprints!’ Gento is on the halfway line on the left wing. He throws his cigarette down and beats everybody by a mile. He was like an Olympic sprinter. He ran all the way back to the halfway line and picked up the cigarette and carried on. This was my introduction, up close.

“The next night I go to the match. The first thing I remember was this sea of faces. Officially there were 127,000 people there. There were no floodlights at Hampden at that time. It’s a Wednesday night, a 7:30 kick-off. It’s a May evening. It was a great night for football, perfect conditions. And you’ve got this incredible crowd. Everybody’s excited because Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers 12–4 over two legs in the semi-finals. Their reputation going into that match was sky high in Glasgow. People thought Frankfurt were from another planet. The trouble was, they didn’t realise that Real Madrid were from another universe. Real had won four titles in a row and this was going to be the fifth. I was just desperate to see Ferenc Puskás play live for the first time. He was my hero.

“Our tickets were organised by Queen’s Park in the schoolboy enclosure. It was perfect; very close to the pitch, just behind the dugout near the tunnel. I was a 16-year-old schoolboy and Alex was two years older than me. He was already a first-team player. We spoke about the game from time to time, but we never realised that Alex would end up winning that trophy twice. Out come the two teams, Real Madrid all in white. Right away that made them stand out, but Frankfurt showed their quality from the beginning and even opened the scoring. Everybody took a deep breath, going, ‘Frankfurt are a really good side.’  Then, before half an hour had gone, Real Madrid score twice. The first is an ordinary goal at the back post from Di Stéfano. For the second, the goalkeeper parries and Di Stéfano makes it 2–1. 

“Then comes the moment right on half-time. Puskás steals the ball just inside the left-hand side of the penalty box and he rifles it in with his left foot, right in the top corner. That was when the whole thing lit up. Suddenly there was this moment of magic and it was 3–1. Puskás then goes on to add a second-half hat-trick. In other words, he scored four goals in a row. The next is a penalty, which Puskás scores, and then comes the pièce de resistance… Back to Mr Gento. From a corner for Frankfurt, Madrid win the ball and counter. From the halfway line – that same bit of territory, the same bit of turf on that left-hand side near the stand – Gento runs on to the ball. His sprint is exactly the same as he did at training the night before; exactly that same straight line at full pace. But this time he races to the dead-ball line, whips it in with his left foot and Puskás heads the ball into the back of the net. And, of course, I’m thinking, ‘Is he running back to pick up his cigarette?’ 

Frankfurt have to be complimented. They were a very good team, had a lot of quality and never gave up. But the other lot were unbelievable. At the end, the crowd wouldn’t go away. They just applauded. Some people said it was for 15 minutes.
By

“The next goal is a gem. The ball is whacked into the box. Puskás does one of those controls where you take the pace off the ball and turn all in one movement, and just smashes it into the top corner. He has now scored four goals. The crowd is going berserk. The intensity is building; this is going from being an interesting contest at the beginning to a masterclass. 

“And despite all of this, Frankfurt don’t give up. They’re 6–1 down and then Erwin Stein scores a minute later to make it 6–2. But the technical ability of the Real Madrid players was just exceptional, the fluid movement and combination play. For the last goal they played the combination through the middle and Di Stéfano races into penalty box and smashes it in the bottom corner. It was just fantastic. Unbelievably, Stein comes back again at 75 minutes and its 7–3. 

“Frankfurt have to be complimented. They were a very good team, had a lot of quality and never gave up. But the other lot were unbelievable. At the end, the crowd wouldn’t go away. They just applauded. Some people said it was for 15 minutes. Everyone was standing anyway except a few in the grandstand, but this was a genuine standing ovation. That Wednesday night in Glasgow was remarkable. In fading light, those white jerseys just seemed to stand out. 

“When I went to work at UEFA in the 1990s, I organised a course in Budapest and made a special request to the Hungarian FA to see if we could interview Puskás. It would also be my way of meeting my hero. They said of course and, you know, he came to the airport and met me! And he took me to see Honvéd play! And at night, he took me to a restaurant and he got up and sang with the group. It was incredible. At the UEFA course, I sat on the stage with him to do this interview. In front of the audience to break the ice, I said, ‘Now tell me Ferenc. You’re very left footed. Why was that?’ He’s got a great sense of humour and he goes, ‘Well it was quite simple. When I was young I realised that in football, you have to stand on one leg and swing with the other. And I decided to stand on my right leg.’ 

“Everybody laughed. He could have played a violin with that left foot. He was just fantastic. Sometimes people meet their heroes and they’re let down. But in this case, it was the complete opposite. He was a hero then and even today, he still remains so. He was just phenomenal. I remember reading a story which said that in one of Puskás’s first games he was through on goal and could score but instead played it square and let Di Stéfano score. Right from that moment there was a harmony between them. That also showed a bit of class from Ferenc Puskás. He was anything but arrogant; a very humble person, sense of humour, good singer and with a rather magical left foot. 

“Madrid have this belief in themselves and there is no doubt that when there is history like that, players are expected to play that way and deliver results. I’m certain that the standards set by that original Real Madrid team have made waves all the way through the history of this club. Today’s players have got to be good enough, they’ve got to be able to play; but the attitude and mentality of that club is to buy players who can do that. Luka Modrić is a good example. I can imagine Modrić playing in that game in 1960. He’d have been quite comfortable – but I’m not sure who he would have replaced!” 

History
Real Madrid 7–3 Eintracht Frankfurt

18 May 1960, Hampden Park, Glasgow

Goals:

0–1 Kress 18

1–1 Di Stéfano 27

2–1 Di Stéfano 30

3–1 Puskás 45+1

4–1 Puskás 56 pen

5–1 Puskás 60

6–1 Puskás 71

6–2 Stein 72

7–2 Di Stéfano 73

7–3 Stein 75

History
Real Madrid 7–3 Eintracht Frankfurt

18 May 1960, Hampden Park, Glasgow

Goals:

0–1 Kress 18

1–1 Di Stéfano 27

2–1 Di Stéfano 30

3–1 Puskás 45+1

4–1 Puskás 56 pen

5–1 Puskás 60

6–1 Puskás 71

6–2 Stein 72

7–2 Di Stéfano 73

7–3 Stein 75

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