The inaugural European football competition prooved to be a success right away. In the final of the second tournament Spannish giants and Cup holders Real Madrid would meet Italian rivals Fiorentina. The venue of the European Cup final was Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, the home ground of Real Madrid. A massive crowd of 120,000 fans attended the night of the final to watch their favorite team defending their European football supremacy.
The Florence team expected a lot on the day of the final from the ability of their star strikers Giuseppe Virgili and Miguel Montouri and their Brazilian winger Julio 'Julinho' Botelho who was one of their key players with major contribution in Fiorentina's dominance in Italy. Julinho was a personal choice of Fiorentina's coach Fulvio Bernardini.
That was the first time the final would start at night with artificial light straight from the brand new and newly installed Bernabeu floodlights. The Italians were not too happy about this but the match finally kicked off. Despite what one would expect, Real did not manage to dominate on the field. The mentality and style of both teams prevented a nice football show and the match was full of strong tackles and players arguing and fighting all over the pitch. The stalemate was finally broken on the 70th minute when Real Madrid took the lead. Enrique Mateos was brought down in the penalty area and Real Madrid was awarded a penalty kick. The Italians strongly questioned the refferee's decision and claimming that the linesman had earlier flagged the Spannish player offside. Despite controversy, the refferee did not change his initial decision and Alfredo Di Stefano did not miss target from the spot and scored for Real Madrid.
Six minutes later Raymond Kopa served and Paco Gento scored with a shot giving Real a two goals lead that prooved to be enough until the final whistle of the match.
The trophy was given to Real's Captain Miguel Munoz by General Franco in front of a raving crowd. Real Madrid was European champions for second time in a row and the trophy would stay in Madrid.
