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 first time by Red Star Belgrade, who beat Budapest Honvéd 2–1 in the final at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, on 30 May 1957.

Background
The European Cup is a club competition that was form for the 1955-56 season. It was during that season where the format of a knockout competition between clubs was born with the league winners of each nation being sent to compete in the competition.

This was the first season where two Italian teams competed in the tournament with the champions of Italy (Fiorentina) joined the defending champions in competing in the tournament. Six new nations competed in the tournament for the first time.

Preliminary Round

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First Round
1 Stade de Reims beat Dukla Praha 2-0 to qualify for the quarters-finals
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Quarter-finals
2 CSKA Sofia beat Dinamo Bucarest 1-0 in a play-off to qualify for the semi-finals
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Semi-finals

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Topscorers
7 goals
 * 🇧🇷 Julinho (Fiorentina)

6 goals
 * 🇭🇺 Sandor Kocsis (Budapest Honvéd)

5 goals
 * 🇮🇹 Gastone Bean (Milan)
 * Bora Kostic (Red Star)

4 goals
 * 🇧🇬 Stefan Bozhkov (CSKA Sofia)
 * Josef Masopust (Dukla Praha)
 * Juan Alberto Schiaffino (Milan)
 * 🇷🇴 Ion Suru (Dinamo Bucarest)
 * 🇭🇺 Lajos Tichy (Budapest Honvéd)
 * 🇷🇴 Gheorge Voica (Dinamo Bucarest)