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European Cup: Quarter Final 2nd Leg
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9th March 1966, Estadio de Luz
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Benfica
1
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Manchester
United
5
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Own goal
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Best 2, Connelly,
Crerand, Charlton
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"The night of El Beatle"
Despite winning the 1st leg 3-2 at Old Trafford Sir Matt Busby's Manchester United team hardly arrived in Lisbon full of confidence. At that point in time Benfica were a mighty team only bettered arguably by the great Real Madrid of the 1950's era. The Portuguese side had never lost at home in seven seasons of European action.
During that period, they had reached the European Cup Final four times in five seasons, losing 1-0 in 1965 to Inter Milan in the final. Not only that but on the Reds last visit to the Stadium of Light two years previous, United had been thrashed 5-0 by Sporting Lisbon in the Cup Winners' Cup.
Benfica's star was undoubtedly the legendary striker Eusebio, had been presented with the title of European footballer of the year before kick-off. After 15 minutes that mantle appeared certain to pass to another. At 19 years old George Best was even slightly younger than when a young Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick on his European debut in 2004.
Which makes it all the more incredible the way he stripped bare this great Benfica side and their greatest player. The teenager ran again and again at the Benfica defence and dethroned Eusebio as the most feared forward on the continent with two brilliant opening goals.
His first was a fine looping header from a Tony Dunne free-kick but the second was even better. A goal kick by Harry Gregg was headed down by David Herd into the path of Best who accelerated into a devastating high speed run past two defenders before slotting home past the keeper. Soon the stunned stadium was silenced even more as Denis Law fed the ball to Herd who played it to John Connelly to made it an unbelievable 3-0, which the score remained until half-time.
The second half gave the home fans something to cheer as they pulled a goal back through an own goal. Paddy Crerand quickly extinguished those cheers when he was put clean through by Denis Law to make it 4-1. With Benfica looking ragged late in the game, Bobby Charlton ran through the middle of their defence and dribbled past the goalkeeper to make it 5-1 and complete a scoreline that resonated across Europe.
The newspapers the following day bore a photograph of Best sporting a giant-sized sombrero as the Portuguese press named him "El Beatle". It was the moment that the young lad from Belfast was catapulted to the superstar status he would have for the rest of his life.
With this spectacular 8-3 aggregate win, United were hot favourites to proceed to the final later that season, but were unable to force their way past a gritty Partizan Belgrade defence in the semi-final. The Busby Babes went out 2-1 on aggregate after a 1-0 win in the second leg at Old Trafford failed to overturn a 2-0 deficit.
However this night in Lisbon was and remains United's finest performance on foreign soil and was truly was the night that the 'fifth Beatle' George Best became the most talked about football in Europe.
MANCHESTER
UNITED:
Gregg, Brennan, A Dunne, Foulkes, Crerand, Stiles, Best, Charlton, Connelly, Law, Herd
BENFICA:
Da Costa Pereira, Cavém, Cruz ,Germano, Machado, Neto, Coluna, Augusto, Eusébio,
Augusto Torres, Simões
Att: 75,000
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