Olympic champions from the USSR and the incredible composition of the Spaniards
1960th forever entered the history of domestic football. It was then that the USSR national team with Lev Yashin, Igor Netto, Victor Monday, Valentin Ivanov and other legends in the composition won the first European Cup.
I also remembered that year by another important event - the Spanish team’s non-appearance at the quarterfinal match of the continent’s championship in Moscow. The country's government banned the "Red Furies" from flying to the Soviet Union, and as a result, a technical victory was awarded to the owners.
However, the story about this story should be started with a short excursion into the past of the tournament itself. 13 countries refused to participate in the first European Championship at once, among which there were such giants as England, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. The reasons were the workload of football players in clubs and the low prestige of the new competition.
Among the remaining 17 teams, Spain and the USSR clearly stood out. The Soviet team in 1956 won gold Olympic medals. The Spaniards, led by the great Elenio Herrera, had an incredible composition at that time. The leading players of Barcelona and Real Madrid ruled the team’s roster. From 1956 to 1960, they won five European Champions Cups in a row. There were Luis Suarez, Francisco Hento, Ladislav Kubala. And of course, Alfredo Di Stefano, twice received the Golden Ball as the best player in Europe. A similar award in 1960, Suarez was not prevented from taking even the European Championship scandal.
Both teams started in the European Cup with 1/8 finals and did not experience any problems. The USSR national team calmly went through weakened Hungary, and Spain, by the sum of two meetings, turned out to be stronger than Poland - 7: 2.
Finally, on December 11, 1959, the draw of the quarter-final stage took place, which determined the Spaniards as rivals to the Soviet team. Such a lot was not too happy in both countries. At that time, there was not even diplomatic relations between them. The regime of Francisco Franco in the USSR was called nothing more than fascist, and the general in response harshly criticized the communist system.
Nevertheless, the parties, although not without difficulty, agreed on the dates for the meetings. The first match was to be held in Moscow on May 29, the return - in Madrid on June 9.
Unexpected change of coach and decisive arrival of Herrera
Of course, it was impossible to lose in such a confrontation. From the first days of 1960, preparations began for the most important game. In February, the Soviet squad went to training camps in the German Democratic Republic and the Netherlands, and Mikhail Yakushin unexpectedly replaced Gavriil Kachalin as head coach, under whose leadership the team won OI-1956 gold and made its debut at the World Cup in 1958 (the specialist was suspended from work after the defeat with a score of 0: 5 in London in November of that year).
In turn, the Spaniards looked powerful in friendly matches: in March 1960 they defeated Italy, and on May 15 defeated England. Just a few days later, Real Madrid did not leave a chance to Eintracht 1946 (7: 3) and for the fifth time in a row won the European Cup.
Further events developed rapidly. On May 19, the head coach of the “red fury” Herrera arrived in Moscow to study the conditions in which his team was to live, as well as personally observe the USSR team, which on that day hosted Poland, which was well known to the Spaniards.
Seen specialist shocked. In the stands of the same Central Stadium named after V.I. Lenin's wards Kachalin did not leave an opponent a single chance - 7: 1. Hat-trick designed 22-year-old Viktor Monday made his debut in the national team. A double was marked by Valentin Ivanov, and Valentin Bubukin and Slava Metreveli also scored on the ball.
However, the confident game of the USSR frightened no longer Herrera, but the Spanish authorities. The day after the defeat of Poland, the coach submitted a list of 20 players who were supposed to go to Moscow. Then an emergency meeting of the government of the country was held, at which they discussed what to do next.
According to legend, Franco demanded that the national team coaches guarantee victory over the Soviet team, but they could not give them.
Alarming rumors spread across Europe about the ban on Spanish football players from meeting with the Soviet. An excited Russian Federation, meanwhile, turned to the UEFA secretariat to understand what was happening, because in Moscow, preparations were in full swing for a historic match: all tickets for the game were sold.
Everything was decided on May 25, four days before the appointment. The Spanish team at the Madrid airport until the last moment was waiting for two aircraft. At noon, the telegraph agencies reported that the "red fury" still sent to Moscow. And after only six minutes, UEFA received a lightning telegram about the national team’s refusal to fly to the USSR.
The anger of Khrushchev and the open letter of the Soviet team to the Spaniards
In the Soviet Union, they reacted as harshly as possible. So, the speech of the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, which he delivered at the all-union meeting of the leading workers of the competition of brigades and shock workers of communist labor on May 28, 1960, went down in history: “In both large and small Franco creeps before his masters. The whole world is laughing at his latest sports trick. It was he who, from the position of the right-back of American prestige, scored an own goal, forbidding Spanish footballers from meeting with the Soviet team. ”
And the footballers and coaches of the national team turned to their Spanish colleagues with an open letter on the pages of Football magazine.
“We were looking forward to your arrival with great pleasure and prepared you a worthy meeting. It’s not your fault that it did not take place. We know how sincerely you wanted to make a trip to Moscow and receive us in your own country. We have no doubt that together with us you regret the failed meetings that promised all football lovers interesting sports competitions, ”the message said.
- © RIA News / AFP
Victory in France and Spain Rematch Four Years After
UEFA tried to the last to save the situation. In particular, the Spaniards were offered to hold matches with the USSR on neutral territory, but the Soviet Federation opposed this option, since this did not comply with the tournament regulations.
As a result, the organizing committee of the European Cup, which met in Frankfurt, was forced to award Spain a technical defeat and exclude the team from the rally. So the wards of Kachalin without a fight went to the semifinals.
And in July, Yashin and the company proved that they rightfully made their way to the final stage, which took place in France. In the semifinals, the USSR team defeated Czechoslovakia - 3: 0, and in the decisive confrontation it turned out to be stronger than Yugoslavia - 2: 1. The winning goal in extra time was scored by Monday.
The Spaniards took a convincing revenge in the match with the USSR four years later - in the final of the home European championship. To the credit of the Soviet side, the national team was allowed to participate in a tournament held on the territory of an unfriendly state.
However, in the place of their Spanish colleagues, Soviet footballers ended up nine years later. The country's leadership refused to release the national team for the qualifying match of the 1974 World Cup with Chile, which was to be held in Santiago. The reason was a military coup in the country, led by Augusto Pinochet. The national team was credited with a technical defeat, and the Chileans went to the mundial.