With Suárez at the helm, Inter replaced Real Madrid as the dominant team in Europe. In 1964, they defeated the Spanish 3-1 in the European Cup final, and the following year they beat Benfica to retain the trophy. They lost to Real in the semi-finals the following season, but got their revenge the following year, winning the quarter-finals 3–0 on aggregate.
Suárez’s goal in the second leg sent the Madrid crowd into a frenzy and led to a brilliant solo performance in which several youngsters in bullfighter’s caps invaded the pitch and delivered half a dozen passes. However, injury cost Inter his services in the final, which they lost to Celtic. That result marked the end of Inter’s golden age and the arrival of British teams as a force in European competition.
Luis Suárez Miramontes was born in the port of A Coruña, Spain, on May 2, 1935, the son of a butcher. His two older brothers became professional footballers, and his own talent soon emerged, so at the age of 13, scouts from the local club Deportivo La Coruña suggested that he skip regular football school and go straight to the youth team. . At the age of 16 he joined Deportivo.
Two years later, the public at the Camp Nou gave him a standing ovation in his debut against Barcelona, after which the Barça board agreed on the conditions of his transfer in the dressing room.
True, they were at the height of their powers, with foreign talent like Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano, but Suárez joined the Hungarian trio of Kosice, Kubala and Sibor. Under the leadership of the (then attack-minded) Herrera, they won the Spanish championship in 1959 and 1960, the Copa del Generalísimo in 1957 and 1959, and the Copa del Rey, the forerunner of the UEFA Cup and Europa League, in 1959 and 19598.
In 1960, at the age of 25, Suárez was elected European Footballer of the Year; Di Stefano won it a year ago, but he was born in Argentina and is only Spanish by naturalization.
In 1961, Barcelona reached its first European Cup final against pre-Eusebio Benfica, beating Real Madrid in the semifinals thanks to two goals from Suárez. Unsurprisingly, they lost 3-2, against the pace of the game and despite displaying attacking football in the last half hour of the game, which ranks as the best in the competition’s history.
2023-07-09 16:37:47
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