The first-ever final between Real Madrid and Stade de Reims set the marker for the next 65-plus years of fantastic football.

Los Blancos had built their first superpower team in the early 1950’s getting first dibs on Alfredo Di Stefano who had fled South America to join General Franco’s regime in Spain.

They bolstered their attack with Francisco Gento from Racing Santander and Hector Rial a fellow Argentinian immigrant.

Gento and Di Stefano would become legends of football and Real Madrid by the end of their careers.

Both players remain in the top ten highest goalscorers in the history of the club: 308 for Di Stefano and 182 in 601 appearances for Gento.

Reims on the other hand were a small powerhouse of their own, they won six league titles in 13 years from 1949 to 1962.

They also reached two European Cup finals under their manager Albert Batteux and a litany of fantastic players including the first French superstar Raymond Kopa.

Playing quick and swift passing football Reims took a very early 2-0 lead, with goals scored by Michel Leblond and Jean Templin.

Alfredo Di Stefano cut the deficit within 15 minutes in an electrifying start.

Hector Rial equalised as Real Madrid started showing their strength and the scores was level at half-time.

In the second half, Reims started again playing beautiful quick passes and Michel Hidalgo soon made it 3-2.

However, Real Madrid did what they do best and have been doing since the very beginning, digging deep and reversing scorelines.

Marquitos scored to make it 3-3 and soon at the back post unmarked, Hector Rial made it 4-3 with just over ten minutes to go.

It would be the first of five European titles in a row cementing Real’s position at the top of the beautiful game.

Five years later, Real Madrid had built their empire.

They beat AC Milan, Fiorentina, and Reims once more to lay claim as the best of the best.

After his amazing display in the first-ever final Raymond Kopa was signed by Los Blancos as a show of power and determination.

Alfredo Di Stefano had scored in each of the last four finals to boot with Francisco Gento getting in on the act in two of them.

Kopa had left but in his wake, Real Madrid had found the missing piece of one of the greatest front three ever seen in football.

Ferenc Puskas, the Mighty Magyar, midfield general of the great Hungarian and Honved teams signed for Real in 1959.

He would leave an indelible mark on the history of the club and this competition.

They played Eintracht Frankfurt, the strong West German outfit who had just won their first championship the season before, in the most exciting match in European Cup final history.

Once again, the opposition took the lead through Richard Kress, but this time Real Madrid proceeded to obliterate Die Adler.

Alfredo Di Stefano grabbed a tap-in equaliser 2 minutes after going 1-0 down and he soon made it 2-1 to Real three minutes later pouncing on a dropped catch by the keeper.

Ferenc Puskas then rifled home the third before halftime.

The two great players and their cohorts in white would continue their march, Puskas bagged a penalty then got his hat-trick the first scored in a final, and one of only four scored all time.

The second hat trick would soon follow as Di Stefano made it 6-1.

The rare feat of scoring a hat-trick made to look simple by the majestic duo, this final full of records finished 7-3 to Real Madrid, Puskas scoring a fourth to compound Eintracht’s misery.

No player has ever scored four or more goals since, and Real Madrid is still the only team to score more than four goals in a final.

Also, this is the highest-ever scoring final with ten goals in total and 127 thousand were there to witness it at Hampden Park in Glasgow, a record crowd in the final.

Real’s domination of Europe would finish there for a few years, but the legacy of this team and those two players remains as strong as ever decades later.

Whilst Real Madrid missed out on a final after winning the first five it was the Portuguese giants Benfica who picked up the slack.

With a brilliant player of their own in their ranks, Eusebio, As Aguias beat Barcelona the previous year in the final.

This year they faced Real Madrid who were hungry to add more titles.

Los Blancos still had their holy trinity of Di Stefano, Puskas, and Gento which made them favourites against the Portuguese outfit.

It would be the Hungarian general who would open the scoring with a clean run-through on goal.

He would add his second five minutes later with a belting shot into the bottom corner from almost 30 yards out.

Os Encarnados had their backs against the wall but found a way to get back into the game.

Emblematic captain Jose Aguas pulled one back, before Domiciano Cavem blasted the ball from just outside the box, thundering past the keeper.

Real would take the lead again and Puskas would grab his second-ever final hat-trick, the only player to score two of them in the European Cup final.

With Real Madrid 3-2 up at halftime, Benfica picked themselves up and proceeded to dominate the second half.

Mario Coluna curved a ball into the back of the net, then the Black Panther showed his skill.

Eusebio was nicknamed as such because of his skill, agility, speed, and ability to pounce on the defence.

His first was a penalty for an outrageous tackle on him and the second was a shot so powerful it crashed through the keeper’s arms.

The game would finish 5-3 to Benfica, an instant classic between two giants of the Iberian Peninsula.

Liverpool was once the mightiest team in Europe.

Loved by many and feared by all, they had won four European titles in under a decade with legendary manager Bob Paisley at the helm.

However, with hooliganism in the 1980’s and a fast decline in the 1990’s Liverpool just wasn’t the force they were 20 years prior to this final.

Coming into it AC Milan looked simply too strong, a squad filled with amazing talent.

Paolo Maldini, Hernan Crespo, Kaka, Alessandro Nesta, Andrei Shevchenko, Jaap Stam, Cafu, Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf and Gennaro Gattuso.

The list of World Class talents was endless.

You would be forgiven if you had just handed the title straight to AC Milan there and then.

Football doesn’t work like that, and this game certainly did not, going down in Liverpool folklore.

The Rossoneri went 1-0 up inside the first minute, a goal from an unlikely source, Paolo Maldini.

The club legend who played in six previous finals for AC Milan winning four of them volleyed home a free kick.

Hernan Crespo would make it two with some beautiful trickery by Kaka to get away from his markers, setting up Shevchenko who passed it across the floor for Crespo to tap it in.

The third a thing of beauty as Kaka once again turned into space and with one pass cut the Liverpool defence in half finding Crespo who delightfully dinked it over Jerzy Dudek.

The Reds, with their massive army of travelling fans in Istanbul, did not panic.

Within 20 minutes of the restart, Liverpool were level.

Steven Gerrard with a header, Vladimir Smicer with a thunderous shot, and Xabi Alonso from a rebound after his spot kick was saved brought Liverpool right back into the game.

The Reds would win it on penalties, Dudek with the heroic save from Shevchenko, and the rest is history as they say.

Back to the 1960’s for some more spectacular comebacks and this time it features this weekend’s finalists Inter Milan as they faced Celtic.

The first British team to reach a final, this Celtic team was up against it in Lisbon as the Nerazzurri had won two of the previous three finals.

Jock Stein had built a really strong team and had already won the domestic treble: League title, FA Cup and League Cup.

The Hoops would play with Stevie Chalmers, Tommy Gemmell, and Jimmy Johnstone with Billy McNeill as captain.

Whilst Inter had their trusted full-back pair Tarcisio Burgnich and Giacinto Facchetti with Sandro Mazzola in the middle dictating.

Inter had already beaten Liverpool in the semi-finals preventing this from being the first and to date only Anglo-Scottish affair.

They were on their way to ruining more British hearts when Mazzola scored the opener from the spot kick in the seventh minute.

Celtic then proceeded to dominate the game having a shot saved on the line by the keeper Giuliano Sarti.

Stevie Chalmers levelled after half-time with a thunderous shot that evaded everyone.

Inter played every trick in the book even at times hanging on to Celtic players’ feet to stop them from scoring.

Celtic eventually found the winner through Tommy Gemmell.

As the finest moment in the club’s history, they can proudly say they are the first and only team to win the quadruple, the first British team to win the European Cup and the only Scottish team to do it.