European Cup Final 1967-68

Manchester United 4 Benfica 1

Charlton 2, Best, Kidd Graca

Manchester United: Stepney, Brennan, Foulkes, Crerand, Dunne, Charlton (capt), Stiles, Best, Kidd, Sadler, Aston

Benfica: Henrique, Adolfo, Humberto, Jacinto, Cruz, Graca, Coluna (capt), Jose Augusto, Torres, Eusebio, Simoes

After Celtic's success, Manchester United became the second British and 1st English team to reach the final and subsequently win it.

Manchester United had to build a new team after most of their squad was lost to the Munich air disaster but 1 of the survivors of that crash Bobby Charlton turned out to be inspirational alongside 2 other greats of United's history, Dennis Law and the genius, George Best.

Matt Busby had done remarkably well to build another team.

Wembley was packed to the rafters as Manchester United sought to become the first English side to win the European Cup. They were without star striker Denis Law, missing through injury though.

Eight minutes into the second half, however, the deadlock was broken when Bobby Charlton found himself in more space and it was he who rose to head a Sadler cross into the top corner of the net.

With just ten minutes remaining, the Portuguese side got their reward as Torres headed the ball across the area to the feet of Jaime Graca who beat Stepney in the United goal to level the scores.

The turning point of the match was when the game was in its dying moments and finally Eusebio broke free of Stiles and the rest of the English defence and found himself through on goal with just Stepney the goalkeeper to beat, but Stepney gambled on Eusebio wanting to blast the ball spectacularly into the net, so he stayed on his feet as long as possible.

Sure enough, Eusebio smashed the ball as hard as he could, but saw it go straight into Stepney's chest and away.

Two minutes into extra time it was George Best finally breaking free of the Benfica shackles, by latching onto a header from Kidd, skipping past one tackle, rounded Henrique in the Benfica goal and calmly slotted the ball into an empty net.

A minute later and it was 3-1 as a penalty box free for all ended with Kidd heading into the goal. On 99 minutes, Bobby Charlton scored another headed goal as he guided a Kidd cross past Henrique, and the cup was United's at last.

Manchester United became the 1st English side to win the European Cup.

For more Football news visit [http://www.footballclubsblog.com]

My name is Dennis and have written a number of articles on how to make it big online.

Learn more on how to become successful online by going here and clicking on 'my web page' NOW