When you shoot for the king, you’d better not miss, or so the old saying goes. When that king literally has “Royal” in their name, and are undefeated in the European Cup – the pinnacle of continental competition – for five years, that saying goes double. So it was in the early history of the Europe’s premier tournament. Real Madrid, patronised by General Franco, won every iteration of the competition between its inception and 1960. And then, unthinkably, they didn’t.

But where do you turn to break Spanish dominance? The answer, in 1960, was Hungary.

Bela Guttmann was not a man who could ever settle. His playing career of 14 years took in nine clubs, in three countries and two continents. In the middle, he spent time in a Nazi labour camp, narrowly missing his train to Auschwitz. His managerial career is even more peripatetic – 21 clubs, 2 national sides, 12 different leagues, on both sides of the Atlantic, and no spell longer than three years. That spell, as it happened, was at Benfica.

Benfica had been one of the dominant forces in Portuguese football almost as soon as that nation professionalised, and had an early history with Hungarian coaches. They finished the first ever season of the Portuguese league, 1934-5, second, and won the next three under a different Hungarian, Lippo Hertzka. They won three more titles and four Portuguese Cups in the 1940s, including their first double, under Janos Biri. They won the Latin Cup in 1950 against Bordeaux, but couldn’t translate that success into the nascent European Cup, as Real Madrid dominated. In 1959, they lost the title despite a healthy lead, to Porto, who had been inspired by an unusual, restless, balding Hungarian who they had found languishing in Brazil. Benfica swooped that summer, and Guttmann got to work.

His first task at Benfica was to get rid of the driftwood, and there was a lot of it. 20 players were released from their contracts, to the concern of the board, and youth players were promoted in their place. The results were immediate, and Benfica lost only one game as they returned to the top of the league in 1960. They were back in the European Cup, and this time, things would be different.

After breezing past Hearts in the preliminary round, Benfica were drawn against one of Guttmann’s many previous clubs, Ujpest of Hungary. The first leg was a feast of goals in Portugal, a 6-2 victory, which meant losing 2-1 in Budapest was of little concern. What was of much more importance, though, was that the invincible Real Madrid side, five-time holders, had lost to a spirited display against Barcelona. The second ever European champions would be crowned, six years after the first, and Guttmann was determined that it would be his side. While the eyes of the world were on Barca, Benfica destroyed Danish champions AGF 7-1 on aggregate in the Quarter Final. The Semi-Final was a formality against Rapid Vienna, to set up a final against Barcelona in Switzerland. A chance to take the European Cup away from Spain for the first time.

The Hungarian influence on the game is undeniable. Sandor Kocsis and Zoltan Czibor had been members of the Magical Magyars side that lost the 1954 World Cup final and, statistically, are the greatest national side of all time. Guttmann had implemented the lessons of Hungarian football in the Portuguese capital. It was an even match. Kocsis gave Barca the lead, before Jose Aguas and an Antoni Ramallets own goal gave Benfica the lead before half time. Mario Coluna made it 3 before the hour, and despite a Czibor goal and late Barcelona fightback, Benfica held on for their first European Cup.

But there was an irritating question hanging over the European Champions. Real Madrid had been knocked out early, and Guttmann’s victorious side hadn’t tested themselves against them. That time would come, but a piece was missing.

While in a barber shop in Lisbon, Bela Guttman ran into Brazilian former footballer Jose Carlos Bauer, who had worked under him at Sao Paulo. Bauer told his former boss of a phenomenal talent he had unearthed in Mozambique. The problem was, he played for Sporting de Lourenço Marques, a feeder team for Benfica’s biggest rivals Sporting. In a move that went to the courts and raised questions about transfer rules across the world, Guttmann trumped Sporting’s offer of a year as an unpaid apprentice by offering actual money, and Eusebio made the move that would define his career. He made just two appearances in 1960/61, scoring in both, and by the following season was ready for the big time.

The 1961/2 European Cup saw Real Madrid return, and Benfica skip the preliminary round as Champions. They saw off Austria Vienna and Nürburg with relative ease, before struggling against Bill Nicholson’s Tottenham side, scraping through 4-3 to set up the dream final against Real Madrid. The Spanish side had dispatched Patizan and Standard Liege with a combined score of 13-1, but the quarter-final against Juventus had been taken to a third tie before they finally won through. They went into the final with the great Alfredo di Stefano as the competition’s top scorer on 7, and Ferenc Puskas finding his feet. Eusebio had managed a creditable 3 in 3, but Madrid were the free-flowing goalscorers.

Puskas may have by this stage been Spanish, but he learned his trade as a Hungarian and Guttman must have been cursing his luck as The Galloping Major took the game by storm, scoring a first half hat-trick. Aguas and Domiciano Cavern limited the damage, before early in the second half Mario Coluna brought the game level. The game needed some magic, and it got it through the Mozambican teenager. First, Eusebio drilled a great effort from range into the bottom corner, with Jose Araquistain looking on helpless, before drawing a foul from the great di Stefano to win a penalty, which he calmly slotted home. Benfica had done it, they were the undisputed kings of Europe and an era of dominance beckoned them into the 1960s.

Only, when they got home, Bela Guttmann looked at all he had achieved and decided he had far exceeded his employer’s expectations. Never a man of much diplomacy, he marched himself off to the boardroom and demanded a pay rise. The board declined. He stormed out of the club and out of Lisbon, heading back to South America, but before he did he declared “Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champions again”.

Silly words, perhaps, but Benfica lost the 1963 European Cup final to Milan, and then the 1965 final to Inter, and 1968 to Man Utd. In fact, they’ve played 8 European finals since Guttmann left Portugal, and lost every single one. Before their 1990 European Cup final in Austria, Eusebio went to Guttmann’s grave in Vienna and begged his old mentor to lift the curse. The Hungarian, it seems, still holds his grudge.

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