1985 European Cup Final

The 1985 European Cup Final was a football match played between the clubs Liverpool F.C. of England and Juventus F.C. of Italy at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium on 29 May 1985.

The match was overshadowed by the disaster which took place about an hour before kick off, when Liverpool supporters charged at Juventus supporters, causing a huge crush of people against a stadium wall which subsequently collapsed. 39 people were killed and hundreds injured.

It was decided that the match should be played, as it was felt that abandoning it could cause further trouble.

Match summary

The game was a mere footnote to the horror that was the Heysel Stadium disaster. Thirty-nine spectators, mainly Juventus fans, were tragically killed when Liverpool fans charged a section of Juventus fans. The Italian supporters rushed to the corner of their section to get away from the violence and a crush ensued which resulted in a wall collapsing. Controversially the game went ahead - almost an hour and a half late - in an attempt to stop further violence occurring. There are differing accounts concerning whether the players were aware of the full horror that had occurred in the stadium that evening, but most people regarded the match itself as an irrelevance. The only goal of the game came from a penalty after an hour as Zbigniew Boniek was brought down by Gary Gillespie, and Frenchman Michel Platini scored from the resulting penalty. Juventus won 1–0 and lifted the European Cup for the first time.

Match details

footballbox
date = 1985-05-29
team1 = Juventus flagicon|ITA
score = 1 – 0
team2 = flagicon|ENG Liverpool
goals1 = Platini goal|56|pen.
goals2 =
stadium = Heysel Stadium, Brussels
attendance = 59,000
referee= André Daina flagicon|SUI

ee also

*European Cup 1984-85
*Heysel Stadium Disaster

External links

* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/history/Season=1984/intro.html 1984-85 season at UEFA website]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/ec/ecomp.html European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation]
* [http://www.europeancuphistory.com/euro85 European Cup History 1985]