1960 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final

Event

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1958–60

Birmingham City	Barcelona

1	4

on aggregate

First leg

Birmingham City	Barcelona
0	0

Date

29 March 1960

Venue

St Andrew's, Birmingham

Referee

Lucien van Nuffel (Belgium)

Attendance

40,524

Second leg

Barcelona	Birmingham City
4	1

Date

4 May 1960

Venue

Camp Nou, Barcelona

Referee

Lucien van Nuffel (Belgium)

Attendance

70,000

← 1958

1961 →

The 1960 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final was an association football match played over two legs between Barcelona of Spain and Birmingham City of England. The first leg was played at St Andrew's, Birmingham, on 29 March 1960, and the second leg was played on 4 May at the Camp Nou, Barcelona. It was the final of the second edition of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, an invitational competition open to teams representing host cities of industrial trade fairs. Birmingham were the first English club side to appear in a European final. Barcelona had beaten the London XI in the inaugural final in 1958, having needed a replay to eliminate Birmingham in the semi-final.

Each club needed to progress through three rounds to reach the final. Matches were contested over two legs, with one leg at each team's home ground. Barcelona won each of their three ties by at least two goals, and in the semi-final beat Italian club Internazionale by eight goals to two. Birmingham's progress to the final was less emphatic, but they still won all three home legs and did not lose away from home. An 8–4 aggregate victory over Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise represented their biggest winning margin.

In the first leg of the final, played in dreadful weather in front of a crowd of 40,524 at St Andrew's, Birmingham produced a fine defensive performance to hold Barcelona to a goalless draw. In the second leg, watched by 70,000 spectators, Barcelona were 2–0 up after only six minutes with goals from Eulogio Martínez and Zoltán Czibor. Czibor scored again and Lluís Coll added a fourth before Harry Hooper's late consolation made the final score 4–1. Thus Barcelona won the trophy for the second consecutive staging of the competition.

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