1961 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final
| Event | 1960–61 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup | ||||||
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| First leg | |||||||
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| Date | 27 September 1961 | ||||||
| Venue | St Andrew's, Birmingham | ||||||
| Referee | Bobby Davidson (Scotland) | ||||||
| Attendance | 21,000 | ||||||
| Second leg | |||||||
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| Date | 11 October 1961 | ||||||
| Venue | Stadio Olimpico, Rome | ||||||
| Referee | Pierre Schwinte (France) | ||||||
| Attendance | 60,000 | ||||||
The 1961 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final was an association football match played over two legs between A.S. Roma of Italy and Birmingham City of England. The first leg was played in Birmingham on 27 September 1961, and the second leg was played on 11 October in Rome. It was the final of the third edition of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, an invitational competition open to teams representing host cities of industrial trade fairs. Birmingham had lost to Barcelona in the previous final; Roma were appearing for the first time.
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. Birmingham won all but one of their six legs, and beat Internazionale home and away: no other English team was to defeat Inter in the San Siro stadium for another 40 years. Roma took a lengthier route to the final: they required a replay in both quarter-final and semi-final, although won each replay by a comfortable margin.
In the first leg of the final, played in front of a crowd of only 21,000 at St Andrew's, Pedro Waldemar Manfredini scored twice for Roma, and goalkeeper Fabio Cudicini made several high-class saves, before Mike Hellawell and Bryan Orritt scored late in the game to equalise the scores. In the second leg, watched by 60,000 spectators, Roma won by two goals to nil – an own goal when an attempted clearance rebounded off Brian Farmer's shin, and a shot from distance by Paolo Pestrin very late in the game while Birmingham's players were all upfield attacking – in the Stadio Olimpico to win their first and, as of 2012[update], only trophy in European competition.
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