UEFA Champions League Final Special - Lisbon

Tonight's 2014 Champions League Final between the two Madrid sides, Real and Atletico, will be played at Benfica's Estadio da Luz.

As previously posted on this blog, Benfica have a wonderful history of goal nets.



This year's final is the first time the European Cup final has been played in Lisbon since 1967, when Celtic defeated Inter at Estadio Nacional.



The distinctive L-supports of Jamor 1967 were replaced a couple of years later by stanchions.



In a wonderful nod to tradition, the stanchions remained in place until 2012.

UEFA Europa League - Vitoria S.C.

Vitoria de Guimaraes are one of Portugal's representatives in this season's tournament and you wonder, what's with these sides called Vitoria? They've all got cracking nets!

Recently - OK, a couple of months back; apologies everybody, life's been crazy - we looked at ES Vitoria in Brazil and their boxy A-frames.

Now check out the hardware at Vitoria SC's D Afonso Henriques stadium - classics!

UEFA Champions League Final Special - Wembley Stadium

It was only last night so everybody knows that Bayern were crowned 2013 champions at Wembley Stadium. But 50 years from now, could anyone looking at a clip of Arjen Robben's winner be sure of the venue?


Is there anything in the colour HD to 100% identify Wembley?

50 years ago, in the 1963 final, Milan beat Benfica.



The footage is grainy black and white but half a century later, all it takes is one sighting of the goal nets and YOU KNOW it's Wembley.

UEFA Champions League Final Special - Wankdorf Stadium

In 1961 Benfica broke Real Madrid's monopoly on the Big Cup, beating Barcelona 3-2 at the Wankdorf Stadium in Berne, Switzerland.




Again, the method deployed to suspend the goal nets makes the Wankdorf instantly recognisable. But what to make of those ground supports? The picture below, from the 1954 World Cup final, shows the ground supports are solid and fixed to the posts and that the stanchions are effectively screwed in.

UEFA Champions League - FC Barcelona

The fourth club in this season's Group G is Barcelona.

What more to say about Barcelona's History of Goal Nets?

Previous posts have highlighted the huge, late-80's tents at Nou Camp, and identified a striking similarity between the previous A-frames and those at Sutton United.

Perhaps what's new is the longevity of those A-frames.

The same way Tito Vilanova has replaced Pep Guardiola and nothing's really changed, so Barca moved from Camp de Les Corts to the Camp Nou, and the A-frames somehow stayed the same.

UEFA Champions League - Celtic FC

Through the 70's and early 80's big European nights at Celtic Park would be played out between an all too distinctive pair of Continental D's:





But the on-field architecture for the glory glory nights of the late 60's was a long forgotten pair of A-frames:

A-list A-frames - Derby County FC

Those who've seen the movie, The Damned United, will be aware the Rams lost to Juventus in the semi-final of the 1972-73 European Cup.

Not many may know Derby hammered Benfica - Eusebio et al - earlier in that competition, firing three goals into the marvellous A-frames at  the old Baseball ground.




Two years later, Derby were back in Europe and beat Real Madrid. By then, the A-frames had given way to Continental D's (though the pitch hadn't yet become a beach).

UEFA Champions League - S.L Benfica

This season's Champions League participants' History of Goalnets.

First up - SL Benfica.

Benfica are the most successful side in Portuguese history, and in their "Golden Era" they were early adopters of the boxnet at Estadio da Luz (though note the nets are not free-hanging, and are in fact attached to the stanchions and would probably be deemed unsafe today).



In their later "Silver Era" they installed wonderfully distinctive stanchions.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - European Champions League Final Special

Back in 1968 when the Big Cup was called the European Cup, and when the Wembley nets hung on legs like Cameron Diaz, Bobby Charlton hooked in Manchester United's fourth goal against Benfica...
and the ball bounced out off the stanchion.