Two seasons later, Dortmund and Juventus faced each other in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. Many ex-Juventus players played at Dortmund. After two seasons in Serie A, Ince returned to England with Liverpool. He played 73 league games in two seasons, in which he scored one goal. Real Madrid won with the smallest difference after a goal from the Yugoslav Predrag Mijatović. Real Madrid started the group stage with a narrow victory against Sporting Lisbon. Real Madrid reached the final for the third time in four years, Juventus for the second time in three years. Real also struggled to make a difference in the following games. As expected, Eibar had no problem with Córdoba and led 3-0 after 33 minutes. The Italian Juventus was in the final for the third time in a row. Juventus played the final of the Champions League for the third time in a row, equaling the record of AC Milan, which was in the final in the first three editions.
The Royals won the first five editions of the European Cup I (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960). After winning the cup for a sixth time in 1966, it took 32 years for the Spanish club to win the prestigious prize again. Although Fiorentina's trainer, Vincenzo Italiano, says that there is no question of underestimation, he is expected to change his line-up in five places compared to the previous game. The greatest success happened in the sixties under the leadership of the Argentinian trainer Helenio Herrera. He became an important pawn in the team of trainer Giovanni Trapattoni. Youth player Edú Exposito was promoted to the first team. Real drew 2-2 twice against Borussia Dortmund and also failed to win in the away match against Legia Warsaw (3-3). Although Real managed to win convincingly against Legia (5-1) at home, it did not collect enough points to finish the group stage as leader.
Juventus became group winner and advanced to the quarterfinals together with Dortmund. In 1962 Real Madrid reached the final of the European Cup I. It then eliminated Juventus in the quarterfinals. For opponent Real Madrid it was since 1981 that it had reached the final of the most important European tournament. The two teams then played each other three times, because the system of extra time and penalty kicks had not yet been introduced. They are in fact exported to other countries at a minimum, because they really do not have a long shelf life. As UEFA does not allow names of companies that are not official sponsors of the tournament, it was decided to change the name for the final to "National Stadium of Wales". Most literature and press releases use the name "Millennium Stadium". The most famous name mentioned in connection with this affair is that of former trainer Paul Put. In 1986/87, the Royals eliminated Juventus in the 1/8 final of the European Cup I. This time, penalties made the decision.
In the final, the defending champion defeated Ajax on penalties. Juventus reached the final of the European Cup I for the first time in 1973. The Old Lady then lost 1-0 to Ajax. Juventus later also won the final against AFC Ajax. When his shot hit the crossbar, the ball bounced over the goal line. In the 86th minute, Brazil were awarded a free kick, which Neymar fired high towards the goal; Silva headed the ball towards the goal from close range, but Ochoa was able to parry the ball. The young attacker kicked the ball from 20 meters behind goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi and thus made himself immortal among the German supporters. Already after a few months, the supporters called for his resignation because of the poor results. No club had lost the final of the champions ball as often (six times) as Juventus. Paulo Sousa, Júlio César da Silva, Andreas Möller, Jurgen Kohler and Stefan Reuter defended the colors of the club from Turin a few years earlier. Never before has a European cup final been held in the stadium. The match took place on May 20, 1998 in the ArenA in Amsterdam. In 2002 he had won the champions ball with the Spanish club and in the final he was voted man of the match.