spain's marcelino stoops to conquer europe published: thursday 2 october 2003, 9.05cet
pegged back once, spain took the lead for a second time through marcelino's header and this time stayed in front to claim their first major trophy.
on home soil and against holders the soviet union, spain triumphed 2-1 to win the 1964 uefa european football championship and lift the first major trophy in their history.
in front of a boisterous santiago bernabéu crowd which included president franco, the hosts took an early lead through jesús maría pereda. the ussr were soon level courtesy of galimzyan khusainov but spain came good once more, luis suárez again demonstrating his influence by laying on marcelino martínez for the winner.
suárez had become an increasingly instrumental figure for the roja and it was he whose attacking endeavor also helped to create his team's first. all four spanish goals in the tournament were the result of crosses from the right and on this occasion it was suárez who provided a delivery which, having been missed by edouard mudrik, was thumped in by pereda from close range.
that goal marked the start of a happy return to the santiago bernabéu for a player who had left real madrid cf to become a star striker for arch-rivals fc barcelona.
there was immediate deflation for the home crowd, however, when khusainov put the ussr on level terms. while feliciano rivilla, fast and intelligent, had an intriguing duel with the willing khusainov, and albert schesternev enjoyed a real contest with marcelino, the two teams contrived to cancel each other out thereafter.
the ussr rearguard held out capably enough, but the absence of an extra defensive midfielder, alexei korneev, eventually told against them and left valeri voronin lacking creative support. the winner came when suárez sent another pass out to the right, pereda crossed, and marcelino's superb stooping header went low inside the near post. even the great lev yashin, still superb at 34, was just a spectator.
"we really were a good unit," said pereda later. "we had suárez to conduct the orchestra. then we had great players like amancio and marcelino, who was a natural goalscorer. it was a fantastic squad really."
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