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The 1985 European Cup Final was a football (soccer) match played between the clubs Liverpool FC of England and Juventus FC of Italy at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium on May 29, 1985.
The match was overshadowed by the disaster which took place about an hour before kick off, when Liverpool supporters charged at Juventus supporters, causing a huge crush of people against a stadium wall which subsequently collapsed. 39 people were killed and hundreds injured.
It was decided that the match should be played, as it was felt that abandoning it could cause further trouble.
[edit] Match Summary
Europe looked forward to the ‘Dream Final’ in Brussels between the two teams that had dominated the 1984/85 competition from the start. Juventus had the big stars but they had lost two European Cup finals before and had nearly cracked under Bordeaux pressure in the semi-final. Liverpool had endured a disappointing domestic season and were considered to be less impressive than they had been in previous seasons, but they had plenty of European Cup experience and had shown a year earlier how they could win a European Cup final against the odds.
Tragically, the game was a mere footnote to the horror that was the Heysel Stadium disaster . 39 innocent Juventus supporters were killed when Liverpool followers charged a section of Juventus fans. The Italian supporters rushed to the corner of their section to get away from the violence and a crush ensued which resulted in a wall collapsing. Controversially the game went ahead - almost an hour and a half late - in an attempt to stop further violence occurring. There are differing accounts concerning whether the players were aware of the full horror that had occurred in the stadium that evening, but most people regarded the match itself as an irrelevance. For the record, after an hour Boniek was brought down by Gary Gillespie and, although the foul seemed to be outside the penalty area, the referee pointed the spot and Platini scored from the resulting penalty. Juventus won 1-0 and lifted the European Cup for the first time, but they could not have done so in more tragic circumstances.
[edit] Match Details
Attendance: 59,000
Referee: 
André Daina
[edit] See also
Juventus FC
Liverpool FC
