60 years since Puskás set the European Cup final scoring record

May 18th, 1960, was a seminal day in European Cup history, for it was Real Madrid's crowning moment as one of football's greatest ever club teams, their dominant 7-3 victory over German champions Eintracht Frankfurt stunning the football world and delighting the 127,621 supporters present in Scotland's national stadium that afternoon.

It was also one of Ferenc Puskás' finest performances, Hungary's Magical Magyar having left his homeland after the 1956 Uprising and having eventually signed a contract with Spanish giants Real in 1958. He'd been inexplicably left out of Real's 1959 triumph over Stade Riems, a decision which cost coach Luis Carniglia his job, but there was no fear he'd be absent for his club's fifth final in a row, and after teammate and friend Alfredo Di Stéfano had wiped out an early deficit to put Real 2-1 up, Puskás wreaked devastation on the German defence, scoring the match's next four goals to put the result beyond reasonable doubt.

His first was a trademark left-foot thunderbolt from a tight angle on the left side of the Eintracht penalty area in first-half added time. For his second, the former Kispest and Hungary captain sent German goalkeeper Egon Loy the wrong way from the penalty spot in the 56th minute and on the hour mark, the 1954 FIFA World Cup finalist sealed his hat-trick with a close-range header from Francisco Gento's left-wing cross. In the 71st minute, a virtuoso individual display became a historic one, his exquisite turn and drive into the top-left corner of the Eintracht net from 13 metres meaning Puskás had scored four goals, a record which even 60 years later is unmatched by anyone, even despite several attempts by all-time great goalscorers such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
 
Following Puskás's torrent of goals Di Stéfano added a seventh (thereby competing his own hat-trick) to wrap a sensational fifth European Cup for the 'Team of the Spanish King', but it was Hungary's greatest ever international goalscorer (84 goals in 85 games between 1945 and 1956) - already aged 33 years - who would take the headlines, having produced the single greatest goalscoring performance in a European Cup final.