The 1961 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final was an association football match played over two legs between Roma of Italy and Birmingham City of England.
[6] In the 1960–61 domestic season, Roma finished fifth in Serie A and lost to eventual winners Fiorentina in the quarter-final of the main national cup competition, the Coppa Italia.
Without both regular right-sided forwards, Alberto Orlando and Francisco Lojacono, and unbalanced further when full-back Alfio Fontana moved to the wing after sustaining an injury.
[11] The technically superior Roma team won the return leg comfortably; they scored three goals in the first half and each side converted a penalty kick in the second.
In Rome, they took advantage of their two-goal lead to play an experimental side, so that manager Alfredo Foni could decide on his lineup for the next league game, an awkward away fixture against Udinese.
Giampaolo Menichelli and the 17-year-old Giancarlo De Sisti replaced the creative Juan Alberto Schiaffino and top scorer Manfredini, and Orlando was tried at centre-forward, with the intention of playing an attacking game.
Despite reports that "his own club officials say he is carrying too much weight and won't train",[17] Lojacono was the creative force as Manfredini scored four times in a 6–0 win.
[20] But Billy Rudd scored with three minutes left, then combined with debutant Ray Barlow in a "walking-pace attack" for Jimmy Singer to clinch the tie with a rising shot.
[21] In Copenhagen, melted snow and rain left standing water on the pitch, and the kickoff had been moved to late afternoon so that the match against KB could be televised.
Young goalkeeper Colin Withers had let in six goals in his first appearance as replacement for Johnny Schofield, who had fractured his skull, but made several saves to keep Birmingham from losing this match.
Harris scored the first goal after 12 minutes, after a speedy passing move between Terry Hennessey and Bloomfield, whom the Daily Express called "the most artistic player on the field".
Inter scored with 15 minutes left when Mario Corso's wayward shot was turned in off Eddie Firmani's chest, and Withers made a fine close-range save near the end to preserve the lead.
[5] The previous week, forward Robin Stubbs had dislocated his shoulder,[28] and during a Football League Cup replay unhelpfully scheduled for the Monday night, 48 hours before the Roma match, England international Trevor Smith had to leave the field with a thigh strain as Birmingham lost to Third Division side Swindon Town.
[29] The 19-year-old Winston Foster, who had previously been used only at right-back, took Smith's place at centre-half,[30] alongside Hennessey and Malcolm Beard in a half-back line composed entirely of teenagers.
Their travelling party arrived on the Monday; they went shopping the next morning, used Birmingham's training ground in the afternoon,[30] and were to attend a banquet in their honour after Wednesday's game.
[35] They doubled their lead a quarter of an hour into the second half, "thanks once more to the brilliant opportunism of Manfredini",[35] whom the Birmingham Mail described as "a splendid centre-forward who acted as a one-man attack for most of the match".
[31] Despite most of the attacking play coming from the home side, they found Cudicini in excellent form, and it was not until the last ten minutes of the match that Mike Hellawell's snap-shot surprised the goalkeeper to make it 2-1.
[36] With just two minutes left of normal time, Harris hit the bar, and in a goalmouth scramble, the ball was forced home by Bryan Orritt – who had fallen out of favour and been on the transfer list for several months – to give Birmingham a late equaliser.
[8][37] The potentially explosive "mixture of Blues' uncompromising tackling and the blocking and pushing of the Italians"[31] was highlighted when Roma's manager reacted to full-back Brian Farmer pulling Menichelli down by running onto the pitch to protest.
[44] After ten minutes, manager Carniglia ran 60 yards (55 m) onto the pitch to confront Birmingham captain Bloomfield, who was bending over an injured Roma player.
Menichelli was carried off injured after an incident with Brian Farmer, Lojacono raised his hands to the referee, who took no action, and the game reached the interval still goalless, which La Stampa thought a fair reflection of the half.
[47] Although the Birmingham team – nicknamed the "Brummie bashers" in the tabloid press – had a reputation for physicality, the Daily Mirror expressed amazement at their self-control "as the Italians used every trick of body checking and obstruction to make things run their way".
[44] Birmingham rallied for a short period after the goal, and Orritt and Singer each "missed the sort of chances that cannot be ignored in cup games",[46] before Roma regained control.