West Ham United celebrates its 125th anniversary today, 29 June – and as part of our celebrations we're counting down to the date with the Club’s #50GreatestMatches – brought to you by Monster Energy!
Since the Hammers were formed as Thames Ironworks FC in 1895, we have played in excess of 5,500 matches – reaching five FA Cup finals and one women's FA Cup final, lifted European silverware and competed across the globe and enjoyed thousands of memorable moments.
With your help and recommendations, we've whittled down that list of 5,500 matches to a top 50, featuring landmark goals, trophies held aloft, heroic individual performances and remarkable collective efforts.
We complete the #50GreatestMatches countdown with the biggest achievement in the Club's 125-year history...
Twelve months on from lifting the FA Cup, West Ham United were back under the Twin Towers of Wembley Stadium for the European Cup Winners’ Cup final on Wednesday 19 May 1965.
Ron Greenwood's Irons had beaten La Gantoise of Belgium, Spartak Prague of Czechoslovakia, Lausanne of Switzerland and Spanish Cup holders Real Zaragoza to reach their first-ever European final.
Of all England's storied clubs, only Tottenham Hotspur, who had defeated Atletico Madrid to win the same tournament two years earlier, had lifted a European trophy.
The Irons were chasing their own place in history, but their task would not be a simple one.
The Hammers' opponents were the West German Cup winners TSV Munich 1860, a fine side who had defeated US Luxembourg, FC Porto, Legia Warsaw of Poland and Torino of Italy.
As so seldom happens in the pressured atmosphere of a final, both teams produced their best, sending the capacity 100,000 crowd home drooling over their collective skill and endeavour.
Described as a ‘magnificent game’ that was a ‘triumph for West Ham and a triumph for the game of football’, the showpiece was marked by 90 minutes of ‘bold and imaginative’ play by both sets of players.
Greenwood’s men, in particular, were irresistible.
The Londoners created chance after chance. John Sissons missed an open goal, then hit the post. Geoff Hurst was twice denied by splendid saves from goalkeeper Petar Radenkovi?.
At the other end, Jim Standen was also called into action, saving acrobatically from Peter Grosser and Hans Kuppers.
West Ham were the better side, however, and their superiority was rewarded twice in the space of three second-half minutes.
Alan Sealey scored both, the first from Ronnie Boyce’s pass and the second after Martin Peters knocked Bobby Moore’s pass into his path four yards from goal.
A little more than 20 minutes later and Moore was climbing the famous Wembley steps for the second time to raise a trophy for his team.
Twelve months later, he would do so again, but that is another story altogether…
