Atletico Madrid come close to record European win but result against Irish club remains top

Atletico Madrid scored four second-half goals to claim a 6-0 win over Sparta Prague on Tuesday night - to equal their second biggest ever win in Europe.

But their highest margin of victory remains an 8-0 trouncing of a League of Ireland opposition way back in their first ever game of their maiden European campaign in 1958.

They were drawn against Drumcondra in the fourth season of the European Cup and won their preliminary round tie 13-1 on aggregate.

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Atletico, fielding a team of superstars, including Spanish and Brazilian internationals, opened up with an 8-0 win in the first-leg at home, with two goals each from Joaquin Peiro, Vava, Enrique Collar and Jorge Mendonca.

Christopher Fullam scored for Drums in the second-leg, but they were already 11-0 down on aggregate by that stage. Peiro added two more, while Collar and Brazil international Vava also found the net in front of over 20,000 fans at Dalymount Park.

Since then, Atletico have only come close to matching that scoreline on two occasions.

The most recent was on Tuesday night against Sparta, when Julian Alvarez and sub Angel Correa both scored twice, in addition to goals by Marcos Llorente and Antoine Griezmann.

And last season they thumped Celtic by the same scoreline in the Champions League group stages, with Griezmann also on the scoresheet on that occasion.

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Atletico Madrid got as far as the semi-finals in the 1958/59 season, after their win over Drumcondra, but were beaten by neighbours Real Madrid on penalties, after drawing 2-2 on aggregate.

Just like the Sparta game, Atletico were two-up at half-time against Drumcondra, before scoring six more after half-time.

Drums boss Lar O’Byrne’s starting-11 in Spain was: Maurice Swan, Dermot Cross, Christopher Fullam, Tommy Rowe, Sean Smyth, John Wade, John Campbell, Willie Coleman, Michael White, Brendan Healey and Kit Lawlor.

In an RTÉ Radio interview on September 29, 1958, between the first and second legs, legendary broadcaster Philip Greene spoke with members of Atletico’s ‘management council’, as well as a Drumcondra official.

You can hear the broadcast here, including a brief chat about Atletico’s £80,000 (€1.8m in today’s money) signing Vava.

“£80,000 would go a long way in Irish football,” said Drums director Bob Prole in the interview. “I’d say we learned a lot in Spain. We were playing under conditions that were against us, the heat, but it was a good game.

“At half-time, 2-0, we thought we would have had out in the second-half, but for a continental side, they played continental football but they could shoot.”

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