Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
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The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-largest stadium in Spain and third-largest home to a top-flight European club after Camp Nou and Westfalenstadion.
Named after footballer and legendary Real Madrid president Santiago Bernabéu (1895–1978), the stadium is one of the world’s most famous football venues. It has hosted the final of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League on four occasions: in 1957, 1969, 1980, 2010. The stadium also hosted the second leg of the 2018 Copa Libertadores Finals, making Santiago Bernabéu the first (and only) stadium to host the two most important premier continental cup finals.
The final matches for the 1964 European Nations’ Cup and the 1982 FIFA World Cup were also held at the Bernabéu, making it the first stadium in Europe to host both a UEFA Euro final and a FIFA World Cup final.
On 22 June 1944, the Banco Mercantil e Industrial bank granted credit to Santiago Bernabéu and Rafael Salgado for the purchase of the land adjacent to the old Chamartín Stadium. On 5 September 1944, architects Manuel Muñoz Monasterio and Luis Alemany Soler were hired and the structure on the site began to give way to the new stadium. On 27 October 1944, construction work on the stadium began, which was being built partly on the old site and on the grounds of Villa Ulpiana. In the meantime, Real Madrid played its home games at the Estadio Metropolitano in the 1946–47 season and at the start of the 1947–48 season.
The stadium was inaugurated on 14 December 1947 with a match between Real Madrid and the Portuguese side Os Belenenses. After the preliminaries, at 15:30 referee Pedro Escartín from the Madrid school started the match. Real Madrid striker Sabino Barinaga scored the first goal in the 15th minute with a header. At the end of the match, Barinaga received a recognition pennant. Afterwards, players and managers of both teams celebrated with a dinner. The first official match took place on 28 December 1947 on matchday 12 of La Liga against Atlético de Bilbao, which had been postponed due to the inauguration of the stadium. The match was refereed by José Fombona Fernández from the Asturian school and ended with a 5–1 victory for Los Blancos. The first goal was scored in the 4th minute by Madrid midfielder Chus Alonso after receiving a pass from Barinaga.
The stadium’s official name at the time was Estadio Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, although it continued to be known among fans as Nuevo Estadio Chamartín or simply Chamartín. The stadium had an initial capacity of 75,145 spectators, 27,645 of which had seats and 47,500 for standing fans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago\_Bernab%C3%A9u\_Stadium
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