Babes Qualify For European Cup Semi-Final!5 February 1958, 22:48 Manchester United have reached the semi-final stage of the European Cup for the second successive year, but almost contrived to lose a four-goal aggregate lead in the process.
As at Highbury on Saturday, United seemed to have the game won easily by half-time, but had obviously learned little from their London experience, as they again allowed an apparently beaten team to stage an unlikely comeback.  United line up before the European Cup quarter final in Belgrade. United took a 2-1 lead into the second leg, and made a perfect start on a hard pitch that still bore traces of melting snow in the warm Yugoslavian sunshine. In just the second minute, Dennis Violett, taking advantage of a lucky rebound, fired past Beara in the Red Star goal. It could easily have been 2-0 fourteen minutes later, as Albert Scanlon's corner was flicked on by Violett and Bobby Charlton smacked it home. But the referee, Karl Kaiser from Austria disallowed it, apparently for off-side. It wasn't the first time the referee had blown his whistle, nor would it be the last. In fact, the first half was largely spoiled by the stop-start pattern of the play, in which the officials frequently gave fouls against United's players for challenges that would have been considered fair in England. At one point Duncan Edwards was cautioned for overzealous complaining to the referee. But United were clearly the superior side, with Tommy Taylor leading the line well and Harry Gregg's handling reliable at the other end, and Charlton soon made amends for the disallowed goal with a marvellous effort. Dispossessing Kostic forty yards out, he ran just ten yards before unleashing an unstoppable shot. Despite his reputation as the finest 'keeper in Europe, Beara had no chance. And Charlton wasn't yet finished. Two minutes later a United free-kick got the Red Star defence in a muddle, from which Edwards uncharacteristically miscued a good chance. Fortunately the ball rolled to Charlton, who struck a fine shot through a forest of Yugoslav legs to make it 3-0, and to give United a comfortable four-goal cushion. At this point Red Star looked demoralised, especially the highly-rated Sekularac. After a promising start, the inside-right clearly lost heart, and he frequently wasted possession. But their manager did his job at half-time, perhaps reminding his players how United had let a similar lead slip to less illustrious opponents only a few days before, and the home side came out for the second half very much fired up; Kosic pulled one back just two minutes into the half. Three minutes later the revitalised Sekularac set up Kosic whose shot only cleared the bar by a matter of a few inches. And five minutes after that came the incident which almost changed the match and which could have been the rock on which United's European hopes floundered. Bill Foulkes tangled with Tasic in the United penalty area, and the two tumbled to the ground, Foulkes landing on top of Tasic. Though Foulkes later claimed that the centre-forward had pulled him down, the home supporters clearly didn't agree, and neither did Herr Kaiser. Tasic got up to take the penalty, which Gregg did well to get his fingertips to but couldn't keep out. So now it was 3-2 on the night, 5-3 on aggregate, and the home supporters, who up to this point had been somewhat miserable, realised that their team might yet get something out of the game. Red Star streamed forward, their each touch cheered, whilst every United touch was received with shrill whistling from the terraces. Cokic should have scored when he found himself in front of goal with Gregg hurt and helpless on the ground, but somehow managed to miss. Even United's forward line was pressed into defensive service, with their forays upfield restricted to the occasional counter-attack. But United still occasionally looked dangerous, and on one breakaway Kenny Morgans was unfortunate to see his shot strike the post. Just as time was nearly up and it seemed United would escape without conceding again, Gregg made something of an error of judgement coming to the very edge of his area to intercept Tasic, and managed to carry the ball outside the area. Somewhat fortuitously for Red Star, Kostic's free-kick was deflected off Viollet and past Gregg. There were just three minutes left at this point, but United managed to hold on. If they thought the barrage was over at the final whistle, however, they were mistaken; the home crowd pelted them with snowballs as they left the field. United now wait to see who they will play in the semi-finals. The other clubs to have reached this stage of the competition are Vasas Budapest of Hungary, Italian champions AC Milan, and the current European champions Real Madrid of Spain. Red Star Belgrade: Beara; Tomic, Zekovic; Mitic, Spajic, Popovic; Borozan, Sekularac, Tasic, Kostic, Cokic. Manchester United: Gregg; Foulkes, Byrne; Colman, Jones, Edwards; Morgans, Charlton, Taylor, Viollet, Scanlon.
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