Found a great article on the subject:
Time When Real Madrid Were Our True Friends
On a spring day in 1956, the manager of Manchester United travelled to Spain with the aim of watching a game of football involving Real Madrid and what Matt Busby saw that day in the Spanish capital would shape the future of English football.
These were the days before English involvement in the newly-established European Cup competition, a stance that dismayed and frustrated Busby, a pioneering visionary whose attitude had always been that ‘challenges should be met, not avoided.'
On his return to Old Trafford, Busby could not contain his excitement and enthusiasm. Relaying his experience in Madrid, he told the United players: ‘Boys,' he said, ‘they're playing a different game over there on the continent. We've got to get involved.'
Twelve years later, on a balmy spring night at Wembley Stadium, Busby finally fulfilled the lofty ambition that had cemented in his mind during that mid-season trip to Spain. Under his leadership, Manchester United had indeed ‘got involved'. By defeating Benfica 4-1 at Wembley in 1968, they had installed themselves as champions of Europe.
The story of the club's ascent was both poignant and remarkable, interrupted as it was by the trauma of the Munich air crash in 1958. And the name of Real Madrid, the team that so impressed Busby two years earlier, would crop up time and time again along the way.
When Manchester United were crowned champions in 1955-56, it offered the ambitious Busby an opportunity. Defying an edict issued by the football authorities, the Scot persuaded the directors at Old Trafford to accept the invitation to participate in the European Cup the following season.
Their first, ground-breaking campaign, the first by an English club, ended at the semi-final stage, when Busby's youngsters crashed against the juggernaut of Real Madrid, the Cup holders, average age 28, whose ranks included Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo di Stefano. The ‘Busby Babes', average age 21, lost 5-3 on aggregate. Afterwards, the Manchester United manager told reporters: ‘It was a contest between two great teams – a mature side and a young side, and, of course, experience told. But our time will come.'
Then, the following February, when Manchester was plunged into mourning following the fatal crash in Munich, Real unhesitatingly held out the hand of friendship, as Busby would later recall: ‘As the city grieved, one or two things were comforting. Real Madrid offered us all a free holiday in Spain, to help us recover. I think one or two of the fellows took them up on this.'
Part of the post-Munich recovery strategy devised by Busby was to keep the club, however weakened it had been by the loss of life, in the limelight. Though unable to earn entry into the European Cup, a competition then restricted to national champions, Busby arranged to play a number of high-profile friendlies. The opposition? Real Madrid, of course.
At the time Real Madrid commanded a £12,000 fee for friendly, an enormous sum at the time. ‘I said the crash had ruined us financially as well as physically,' Busby recalled. ‘Real came at less than half price.' The match was played at a packed Old Trafford. ‘They walloped us 6-1,' Busby wrote. ‘In doing so, they confirmed what I knew – that we had a long, long way to go to close the gap.'
Gradually, over the years that followed, United did just that. After one near miss in 1965-66, when they lost in the semi-finals of the European Cup, United qualified for another crack at Europe's greatest prize two seasons later. And who should they be drawn against at the semi-final stage? It was Real Madrid again. Bobby Charlton takes up the story. ‘We beat them 1-0 at Old Trafford, but when we went to back to Spain we were 3-1 down at half-time. The world seemed to be collapsing around us. But English teams always keep going and somehow we got back to 3-3 to reach the final. That was the most dramatic game I ever played in.'
The game had turned on the intervention of Busby during the interval, as striker Brian Kidd recalled: ‘Sir Matt was fabulous that night. I never saw him lose his cool in the dressing room. He never swore. Matt cooled everything down. There was this impressive calmness abut him. He wasn't panicking, so why should we?'
Tactically, Busby made significant change, instructing David Sadler to forget his defensive duties and pile forward. ‘That might surprise them,' Busby said. And so it proved, with Sadler popping up with the vital goal that levelled the scores on aggregate.
In the final at Wembley, Manchester United defeated Benfica 4-1 after extra-time, a result that left Busby in tears. ‘The players have done us all proud,' he told reporters. ‘After Munich, they came back with all their hearts to show everyone what Manchester United are made of. This is the most wonderful thing that has happened in my life, and I am the proudest man in England. The European Cup has been the ambition of everyone at the club, and now we have it, at last.'
It was a time when Manchester United had a relationship with Real Madrid,one borne out of true respect for one another.Back then it was unheard of to arrange holidays for an entire team,it was impossible to hold friendlies with the big european teams as well,mainly because of the exorbitant fees required to manage the whole affair.
The friendlies and the holidays were a true show of friendship.There was also a noble gesture from Ferenc Puskas,as he offered to play for United,funnily enough he still needed the wages which was impossible to produce with the team in shambles.There was also a gesture on part of Madrid,as they offered to give the great Alfredo Di Stefano to us on loan for a season.
Those were the days of a classy Madrid.One that would make any Blanco fan proud to support his or her team.
Real Madrid was Honour, Dignity, Class and a fantastic football side.
Shame how low theyve sunk since those days