european cup 1963/64
pre-season favorites: milano vs iberian peninsula
for the first time ever, there were three big favorites at the beginning of a season. the champions of spain and portugal, real madrid and benfica, were the top two clubs in europe at the time. while real was trying the win the trophy back they had won every year until 1960, benfica was attempting to make the final for the fourth year in a row. this time, the italian title holders ac milan were top favorites, too, though; and with them, italian champions internazionale were considered serious contenders. behind these four clubs, there were some other hopefuls: rangers fc and dukla praha most of all, representing northern and eastern europe. from the top 30, the following should also be mentioned: partizan (12th), fk austria (14th), standard liege (22nd), ferencvaros (25th), galatasaray (26th), and english champions everton (27th).
preliminary round: bad luck in the draw for the blue brits
two top 10s in the first round!
tough luck for the brits: everton faced internazionale in their first ever european cup experience - and failed to score a single goal. the italians did one better, with brazilian jair scoring the winner in the san siro 2nd leg after a 0-0 in liverpool. the english champions were out!
the other brits, rangers fc, had to play real madrid. over 80,000 saw glasgow lose 0-1 at home, and puskás scored thrice to make it 6-0 in the bernabeu, filled with 90,000 people. both blue british champions were now out.
the first minor tournament upset was austria wien falling to gornik zabrze. the poles put 90,000 in a stadium in churzow and managed to beat austria 1-0, and the favored purples only managed a 1-0 at home, losing the playoff match at home only a week later.
galatasaray, semifinalist earlier in the year, beat ferencvaros 4-0 in the match up between two top 30s, while the biggest upset ocurred in sweden, when norrköping overcame a 0-1 1st leg deficit to eliminate strong belgian club standard liege.
the other brits, rangers fc, had to play real madrid. over 80,000 saw glasgow lose 0-1 at home, and puskás scored thrice to make it 6-0 in the bernabeu, filled with 90,000 people. both blue british champions were now out.
the first minor tournament upset was austria wien falling to gornik zabrze. the poles put 90,000 in a stadium in churzow and managed to beat austria 1-0, and the favored purples only managed a 1-0 at home, losing the playoff match at home only a week later.
galatasaray, semifinalist earlier in the year, beat ferencvaros 4-0 in the match up between two top 30s, while the biggest upset ocurred in sweden, when norrköping overcame a 0-1 1st leg deficit to eliminate strong belgian club standard liege.
round of 16: benfica eat red dirt
dortmund ready to play benfica in the "stadium red earth"
what a surprise! benfica's run for a fourth consecutive final came to an abrupt end in the stadion rote erde, dortmund. 41,000 gathered to see one of the tournament favorites and couldn't beliebe there eyes: franz brungs had the day of his life, scoring three times and helping borussia dortmund to a surpise 5-0 victory over the portuguese champions, eliminating one of the top contenders emphatically.
dukla praha were having another strong season, eliminating gornik zabrze to cement their role as eastern europe's best bet. inter continued their business by eliminating french champions monaco, while fc zürich overcame galatasaray through a coin toss after an aggregate 4-4 in 270 minutes.
in all the other games, the favorites made it through to what promised to be an interesting quarterfinal field. defending champions milan, real madrid and inter were still in, with borussia dortmund taking benfica's place. partizan and dukla, the pre-tournament best eastern clubs, also made it, as did psv eindhoven, demonstrating that the feyenoord run was no fluke and that the netherlands were starting to become a force to be reckoned with. zürich was the outside, but swiss football had some tradition at that point in time.
dukla praha were having another strong season, eliminating gornik zabrze to cement their role as eastern europe's best bet. inter continued their business by eliminating french champions monaco, while fc zürich overcame galatasaray through a coin toss after an aggregate 4-4 in 270 minutes.
in all the other games, the favorites made it through to what promised to be an interesting quarterfinal field. defending champions milan, real madrid and inter were still in, with borussia dortmund taking benfica's place. partizan and dukla, the pre-tournament best eastern clubs, also made it, as did psv eindhoven, demonstrating that the feyenoord run was no fluke and that the netherlands were starting to become a force to be reckoned with. zürich was the outside, but swiss football had some tradition at that point in time.
quarterfinals: puskás & di stefano still kickin' it
puskás vs ac milan
the draw was surprising: the dream finale milan x real madrid would have to take place two rounds too early, and the winner of these matches would surely be tipped as the coming champions. after suffering through three years without winning, real really wanted it a lot - and 100,000 saw them beat the defending champions 4-1. puskás scored the second goal, di stefano the third - these two had been playing and winning for real for such a long time now! alfredo was playing his 11th season in madrid, now at age 37, and ferenc had arrived in 1958 and was now 36 years old. milan did manage a 2-0 win at home, but it was not enough. with that, milan became the second ever european cup winner to not reach the final in the following season, after real madrid in 1960/61.
it was the end of the road for the two eastern european clubs, who both lost their first leg home matches. partizan had no chance against internazionale, who now emerged as only threat to real's sixth title, while borussia dortmund managed an impressive 4-0 in prague. after going into an early lead at home, bvb felt qualified and still lost 1-3, but it was enough to make the semis.
another german-speaking club made it there by surprisingly beating psv eindhoven - fc zürich overcame a 0-1 in holland to make it 3-1 at home. it was the first swiss presence in a european cup semifinal since young boys bern four years earlier.
it was the end of the road for the two eastern european clubs, who both lost their first leg home matches. partizan had no chance against internazionale, who now emerged as only threat to real's sixth title, while borussia dortmund managed an impressive 4-0 in prague. after going into an early lead at home, bvb felt qualified and still lost 1-3, but it was enough to make the semis.
another german-speaking club made it there by surprisingly beating psv eindhoven - fc zürich overcame a 0-1 in holland to make it 3-1 at home. it was the first swiss presence in a european cup semifinal since young boys bern four years earlier.
semifinals: favorites beat german speakers
bvb vs inter
fc zurich had no chance. when 110,000 fans said goodbye to their heroes in the bernabeu (since the final wouldn't be at home), real scored 6 goals just to make sure, even after winning in zürich. di stefano and puskás scored twice each, once per match, and had no trouble with the swiss champions.
dortmund gave inter more work. once again with a packed stadium (around 42,000), brungs scored twice to respond to mazzola's early goal, but inter tied the match before half time. at the end, the 2-2 in dortmund would be enough, since mazzola and jair brought it home in the san siro, in front of 77,000.
that match had a sting to it, though, as the referee tesanic made decision after decision in favor of the home team. he was later banned for life for accepting a bribe in this match, which gave inter's final appearance a sower taste.
enthusiasm had reached its high point for inter fans; 60,000 had seen them eliminate everton, only 15,000 wanted to witness the victory over monaco, that doubled to more than 30,000 against partizan.
as for borussia dortmund, they had now made a name for themselves in europe. most of all striker franz brungs.
so it was real and inter, off the wien. two of the four main pre-tournament favorites, with real as the clear favorite. for two reasons: history and their campaign, eliminating the likes of rangers fc and ac milan.
dortmund gave inter more work. once again with a packed stadium (around 42,000), brungs scored twice to respond to mazzola's early goal, but inter tied the match before half time. at the end, the 2-2 in dortmund would be enough, since mazzola and jair brought it home in the san siro, in front of 77,000.
that match had a sting to it, though, as the referee tesanic made decision after decision in favor of the home team. he was later banned for life for accepting a bribe in this match, which gave inter's final appearance a sower taste.
enthusiasm had reached its high point for inter fans; 60,000 had seen them eliminate everton, only 15,000 wanted to witness the victory over monaco, that doubled to more than 30,000 against partizan.
as for borussia dortmund, they had now made a name for themselves in europe. most of all striker franz brungs.
so it was real and inter, off the wien. two of the four main pre-tournament favorites, with real as the clear favorite. for two reasons: history and their campaign, eliminating the likes of rangers fc and ac milan.
the final: the trophy stays in milano!
real madrid had reached their 7th european cup final in nine seasons. with this incredible record, they were heavily favored to take it again, but helenio herrera's men were prepared to fight. herrera had coached barcelona to some considerable domestic success in the late 50s and knew the real team very well. and the argentinian coach made the right choices to beat his rival miguel munoz in this historical final, which is remembered mostly by sandro mazzola's brilliant performance an two goals. inter's number eight only ever played for that club and was only 21 at the time of the final. he scored late in the first half. then striker milani made it 2-0 after an hour. real came back with felo, until mazzola ended speculation with his third goal, a quarter hour from time.
one year after italy's first european cup win via ac milan, local rivals internazionale brought the cup home. would these be first signs of spanish football domination being passed on to italy?
below, you can see left back giacinto facchetti talk briefly about that night.
one year after italy's first european cup win via ac milan, local rivals internazionale brought the cup home. would these be first signs of spanish football domination being passed on to italy?
below, you can see left back giacinto facchetti talk briefly about that night.