european cup 1964/65
pre-season favorites: still milano against iberian peninsula
same old here: after two years of trophies being brought back to the city of milan, there would be three clear favorites, the top three in the current ranking: defending champions internazionale, two-time champions benfica and five-time champions real madrid! some other clubs were hopeful, though. dukla praha seemed the best bet to put an eastern europe club into the final, ranked 7th at the time. german champions köln and italian champions bologna would also hope to make the quarterfinals or the semis, while red star belgrade were determined to do well after their double in yugoslavia. the other top 30 were rapid wien. but none of those really were hopeful of winning - that seemed to be a done deal between real madrid, benfica and inter.
preliminary round: fc bologna eliminated!
the big matchup in this round was an exciting clash between rangers fc and red star belgrade. while the blues won 3-1 at home, they suffered a 2-4 defeat in the yugoslavian capital. a playoff decided it for the scots, who advanced to the round of 16.
a major upset was anderlecht defeating italian champions bologna. here, a playoff didn't decide the tie, and a coin toss sealed the deal for the belgian champions.
it is worth mentioning dukla praha suffering to eliminate polish champions gornik zabrze with a coin toss after a goalless playoff. dukla had won the home match 4-1, but suffered a surprise defeat in poland, 0-3. and swiss champions la chaux-de-fonds were able to eliminate french rivals as saint-étienne.
a major upset was anderlecht defeating italian champions bologna. here, a playoff didn't decide the tie, and a coin toss sealed the deal for the belgian champions.
it is worth mentioning dukla praha suffering to eliminate polish champions gornik zabrze with a coin toss after a goalless playoff. dukla had won the home match 4-1, but suffered a surprise defeat in poland, 0-3. and swiss champions la chaux-de-fonds were able to eliminate french rivals as saint-étienne.
round of 16: liverpool reach quarterfinals
anderlecht's run came to an end at the hands of liverpool, who were hoping to pick up some momentum for the rest of the tournament and did so by beating the belgians 3-0 at home and 1-0 away. in their first european cup season, that was a nice achievement.
inter showed their strength, as the defending champions played their first match in the season by thrashing dinamo bucharest 6-0, easily making it to the quarterfinals. rangers had another tough draw but didn't need a playoff to eliminate rapid wien, while benfica made it 16 goals in 4 matches while eliminating the swiss champions from la chaux-de-fonds.
the biggest matchup, though, was the top ten clash between number one real madrid and number seven dukla praha. real decided it at home, with a clear 4-0 at home, three goals by amancio amaro. in total, that meant 15 goals in 4 matches, one less than benfica.
inter showed their strength, as the defending champions played their first match in the season by thrashing dinamo bucharest 6-0, easily making it to the quarterfinals. rangers had another tough draw but didn't need a playoff to eliminate rapid wien, while benfica made it 16 goals in 4 matches while eliminating the swiss champions from la chaux-de-fonds.
the biggest matchup, though, was the top ten clash between number one real madrid and number seven dukla praha. real decided it at home, with a clear 4-0 at home, three goals by amancio amaro. in total, that meant 15 goals in 4 matches, one less than benfica.
quarterfinals: eusébio sinks real madrid
famous coin toss between germans and englishmen
what a tragic development for 1.fc köln. after a 0-0 in müngersdorf and a 0-0 at anfield, a playoff match finally provided some goals - but no winner! after the 2-2, a coin toss once again had to decide, in a time with no penalty shootouts. the reds won it, and liverpool reached the semis in their first ever european competition, while köln failed to do so for the second time after 1963.
vasas eto györ slipped through to the semis after beating dutch champions dws - both had kind of found their way to the quarters and drew each other, and the hungarians managed the deciding goal three minutes from time march ten.
defending champions inter had to face the rangers, who had only played tough opposition up to then. and this one was too tough - the scots lost 1-3 in the san siro after a 0-0 in the first half. in 3 minutes, inter went up 3-0, and jim forrest's goal at least have rangers a shot at home. forrest indeed scored early in the second match, but that was the only goal of the match - inter had made their second semifinal is as many attempts and were looking to defend their title.
but they were definetily second favorite to whoever would win the benfica x real matchup. with their good old starting line up, benfica managed one of their most historic wins - 5-1 at home, with two goals by eusébio. puskás scored last in the two matches, but eusebio had equalized an early real madrid lea. benfica were through with certain ease and were now favorites to win their third european cup, while real were starting to fear the portuguese club who had took the title away from them in the first place in 1961 and then beat them in the 1962 final.
vasas eto györ slipped through to the semis after beating dutch champions dws - both had kind of found their way to the quarters and drew each other, and the hungarians managed the deciding goal three minutes from time march ten.
defending champions inter had to face the rangers, who had only played tough opposition up to then. and this one was too tough - the scots lost 1-3 in the san siro after a 0-0 in the first half. in 3 minutes, inter went up 3-0, and jim forrest's goal at least have rangers a shot at home. forrest indeed scored early in the second match, but that was the only goal of the match - inter had made their second semifinal is as many attempts and were looking to defend their title.
but they were definetily second favorite to whoever would win the benfica x real matchup. with their good old starting line up, benfica managed one of their most historic wins - 5-1 at home, with two goals by eusébio. puskás scored last in the two matches, but eusebio had equalized an early real madrid lea. benfica were through with certain ease and were now favorites to win their third european cup, while real were starting to fear the portuguese club who had took the title away from them in the first place in 1961 and then beat them in the 1962 final.
semifinals: inter comeback
robert hunt scoring liverpool's first against inter
so who would avoid a big name playing eto györ in the semifinal? it would be benfica, who in a way made up for the fact that they had to play real madrid. josé augusto scored the goal in hungary, and eusébio scored two of four at home - it was no contest, and the favorites were in the final.
the other matchup promised to be more balanced, although inter were clear favorites against lucky liverpool. but even with sandro mazzola equalizing an early liverpool lead didn't give inter more stability, and the english ran away with a 3-1 win. this was looking promising for the reds!
but the champions were able to revert it, scoring two goals in the first ten minutes to equalize the aggregate score. it was giancinto facchetti who decided it with his second half goal, and liverpool were unable to come back in the san siro filled with 77,000 people mid may.
so the final was to be between two of the three favorites, the third being eliminated by one of them. no surprises this champions cup season, and once again a great final between two great teams of the time.
the other matchup promised to be more balanced, although inter were clear favorites against lucky liverpool. but even with sandro mazzola equalizing an early liverpool lead didn't give inter more stability, and the english ran away with a 3-1 win. this was looking promising for the reds!
but the champions were able to revert it, scoring two goals in the first ten minutes to equalize the aggregate score. it was giancinto facchetti who decided it with his second half goal, and liverpool were unable to come back in the san siro filled with 77,000 people mid may.
so the final was to be between two of the three favorites, the third being eliminated by one of them. no surprises this champions cup season, and once again a great final between two great teams of the time.
final: inter defend their title at home
sportsmanship before the match
may 27, 1965. san siro stadium. favorites benfica had their advantage cut by having to play in the opponent's turf.
internazionale showed their international colors: they were playing with 8 italians, but two spaniards, a brazilian and an argentinian also had key roles. joaquin peiró had won titles with atlético madrid, and luiz suarez was an important forward for fc barcelona when they were still winning titles. jair, coming from portuguesa three years earlier, was the brazilian, and of course helenio herrera, the argentinian coach who had the successful barcelona side suarez had played for.
benfica had eleven portuguese players, including their stars josé augusto, josé torres and eusébio, but their coach came from romania. elek schwartz had coached the dutch national team for many years before joining sl benfica. would he be able to break bellá gutmann's curse? the hungarian coach, sacked after winning two european cups with benfica, had said that the club would never win it again - and since then, they had come close, but lost at the end. this was benfica's fourth european cup final in five seasons - would it be their third win?
to make it short: no! jair scored close to the end of the 1st half, and benfica weren't able to score for the first time that season; helenio herrera's defensive tactic bore fruits, and internazionale now tied benfica's tally with two titles.
so after 10 full seasons of european cups, only three cities had celebrated: milano, madrid and lisbon. and for the third year in a row, the cup went back to milano.
a few questions arose. was italy now challenging spain for the supremacy in europe? would inter make it three in a row next season? and was real madrid's spirit now finally broken?
i'll answer one. it would take inter a long time to win the european cup again...
internazionale showed their international colors: they were playing with 8 italians, but two spaniards, a brazilian and an argentinian also had key roles. joaquin peiró had won titles with atlético madrid, and luiz suarez was an important forward for fc barcelona when they were still winning titles. jair, coming from portuguesa three years earlier, was the brazilian, and of course helenio herrera, the argentinian coach who had the successful barcelona side suarez had played for.
benfica had eleven portuguese players, including their stars josé augusto, josé torres and eusébio, but their coach came from romania. elek schwartz had coached the dutch national team for many years before joining sl benfica. would he be able to break bellá gutmann's curse? the hungarian coach, sacked after winning two european cups with benfica, had said that the club would never win it again - and since then, they had come close, but lost at the end. this was benfica's fourth european cup final in five seasons - would it be their third win?
to make it short: no! jair scored close to the end of the 1st half, and benfica weren't able to score for the first time that season; helenio herrera's defensive tactic bore fruits, and internazionale now tied benfica's tally with two titles.
so after 10 full seasons of european cups, only three cities had celebrated: milano, madrid and lisbon. and for the third year in a row, the cup went back to milano.
a few questions arose. was italy now challenging spain for the supremacy in europe? would inter make it three in a row next season? and was real madrid's spirit now finally broken?
i'll answer one. it would take inter a long time to win the european cup again...