The 1964–65 European Cup was the tenth season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by Inter Milan for the second time in row, beating 1–0 two-time former champions Benfica in a final at San Siro, Milan, on 27 May 1965.[1] It meant that Italian teams had won three consecutive titles (AC Milan had won it in 1962–63).
During this edition a coin toss was used a record three times to decide winners of the ties after play-off matches ended as draws.
Iceland entered its champion for the first time this season, while Cyprus did not enter this time around.
Teams
A total of 31 teams participated in the competition.
Italy continued to be represented by two clubs, with Inter Milan qualifying as title holders and Bologna as Italian champions. Alongside ever-present Real Madrid were Benfica, Rangers and Dukla Prague appearing in their sixth edition.
All participants were their respective associations champions, except for Inter Milan and Malmö FF. The latter was leading Allsvenskan at the summer break on 1 July 1964, after 11 of 22 matches had been played, but finished second in autumn of 1964.[2]
Similar to previous edition, due to the number of participating teams, only title holders Inter Milan received a bye to the first round. The remaining clubs would play the preliminary round in September and October, apart from one match taking place in August and one play-off in November.
For the first time in the history of European Cup teams in the preliminary round were not divided geographically into pots, which resulted in some teams covering over 4,400 kilometres for their ties (e.g. DWS and Fenerbahçe), while other had shorter trips (e.g. Dukla Prague and Górnik Zabrze – around 600 kilometres).
