The 1965–66 European Cup was the 11th season of the European Cup,

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

's premier club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament. The competition was won by

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, winners of the first five European Cups from 1956 to 1960, who beat Partizan 2–1 in a close

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

at Heysel Stadium in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

on 11 May 1966.

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

were the defending champions, but were eliminated by eventual winners Real Madrid in the semi-finals. No new association entered its representative, which happened only for the second time after 1959–60 edition. However, Cyprus returned to the competition after their inaugural 1963–64 season. In the preliminary round, Benfica recorded highest aggregate win in the history of the European Cup by beating

Stade Dudelange Stade Dudelange was a football club from Dudelange, in southern Luxembourg. It is now a part of F91 Dudelange, which was formed by the merger of Stade, Alliance Dudelange, and US Dudelange in 1991. Stade was one of the country's most successf ...

18–0 (8–0 away, 10–0 at home).

Teams

A total of 31 teams participated in the competition. For the first time since inaugural edition all associations were represented by only one team. 17 Nëntori,

LASK Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as LASK (), or Linzer ASK, is an Austrian professional football club based in Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Football Bundes ...

, Levski Sofia, APOEL, Sparta Prague, HJK,

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, Keflavík, Derry City, Kilmarnock, Lausanne-Sports, and Werder Bremen made their debut in the competition. Djurgårdens IF made their first appearance since the inaugural 1955–56 tournament, while

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

and Stade Dudelange returned to the competition after seven years. All participants were their respective associations champions, except for Lyn. They were leading 1. divisjon at the summer break on 1 July 1965, after 9 of 18 matches had been played, but finished second in autumn of 1965.

Preliminary round

Similar to previous editions, 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 two matches that took place in late August. For the second time in row teams in the preliminary round were not divided geographically into pots, which resulted in some teams covering over 6,200 kilometres for their ties (e.g. Keflavík and

Ferencváros Ferencváros (, ) is the 9th district of Budapest (), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The developmen ...

), while other had shorter trips (e.g. LASK and

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish association football, football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning ...

– around 800 kilometres).

First leg

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Second leg

''Ferencváros won 13–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Derry City won 8–6 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Anderlecht won 5–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Vorwärts Berlin won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 6–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Górnik Zabrze won 5–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Kilmarnock won 1–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sparta Prague won 4–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Levski Sofia won 7–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Benfica won 18–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Dinamo București won 7–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 9–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Panathinaikos won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Werder Bremen won 10–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Partizan won 4–2 on aggregate.''

Bracket

First round

First leg

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Second leg

''Ferencváros won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Partizan won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sparta Prague won 5–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 7–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 5–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Benfica won 5–4 on aggregate.'' ---- ''There were serious concerns regarding the state of the Brandywell Stadium pitch. The IFA informed

that it was unfit to host the European Cup tie. THE IFA ordered Derry City to play either at

Windsor Park The National Football Stadium at Windsor Park (officially the Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park for sponsorship reasons), or the National Football Stadium, also known as Windsor Park is a association football, football stadium in B ...

or Showgrounds, which the Derry board refused to do. However, minutes after losing the first leg 9–0, the Derry directors officially informed

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

that they would be forfeiting the second leg of the tie.'' ''Anderlecht won 9–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Inter Milan won 3–2 on aggregate.'' ----

Quarter-finals

First leg

---- ---- ----

Second leg

''Inter Milan won 5–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 4–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Partizan won 6–4 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 8–3 on aggregate.''

Semi-finals

First leg

----

Second leg

''Real Madrid won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Partizan won 2–1 on aggregate.''

Final

Top goalscorers

The top scorers from the 1965–66 European Cup (including preliminary round) were as follows:

Notes

References

External links

1965–66 All matches – season at UEFA website
* All scorers 1965–66 European Cup (excluding preliminary round) according t
protocols UEFA

– results and line-ups (archive) *Y. Lander, European Cups History, part 1 (Kharkiv, 2003) – some attendance data. {{DEFAULTSORT:1965-66 European Cup UEFA Champions League seasons European Cup

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...