The 1965–66 European Cup was the 11th season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by Real Madrid, winners of the first five European Cups from 1956 to 1960, who beat Partizan 2–1 in a close final at Heysel Stadium in Brussels on 11 May 1966.[1]
Inter Milan 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 18–0 (8–0 away, 10–0 at home).[2]
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.
Djurgårdens IF made their first appearance since the inaugural 1955–56 tournament, while Manchester United 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.[3]
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), while other had shorter trips (e.g. LASK and Górnik Zabrze – around 800 kilometres).
There were serious concerns regarding Brandywell Stadium state of the pitch, with IFA informing UEFA that it's not fit to host European Cup tie and ordering Derry City to play either at Windsor Park or Showgrounds, which club's board refusued to do. However, minutes after losing first leg 9–0, board directors had officially informed Anderlecht that they would be forfeiting the second leg of the tie.[4]
^There were serious concerns regarding Brandywell Stadium state of the pitch, with IFA informing UEFA that it's not fit to host European Cup tie and ordering Derry City to play either at Windsor Park or Showgrounds, which club's board refusued to do. However, minutes after losing first leg 9–0, board directors had officially informed Anderlecht that they would be forfeiting the second leg of the tie.[4]
