GK- Eddy GRAAFLAND
DF- Hans KRAAY SR DF- Joop VAN DAELE DF-Rinus ISRAEL DF-Piet ROMEIJN
MF- Rinus BENNAARS MF-Wim JANSEN MF- Willem VAN HANEGEM
FW- Ruud GEELS FW-Coen MOULIJIN FW- Henk GROOT

SUBS:
Guus HAAK, Kick VAN DER VALL, Cor VELDHOEN, Harry BILD, Ove KINDVALL, Eddy TREIJTEL, Theo VAN DUIVENBODE, Jan BOSKAMP

Manager: Ernst HAPPEL
Home Ground: Der Kuip

A decisive European Cup match took place in December 1962 between Feijenoord and Vasas SC. It was the second round of the tournament, and both legs, played in Rotterdam and Budapest, ended in a draws (2-2 and 1-1). Under the rules at the time, this meant that a third match, a tiebreaker, had to be played on neutral ground. The game in question took place in Antwerp, Belgium, where 30,000 Feijenoord fans travelled by bus to spur their side on. Once again, the score was 1-0, this time in favour of the Dutchmen. The sole goal was scored by Rinus Bennaars who immediately acquired the nickname “The Hero of Deurne”, Deurne being the neighbourhood of Antwerp in which the match took place. The events that took place in Belgium that night resulted in an endearing relationship between fans of Feyenoord and those of Royal Antwerp that continues today.

 

Early in the following year, two ships were farewelled from the shores of the Nieuwe Mass by thousands of people. deGroote Beer and the Waterman carried tens of thousands of the Feijenoord loyal to Lisbon to watch the side take on the famous Euseabio and his Benfica side in the European Cup semi finals. The two sides drew 0-0 in Rotterdam, and these fans were praying that their side could somehow win and book their tickets to the final at Wembley. But it wasn’t to be, Feijenoord crashing out 3-1. Nethertheless, the match marked the start of the most successful period in the clubs history.  The late 1960;s saw Feijenoord achieve two momentous doubles – the first in 1965 and the second in 1969. Their 1965 glory secured them a spot in the 1965/66 European Cup, in which they had the unenviable task of facing the “owners” of the trophy, Real Madrid. Feijenoord had to play with 10 men for some of the first half, when after 31 minutes Hans Kraay was sidelined with injury but wasn’t substituted. After returning to the pitch in the second half, it was Kraay who ended up scoring the winner and giving Feijenoord a 2-1 win against the Spanish giants.

 

However, it wasn’t that simple and the match turned ugly when a Real Madrid defender attacked fan favourite Coen Moulijin. In the chaos, the referee made the executive decision to suspend the match in Feijenoords favour, but in the return leg, Real Madrid enjoyed a comfortable 5-0 win and subsequently to went on to win the competition once again.  This led to Moulijin chasing the defender down the pitch, shortly thereafter joined by several Dutch players and even a handful of Feijenoord fans who had climbed the barriers.  As the Dutch league champions, the club qualified for the 1969/70 European Cup. It was in this tournament that play-offs were done away with and drawn games would be decided by the number of away goals scored. If both sides had scored the same amount of away goals, the toss of a coin would decide the team to go through. In the opening round, Feyenoord played a two legged tie against Icelandic team Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur and absolutely destroyed the country’s oldest and most successful club with a 16-2 aggregate scoreline.

 

In the first leg of the second round, the Dutchmen faced a difficult away trip to Italy to play the defending champions AC Milan. The match didn’t go how Feyenoord had hoped and at a packed San Siro they went down by a narrow 1-0 margin. They rallied back in the home leg in Rotterdam and eliminated the European champions with a 2-0 win. Achieving the impossible of defeating a star-studded Italian side meant that Feijenoord could proceed to the quater-finals. It was here that they took on ASK Vorwarts Berlin. The results in this tie mirrored the pattern of the first leg: an initial 1-0 loss away, followed by a 2-0 win at home. A semi final win over Poland’s Legia Warszawa took Feijenood to their first ever European Cup final, incidentally to take place back at the San Siro in Milan, against Scotland’s favourite sons, Celtic. They were undoubtedly the favourites, but found themselves outplayed by the Dutch underdogs. Tommy Gemmel and Rinus Israel were the scorers in regulation time, meaning that extra time was nessecary. It appeared that the match was headed to a shootout, but with just three minutes of extra time left, a long kick from the Feijenoord half sent the ball into the Scottish penalty area. Celtic defender and captain Billy McNeil stumbled and appeared to punch the ball away. Just as the referee raised his whistle to his lips to blow for a penalty, Ove Kindvall came out of nowhere to chip the ball over Evan Williams in goal to score the winner for the Dutch side, securing their first, and to date their only, European Cup.

This also made them the first Dutch team to win a European trophy.

 

Feijenoord were thankful that the match even happened as it was almost cancelled due to massive strikes that were occurring in Italy at the time. Faced with the threat of theirown clubs being banned from European competition, the Italian FA eventually backed down. Mysteriously, a match programme was never issued for this final, and no one knows if one was even printed. If one was to surfacr, it would undoubtedly fetch a pretty penny. Now the reigning European champions, Feijenoord qualified for the Intercontinental Cup. They travelled to Buenos Aires to take on Estudiantes and the sides drew 2-2. It the return leg in Rotterdam, Joop van Daele scored the only goal. In frustration, Estudiantes captain Oscar Malbernat ripped van Daeles glasses off his face and trampled on them. “You’re not allowed to play in glasses,” he said, “At least not in South America.” Regardless, Feijenoord had become the first Dutch side to be crowned club world champions. T

 

hey relinquished the following Dutch title to Ajax and were then eliminated in the first round of the 1970/71 European Cup thanks to a surprising defeat by Romanian outfit UT Arad, but in 1971 Feijenoord came back by winning their 10th Dutch title. In 1974, Feijenoord changed their name to Feyenoord. This was because people from outside of Holland had no idea how to pronounce the Dutch ij sound. They participated in the UEFA Cup, and following a 4-3 aggregate semi final win over VfB Stuttgart they reached the final, a two legged tie against Tottenham Hotspur. After Spurs took a 2-1 lead at White Hart Lane, Theo de Jong equalised to bring the final score to 2-2.  In Rotterdam, Feyenoord won 2-0 becoming the first Dutch team to win yet another trophy, the UEFA Cup. Spurs fans didn’t take well to this at all, and they began to riot – Dutch football had been introduced to the specture of hooliganism, something that would prove to be in issue in football in future years.

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Achievements: 
Dutch Eredivisie – Champions x5
KNVB Cup – Winners x2
European Cup – Winners x1
UEFA Cup – Winners x1
Intercontinetal Cup – Winners x1