The four special Feyenoord trains passed many abandoned little train stations in Germany that night without stopping. Everyone was in the best of spirits. Someone started on the match when Feyenoord played De Volewijckers. That memorable match of april 2nd 1956, final score 11-4, in which Henk Schouten scored as many as nine goals. Nine! That was three hat tricks. And to think that Schouten only played as a center forward in that match, because the other goal getter on Feyenoord’s payroll, Cor van der Gijp, was injured.The two other goals came off Tinus Bosselaar and Riny van Woerden. The Feyenoord-legion was begging Schouten for a tenth goal. He made it alright, but is was disallowed. Too bad. Another thing was that the scoring board in the stadium couldn’t go into double figures and so they had to get the red scoring plates from the speedway races in to fix the score.

After that, someone else in that Feyenoord-express from Milan couldn’t stop talking about a match in which Coen Moulijn had played a big role. It was a match against Real Madrid, for the European Cup, on September the 8th 1965. Feyenoord won, 2-1, and that in itself was enough to turn that evening into an unforgettable one, and that in the presence of princess Beatrix, her fiancée and her father.

The stadium was packed. Of course. You didn’t get to see big stars like Ferenc Puskas in Rotterdam every day. In the first place of course Feyenoord supporters came to see their own Feyenoord play. That Feyenoord fought a heroic battle.
Defender Hans Kraaij got a kick in the head by the Madrilenian Pachin and was forced to leave the field in the 31st minute with a heavy head injury and blood on his face. He would definitely go straight to hospital, surely, but after the break he was back in the field with five staples in his head, covered by a big bandage. He even made the winning goal. 

Beating Real Madrid in it self was enough to never forget that match and a mean challenge by Miera the defender ensured that. Right in front of the royal box Miera flung Coen over his hip. The cry of disbelief must have been heard all the way in Breda. Moulijn got so angry that he got up, and started chasing the Spaniard, swiftly aided by the other Feyenoord players. Supporters climbed over the new seven feet high fences as if they weren’t there. Miera zigzagged over the field to avoid the Feyenoord players. Policemen, stewards and officials of both teams raced in to stop it. The Czech referee, mr. Galba, thought it better to stop the match at that point. In the dressing room Cor Veldhoen explained that he was disappointed he hadn’t gotten a hold of Miera.
Gangesters, they called the Spaniards, gangsters who were bad losers. They had been really disappointed in them. Guus Haak degradingly spoke of scum, pointing towards the Madrilenian back line. Henny Weering was complaining about the blows and kicks he had received. There hadn’t been a ball in sight and referee Galba acted as if he had a nose bleed.

The supporters didn’t mind. They were chuffed. Feyenoord had beaten Madrid, even if the royal team had disgraced itself in that manner. Rotterdam had been a ghost town that night. Everyone wanted to see the match, whether at home or in the Kuip. Now the celebrations erupted. The bars in Rotterdam-Zuid flooded with ecstatic supporters. Two weeks later it became clear that there was a long way to go still. Feyenoord got hammered 5-0 in Madrid. That was the down side; nobody could take away that beautiful moment of September the 8th 1965.

Sorce: o.a. Feyenoord Compleet, Waanders Uitgevers / Mr. J. Oudenaarden