There was also a couple in the carriage filled with lyrical stories about the trip to Lisbon, that they held in higher regard even than this trip to Milan. Hundreds of thousands of people stood on the banks of the Nieuwe Maas and the Nieuwe Waterweg to see off the Groote Beer and the Waterman. The ships brought thousands of supporters to Lisbon, where Feyenoord had to play notorious Benfica on May the 8th 1963. Feyenoord was finally playing with the big boys now. On April the 10th, Feyenoord had managed to keep Benfica, the champions of the last two years, to a nil-nil draw. Now there was a chance to progress for Feyenoord itself and beat those champions. And why not? The pride of Rotterdam-Zuid had also beaten French champions Stade de Reims in the quarterfinals. That was why they had no trouble loading up the ships to their full capacities. Every Feyenoord supporter wanted to experience the coming glory of the club. And those who couldn’t come along saw them off with a wave.

And hadn’t the story so far been spectacular? They had played Servette of Switzerland three times in the first round. Winning away from home with 3-1, and thinking they were already through. Then losing by the same score at home. Then came the decisive match in Düsseldorf. And again the score was 3-1, in Feyenoord’s favour this time though. Next up were the ball wizards from the Hungarian champions Vasas.

Feyenoord drew both matches: 1-1 at home and 2-2 away. According to the rules in those days another decisive match would have to be played. The third match was played close to Rotterdam; in the stadium the Bosuil in Antwerp. That was why some 30,000 fans had made the trip to Antwerp on December the 12th 1962. There was a traffic jam from the Dutch-Belgian border all the way to the stadium. Rinus Bennaars scored the only and therefore winning goal of the match. For beating Hungarian goalie Szenmihalyi and taking Feyenoord to the next round, they called him: The Hero of Deurne. He had deserved it. Eventually Feyenoord wouldn’t make it past the semi-finals. After the goalless draw in Rotterdam, Feyenoord lost 3-1 in Lisbon.


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