No goals at Maksimir, but more than enough for the Blues to advance to the next round... Dinamo's opponent was Porto, and in the first match in Portugal it was the Zagreb side who celebrated. This 0-0 at Maksimir therefore meant a place in Round 2 for the Purgers.

This was, of course, the season in which Dinamo reached the first of their two Inter-Cities Fairs Cup finals, the competition that later became the UEFA Cup and is today's Europa League. The Blues began the tournament by beating Porto away, then got past Belgium's Union St. Gilloise, outplayed Bayern 4-1 in Munich, and later overcame a strong Ferencvaros in both legs of the semi-final, before finally being stopped by Valencia in the final. All of this was merely the prelude to the later furious run to the trophy itself, won in the unforgettable year of 1967.

The Blues played the first of those two finals in the 1962/63 season, and in the opening round they were met by Porto, then the runners-up in Portugal. In the first match, in front of 35,000 spectators at the Antas stadium, Dinamo turned around a deficit against the hosts and won 2-1. The return leg in Zagreb then ended 0-0.

The Maksimir return leg was played under floodlights. Dinamo started briskly and created chances, but the Portuguese defence managed to repel the Blues' attacks. Porto, however, also knew how to pose a threat...

Right at the start, Ilijas Pašić went down the left side, reached the byline and played the ball into the middle. The visiting defenders deflected it briefly, but Slaven Zamata got to it and struck it hard, though wide of the goal. Soon afterwards, Serafim tried his luck at the other end, shooting from 20 metres and sending the ball just over the bar.

In Dinamo's line-up, midfielder Željko Perušić and the brilliant left winger Ilijas Pašić were in lively form. It was Perušić who combined most with Pašić on this occasion, as they probed down the left. In the first half, Perušić dribbled past two markers and found Dražan Jerković, who controlled the ball with his chest, took it a few more metres and fired powerfully, but again wide of the goal. Soon afterwards Pašić tried from distance, but once again the ball flew just past the post.

In the 43rd minute, Porto forward Serafim was injured, and the visitors played with ten men until the 53rd minute. At the time, teams in Inter-Cities Fairs Cup matches could only replace the goalkeeper. Serafim did return in the 53rd minute with a bandage on his leg, and was mostly a bystander.

Dinamo's best chance of the second half came in the 52nd minute, when Perušić raced past two defenders on the left and curled the ball into the middle. Berislav Ribić collected it and, from around ten metres, missed a virtually empty goal.

Even so, the “injured bystander” Serafim posed a threat too. Even in that condition he managed to create a big chance for the visitors, shooting from the left, with the ball flying just past the post. For this move he was rewarded with applause from the Zagreb crowd.

At the other end, in the 59th minute, Pašić struck powerfully towards the crossbar, and goalkeeper Americo made a fine save to turn it behind for a corner. Seven minutes later, in the midst of Dinamo's attacks, a Portuguese counter-attack appeared, with Hernani surging down the right wing, but Dinamo goalkeeper Zlatko Škorić saved his goal with a brilliant stop.

Dinamo were reduced to ten men in the 81st minute. Custodio Pinto stopped Vlatko Marković with a foul, and Marković angrily struck him in the face with his hand and was sent off. A minute before the end, Serafim was sent off at the other end for a foul on Ivan Šantek.