A three-goal advantage must be enough... That was at least what most of the German public thought after Eintracht defeated Dinamo 3-0 in Frankfurt in the first leg of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final, the predecessor of the UEFA Cup and later the Europa League.

The Germans managed to postpone the first match from 24 May to 7 June, giving themselves more time to rest. The red and blacks were then the second-placed team in the Bundesliga, and they confirmed their quality in the first encounter by beating Dinamo 3-0. This was, therefore, the first of two legendary semi-final clashes.

It's almost incredible how many similarities there are between these two matches: in both cases the hosts won convincingly, in both cases the hosts were already leading 2-0 after 15 minutes of play, in both cases those first two goals were scored within two minutes of each other, from the 13th to the 15th minute. In this first encounter, Jürgen Grabowski shook the net from the penalty spot in the 13th minute, before Walter Bechtold two minutes later launched the ball from the post into the net with an effective strike. The blues had two big chances shortly after, particularly Stjepan Lamza... Dinamo also hit the post, but not the net. Later, in the 67th minute, Wolfgang Solz made it 3-0.

Despite such a high scoreline, even the German media emphasized that Dinamo was a technically excellent team, particularly highlighting Lamza. Coach Elek Schwarz stressed after the match that Dinamo's players were technically brilliant and solid, and that there could be problems in the return leg. The then FIFA president, Sir Stanley Rous, spoke similarly: "Dinamo's players are true artists with the ball, but Eintracht played modern football and that's why they won." However, in the return leg, Dinamo fulfilled Schwarz's dark premonitions and achieved a historic feat by defeating the Germans 4-0 in extra time.