It was one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Dinamo's appearances on the European stage. However, that comeback came later, and on September 9, 1964, the first leg was on the schedule, in which the opponents ultimately celebrated. Greek side AEK gained a valuable advantage on their home ground, defeating Dinamo 2-0.

Interestingly, the AEK team in the matches against the Maksimir club was coached by former popular Dinamo player Miroslav Mirko Kokotović, who had just finished his playing career at our club and begun his coaching career.

This was the first leg of the 1st round of the Cup Winners' Cup, then an extremely prestigious competition which, alongside the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (later UEFA Cup), was ranked just below the European Cup. Despite the Greeks having a two-goal advantage and Dinamo failing to find the net away from home, the Blues progressed thanks to a brilliant performance in the return leg in Zagreb where they won 3-0.

The key moment of this match in Athens came in the 67th minute when Zdenko Kobešćak was sent off. He was caught between two defenders, fighting for the ball and protecting it when he committed a harmless foul, of which there were many in this match. However, Romanian referee Mihai Popa, to everyone's surprise, showed him the red card. AEK had been on the defensive until then, but now, naturally, they got their wings...

Dinamo played in a somewhat different formation than usual; on this occasion, for example, Rudolf Belin played with number six on his back, meaning in the center of defense. An interesting detail occurred in the

31st minute – the ball deflated. At that time, naturally, players used only one ball throughout the entire match, so such an "incident" attracted attention and required a certain amount of time until the organizer provided a new one.

Dinamo attacked, created chances, but couldn't find the path to goal, which AEK, as usually happens, punished. Media criticism was mostly directed at Krasnodar Rora and Slaven Zambata... Dinamo came close to scoring in the 56th minute when home goalkeeper Stelios Serafidis, during a Blues counter-attack, rushed out of the penalty area to head the ball clear. However, Dražan Jerković got to it and directed it towards goal. The goalkeeper sensed the situation in time, lightning-fast returned to his goal and at the last moment, right on the goal line, managed to clear the ball.

After Kobešćak's dismissal, AEK played more aggressively and within six minutes, in the 72nd and 78th minutes, shook the net twice. Key roles were played by number nine Kostas Nestoridis and number ten Dimitrios Mimis Papaioannou. In the 72nd minute, Nestoridis set up Papaioannou who, from the penalty area, slightly from the right, powerfully struck the bottom corner. In the 78th minute, the same duo caused problems again, but this time with reversed roles. Now Papaioannou was the provider and Nestoridis the scorer, hammering the ball into the goal from close range. Goalkeeper Zlatko Škorić managed to get his hands on the ball despite the powerful close-range shot, but it still rolled into the net.