1964-1965 | “Partizani” in Champions Cup!

Football in Albania was born in Shkoder, but later Partizan has turned the game into magic. These are the golden years of the great team, the most famous in Albanian football, where the most famous footballers of the country were activated, we can only mention two names, the great Borici and the technically incomparable Pano, as representatives of that generation who wear the red jersey.

It was not for nothing that this team was founded as a representative of the People’s Army (called at that time) as a team that was ahead of its time in terms of gathering players from the other places and cities around Albania.

Such was the formation of Partizan in this edition of the 1964-1965 of Champions Cup, participating for the third time; the goal was protected by Janku and continuing with Deliallisi, Shllaku and Frasheru, Vaso, Jashari, Ndini and above all that “maestro” of the ball Panajot Pano. In the two previous editions, Partizan was eliminated in the first round, 1961-1962 against the Swedish champion Norceping 0-2 (August 26, 1962) and 1-1 in Tirana (September 12, 1962. In 1962-1963 against Spartak Plovdiv 1- 0 in Tirana (September 11, 1963) and 1-3 in Bulgaria (October 2, 1963).

This time the draw has faced the West German team “FC Koln”, the reigning champion of German football, which left “Borussia” of Dortmund in second place. 12 points behind. Among them are well known players to the German “manshaft”, such as the left defender Pot, the central defender Shefer, the left half-forward Overat.

The oldest player is Shefer. He took part in the national team of RF Germany in 1954, when he won the title of world champion, as well as in the world championships of Sweden in 1958, playing as the captain of the German RF in these editions. “FC Koln” was defeated 1-8 by the Scots of Dundee on September 5, 1962, who did not stop scoring from the 8th to the 66th minute, among which Gilzean stood out with a triple. In the return match (September 26, 1962) in Germany, with all the efforts of Koln (4-0), he failed to go further than the first round of the start.

And here is the day of the match on September 9, 1964 at the “Qemal Stafa” National Stadium, Partizani – Koln 0-0, in the framework of the first qualifying round. An unsubstantiated lead of the reds in the presence of 20,000 spectators, including those filled with emotions at the radio, with a belief that our team would develop a worthy challenge against the German champions. Even though, despite the great territorial superiority, “Partizani” could not satisfy the sports fans, because its superiority is not concretized with goals. Our champions break out in the first minutes and therefore win the right to a corner kick, which Bespalla executes but without result.

In continuation of local pressure, the opposing team causes a foul in its penalty area, but Vilden’s safe intervention removed the danger. In the 10th minute, the public applauds Jashari’s reversed, and the ball ends up climbing over the crossbar of the goal, defended by Anton Schummaher, (born in 1938).

In minutes `13 and `14, Pano is the author of two crosses one after the other, but the wrong actions of Jashari and Ndini did not send “Partizan” to the advantage. After the 20th minute, the locals, forced by the slow game and at the same time the boring time of the Germans, whose purpose was to gain time and put the opponent to sleep, reduce the tempo, only at the end of the first half “Partizan “increases the pace of the game and several dangerous situations are created in the goal of the German team, such was the one in the 41st minute when the locals executed a corner, the wrong position that Ndini was in caused the ball to fly over him and thus he lost a chance unremarkable note. Immediately after the break, the Germans organized a quick descent, where the attacker Myler had the opportunity to cut his team to 1-0, but he was also in a hurry in the decisive moment, shooting the ball out.

This was just a faint and casual descent from the opposing team, after that “Partizani” jumped into the attack and in minutes 48′, 49` with a corner and a foul in the penalty area created a danger for the opposing goal, but these cases were not well used by the partisan attack. The first and last corner in Janku’s goal was shot by the players of “FK Cologne” in the 55th minute, but our defenders were ready and cleared the ball.

After the 60th minute, just like in the first half, they slowed down and made some mistakes in combinations, in the 70th minute Bespalla was the one who could give our team the advantage, but instead of shooting directly at the goal. he preferred to pass it……a ball without an address. The pressure of “Partizan” continues and the attacks towards the German goal increase, but their defenders and goalkeeper are at their height. It is worth mentioning the 77th minute when Pano, in a duel with the opposing center back, failed to head the ball and put it in the net.

The last minutes of the meeting are characterized by an attack, continuous pressure of our team in search of the winning goal and the two shots of Jashari e Kraja with a short interval between them did not give a result, and the game ended with a score of 0-0 , although our team “Partizani” had a large ground advantage over the opponent.

The refereeing of the match was good. (commentary of the match “Popular Sport” 12-9-1964). So, as coach Borici would say after the match, “Partizani” had the upper hand and dominated it, but did not manage to win, which would have been fully deserved. The desired victory was not achieved because the attack in some decisive moments over-held the ball, there was ambiguity in its actions, with the bad passes, this gave the opposing defense the opportunity to strengthen its defense even more. The midfielders did their job well, but they could have participated more in the support of the attack.

The opposing team played well with an organized defense. In some cases, they managed to go through quick counterattacks, but our defense was ready.

PARTIZANI – FC KOLN 0-0

PARTIZANI: 1-Janku; 2-Deliallisi (Cap); 3-Slag; 4-Panel; 5-Frasheri; 6-Vaso; 7-Baspalla; 8-Jashari; 9-The edge; 10-Meme; 11- Wake up. Coach: Loro Borici

FC KOLN: 1-Scummacher; 2-Overath; 3- Weber; 4-Muller; 5-Hemmersbach; 6-Pot; 7-Reg; 8-Schafer (Capt.); 9-Sturm; 10-Thielen; 11-Wilden Coach: George Knopfle.

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