At the first training and the consecration of AEK, 4,000-5,000 fans were gathered and showed great enthusiasm, while the management of the team expressed faith and optimism for winning the championship.

Over 30,000 fans rushed to AEK Stadium on 9 September, to see the top scorer of the World Cup of Chile, Dražan Jerković, and the rest of the famous Yugoslavs play.

The Yugoslavs were extremely unsportsmanlike in their game, as they wanted a draw and to kill the time off, while AEK pressed unorthodoxly, but were unable to create many dangerous chances.

Dynamo played much more aggressively, but the very good performance of Stelios Serafidis and Aleko Yordan limited the Yugoslavs' striker, Dražan Jerković, however the half ended in the worst possible way for AEK, as they found themselves losing by 1–0 at the stoppage time.

In the first three matches AEK had two draws and a victory away from home by the emphatic 1–7 against Apollon Athens, but since then, their performance was stabilized at a satisfactory level for the first round of the championship.

On the 12th matchday, they faced Panathinaikos at home and after their 2-2 draw in a match that, due to the large crowd at the stadium and its pressure, the billboards caved in resulting in 27 injuries, they improved their performance.

In the crucial postponed match at Karaiskakis Stadium against Olympiacos, who was the other contender for the championship before 45,000 spectators, AEK found themselves losing 1–0 but with a sustained counter-attack in the second half they won 1–2, taking the second place, leaving the red and whites one point behind.