In a qualification round played on 2 August 1964, the 32 teams of the second-tier DDR-Liga of the past season and 28 finalists of the Bezirkspokal competitions faced each other.
Due to their better league position, most experts favored Jena to win the match, with Magdeburg lying on a mere 7th place.
Impressed by Magdeburg's offense, Jena withdrew to their own half, looking nervous and hesitating, the number of mistimed passes increasing.
On the other side, Magdeburg had many opportunities to score, especially Klingbiel and agile forward Walter put Jena's defense under intense pressure.
In the 65th then, Jena surprisingly scored: Lange outplayed Zapf and crossed into the penalty box where Müller hit a direct volley into the far corner.
Magdeburg manager Kümmel reacted immediately, putting his right defender Wiedemann into the forward position occupied by Hirschmann and urging his team to keep on attacking.
In the last minute of the match, Jena's Marx had the bad luck of missing the ball and instead hitting Stöcker's knee inside the penalty area.