The final was played over two legs at the Sóstói Stadion, Székesfehérvár, Hungary, and at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, Spain.

The competition was won by Real Madrid of Spain, who defeated Videoton of Hungary by an aggregate result of 3–1 to claim their first UEFA Cup title.

Real Madrid became the first Spanish side to win the UEFA Cup since its foundation in 1971.

Three Spanish teams had won the predecessor tournament, the Inter-Cities Fairs' Cup, but UEFA does not recognise it as an official competition within its records.

The last Spanish title at this level was achieved 18 years before, by long-time rivals Barcelona in 1966.

A total of 64 teams from 31 UEFA member associations participated in the 1984–85 UEFA Cup, all entering from the first round over six knock-out rounds.

The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: For the 1984–85 UEFA Cup, the associations are allocated places according to their 1983 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1978–79 to 1982–83.

Queens Park Rangers won 7–0 on aggregate.

1–1 on aggregate; Universitatea Craiova won 5–3 on penalties.

CSKA Septemvriysko Zname won 4–3 on aggregate.

Bohemians ČKD Praha won 8–3 on aggregate.

2–2 on aggregate; Dinamo Minsk won 5–3 on penalties.

1–1 on aggregate; Bohemians ČKD Praha won 4–2 on penalties.

3–3 on aggregate; Widzew Łódź won on away goals.