In an interview in 2009. Fabio Capello stated, “Barcelona believed they all needed to do was show up and conquer Milan, nicely, you must do a little more than that.”
To bring some context to this specific effort 26 decades before, Dutch legend Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, therefore powerful in preceding decades were no longer using the club. Along with this, the next of this Dutch triumvirate, Marco van Basten, was hurt for the whole calendar year.
However, Milan had a Terrific group, together with the mythical defence of Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Mauro Tassotti still shielding the target, currently manned by Sebastiano Rossi.
At the center, Frenchman Marcel Desailly has been signed out of Marseille, while Demetrio Albertini and Zvonimir Boban had firmly established themselves at the group and up new registering Jean-Pierre Papin superbly matched the likes of Daniele Massaro and Dejan’il Genio’ Savicevic.
Il Diavolo clinched a third consecutive Scudetto from the second-to-last game against Udinese, completing three points over Juventus. Then they romped to a 2nd successive Champions League final, becoming beyond FC Aarau and Copenhagen at the initial two rounds, before compiling a group comprising Porto, Werder Bremen and Anderlecht and triumphing with a 3-0 margin over Monaco at the semi-final.
The joy of creating the closing has been tempered by the reality that central defensive duo Baresi and Costacurta were shipped versus the French group and could be frozen for the showpiece final. Along with the most expensive player in the world Gianluigi Lentini was hurt and would overlook the game in Athens.
As guardian Fillipo Galli would likewise allude two years after, the Milanisti were experiencing problems getting to Athens, so they’d be outnumbered in the scene.
Then there was the little matter of this fact they’d be confronting Johan Cruyff’s’Dream Team’ of Barcelona. The Catalans had only won a fourth successive LaLiga crown and had the likes of Romario and Hristo Stoichkov front, a particular Pep Guardiola commanding the centre plus Ronald Koeman and Nadal in the trunk.
The chances were firmly piled against Milan and quite a few gave them an opportunity, but what happened in the Olympic Stadium from the Greek capital has become things of a legend in the town of mythical fable.
Much was said concerning the arrogance of Barca going in the last, with images of the players touching the decoration and downplaying Milan’s skills, but in a peculiar way that encouraged Milan’s players even farther.
Capello used a 4-4-2 formation and encouraged his staff to press on the Barca players when they attained the halfway lineup, which was being executed by Albertini and Desailly. It enabled Maldini and Galli to fall that little deeper, which supposed that Romario and Stoichkov had little to no room to work their own magic.
After some sparring between the 2 teams, the group white took the lead. By pressing on the Barca backline, Savicevic gathered the ball made a marauding run down the right, managed to chip the ball to Massaro while decreasing along with the striker extended to score.
The mad was starting to take shape.
A long ball from Galli to man of the game Savicevic watched the Montenegrin play with a one-two with Boban (such as a back-heel), until the Croat played a one-two with directly back Tassotti. Then he sent the ball into another wing where Donadoni gathered, beating his marker and charging to the playground, locating an open Massaro who fired home.
Given the variety of attacking talent in the Barca group, the Rossoneri still had to be skeptical of a comeback, but they place an to this only a few minutes after the period as Savicevic obtained the aim of his screen that nighttime deserved.
The amount 10 won off the ball Nadal, noticed the goalkeeper Zubizaretta off his line and by a narrow angle using exact technique lobbed the ball above his head and into the internet in what is still considered as one of the greatest goals in a significant closing for this day.
Following the concession of the third target, the Barcelona players began fouling indiscriminately using a run of dreadful late tackles that in the game could lead to straight red cards.
However, in spite of this, Milan continued to assault in search of goals and finally scored a fourth and last attack. From open drama, Savicevic hit the pole, but as Barca attempted to push the ball forwards, Milan pushed them.
Even Capello, a notoriously stone cold personality, cracked a grin.
There were still over 30 minutes left to play with, but Milan less or more sat back and soaked up whatever small pressure came in the resistance since they understood the difficult work was completed.
