This weekend's Champions League final has got us thinking of our standout childhood memories of the competition. For me, it brings back memories of a time when there was still a residual exoticism around 'foreign' football. The internet was still a few years away from becoming the globe-shrinking force it is today, so most of our non-Irish and UK football was digested through the alfresco dispatches of James Richardson on Gazzetta Football Italia and goals roundups on Eurosport. This unsaturated coverage meant that most of us genuinely looked forward to each round of European matches, even in the now-insufferable group stages, as well as offerings from the UEFA Cup and, until 1999, the Cup Winners' Cup.
To keep things from turning into an all-out history of the competition since it changed its name, the cut-off point is roughly the turn of the century. The criteria for inclusion is purely personal - as always with these things, it's not an exhaustive list - so do let us know what you'd have included yourself.
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I'm not old enough to remember the twilight years of the old European Cup, which is a pity because it saw some of the best sides in the history of either iteration of the competition.
Take, for example, the technically magnificent Red Star Belgrade, who won the Cup in 1991. They defeated Marseille on penalties in the final in Bari, but their true class was shown in their epic semi-final battle with a Bayern Munich side packed with some recently-crowned world champions, as well as Steffen Effenberg and Brian Laudrup. The football writer Jonathan Wilson described Darko Pancev's first leg equaliser as "close to perfection", which almost seems like an understated appraisal.
In May 1992, the final competition of the European Champion Cubs' Cup, to give it its official title, was fittingly held at Wembley and saw Barça overcome Sampdoria to claim their long-awaited first title. A typically bulleted Ronald Koeman free kick routine was the difference between the sides.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPXH-uZG-B4#t=80s
1993 - Marseille win the inaugural Champions League
The first season of the Champions League was a considerable change from what had gone before, and is pretty unrecognisable from the massive, all consuming megacup it is today. Following on from the previous year's experiment, there were just two four-team groups in the first round proper. Only this time, the round-robin section of the competition was referred to as the 'Champions League' section of the European Cup - it was only in subsequent years that the moniker was used to officially describe the entire event.
Anyway, Marseille beat a hotly-tipped Milan side in the final thanks to a goal from Basile Boli.
Boli is now known for his commentary on French TV. He has a brother called Roger who played for, among others, Walsall. In the early nineties Basile also achieved some fame for his short-lived musical career with fellow OM legend Chris Waddle.
Everything was looking dandy down on the south coast of France, until it emerged that club owner Bernard Tapie had been responsible for severe financial irregularities at the club. They were subsequently stripped of their Ligue 1 title and were banned from defending their title the following year. In any case, OM are still the only French side to have won the competition.
1994 - Savicevic and Milan eviscerate Barça
Fabio Capello's Milan were a truly magnificent team. In 1994, they reached their second consecutive Champions League final despite the return of Frank Rijkaard to Ajax and the absence of Marco van Basten. Instead, they had the overseas talents of Balkan duo Zvonimir Boban and Dejan Savicevic. Savicevic was a member of the victorious Red Star team mentioned above and was known for being a difficult character to manage. He'd had a tough first season in Milan in 1992-3, but what made him bearable to Capello and others was his control, vision and ability to score astonishing goals - his perfectly-weighted lob over Andoni Zubizarreta to make it 3-0 was the perfect case in point. The fact that the oppostion was the Barcelona 'Dream Team' of Romário, Koeman, Stoichkov and Nadal made his performance on the night all the more special. That goal, probably the best ever in a European final until one Zinedine Zidane had a flash at a dropping ball in Hampden in 2002, is at 3:00 below.
1995, 1996 - Wonderful Ajax win one and lose one
At times, Louis van Gaal's Ajax side of the 1990s could be more like an elaborate performance art collective than a mere football team. With an appreciation of how vast a football pitch truly is when the space is exploited cleverly, and an ability to maintain possession born out of a supreme confidence in their basic skills and positional awareness, they could engineer astonishing team goals from the most unlikely of locations - like an on-song French rugby team without the maddening propensity to stop giving a shit at random points. Here's Marc Overmars finishing off a perfect example of this, with a pinpoint assist from galloping centre-back Danny Blind.
In 1993 they lost perhaps the greatest exponent of 'Totaal' since Cruyff, when Dennis Bergkamp left for Inter. Van Gaal brought back Frank Rijkaard from Milan to add experience to a side made up largely of young Academy graduates such as the de Boers, Davids, Seedorf and Reiziger. They had just won the UEFA Cup in 1992 and became the first Dutch side to win three league titles in a row, between 1994 and 1996.
After finishing the 1994-5 season unbeaten, with the assistance of foreign imports Finidi George, Jari Litmanen and a young Kanu, they reached the Champions League final and beat holders Milan thanks to a goal from 18-year-old Patrick Kluivert, who would run riot against Ireland in the European playoff at Anfield a few months later.
In 1996, they got to the showpiece game again, but lost out to Juventus on penalties.
1996 - Manchester United lose their jealously-guarded home record
For forty years, United remained unbeaten in European competition at Old Trafford. 56 teams had passed through and none, including the likes of the all-conquering Madrid side of the 1950s, could better the Red Devils in Manchester. In less than a fortnight, United gave up this proud distinction and also suffered humiliating thumpings away to Newcastle (5-0) and Southampton (6-3). The decisive goal was scored by Elvir Bolic, and not even a typical late charge from United complete with attacking Peter Schmeichel could claw back the deficit.
United recovered to win the Premiership and get to the semi-finals of the Champions League, but lost again at Old Trafford as Borussia Dortmund recorded 1-0 wins at home and away. The Germans went on to win that year's competition beating Juventus in Munich thanks to goals from Lars Ricken and Karl-Heinz Riedle.
Bolic should not be confused with Elvir Baljic, a fellow Bosnian who played for Real Madrid in the early 2000s while Bolic was across town at Rayo Vallecano.
1997 - Newcastle stun Barça on Tyneside
In 1997 the Magpies finished second in the Premiership for the second year running, despite losing manager Kevin Keegan in January that year. Under new boss Kenny Dalglish, they managed to overcome Dinamo Zagreb to book their place in the group stage for the first time. They found themselves drawn with Dynamo Kyiv, PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona. They kicked off their campaign in rapturous fashion at St James' Park against the Catalans, going 3-0 up thanks to Colombian cult hero Faustino Asprilla. Luis Enrique pulled one back for the visitors before a horrendous blunder from a youthful Shay Given allowed Figo to hammer home precisely from the edge of the area. The Toon hung on, though, for one of the most memorable nights in the history of the club. As strange as it may seem today, Barça finished below Newcastle with just five points on the board. Asprilla didn't stay much longer in the north-east of England - he never scored for the club again and was a Parma player again within a couple of months.
They qualified for the 2002-3 competition, where they fared altogether more solidly. They beat Juventus and Dynamo Kyiv at home, as well as an away win at Feyenoord. It was enough to get them to the ill-fated second group stage where they faced Inter, Bayer Leverkusen and once again, Barcelona. Barça exacted some comprehensive revenge for 1997 with 3-1 and 2-0 victories.
It's pretty fair to say that Newcastle's Champions League forays were far more respectable than Blackburn's appearance in 1995-96 after their solitary League win. You know you've had a rough time when the standout memory of your group-bottoming campaign was an on-field fight between two teammates. The fact that Tim Sherwood is the peacemaker makes the Batty - Le Saux barney all the more memorable.
1995-2002 - Rosenborg's constant cameos
This one isn't a 'moment', I know, but nothing says 1990s Champions League quite like the constant, reassuring presence of the Norwegian champions in the group stage. Between 1995 and 2002, the Trondheim club enjoyed eight consecutive qualifications for the main event. with an attack spearheaded at various points by Sigurd Rushfeldt, Harald Brattbakk and John Carew, they twice managed to progress past the first round: in 1996/7, they defeated Milan 1-2 at the San Siro to progress to the quarter finals, where they were put to the sword by Juventus after drawing the first leg 1-1. In 1999-2000 they managed to get to the much-maligned second group stage, where they inflicted a 3-0 hammering upon Borussia Dortmund. As late as 2007 they were taking points off Chelsea and beating Valencia, but they haven't been seen at the top table since.
The memory of Rosenborg brings to mind the names of other Champions League qualifiers back in the mists of time who seem to have slipped from their positions of national dominance: Auxerre, Club Brugge, IFK Gothenburg, Brondby, 1. FC Košice, Rapid Vienna, Widzew Lodz. The very mention of these clubs and others can transport the 1990s child back to a time of watching the action on a 14" portable TV, with Big Ron offering his homespun-but-not-yet-racist musings in the commentary box.
1999 - That night in Barcelona
No need for much of a description here. When one mentions "that night in Barcelona", there's only one image conjured up for football fans in this part of the world - just like "that night in Istanbul", or "that night in Paris". There are other "that nights", of course (and one Zat Knight - but he stayed well away from the Champions League). Some are more supporter-specific than others - you might not all have a "that night in Belgrade", but all Irish fans will know what game is being referred to when one mentions "that night at Anfield", or "that night at Windsor Park".
Since it's oval-ball European final day too, check out the evolution of Irish rugby in the Heineken Cup era here.
