While Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final isn’t exactly an outright mismatch, Barcelona enters as the firm favourite over Juventus.
But maybe the Old Lady of Turin can take a bit of inspiration from Serie A rivals AC Milan, who upset Barcelona in 1994, the last time the Catalan outfit faced an Italian opponent in the final.
There are some similarities between this match-up and the Milan vs. Barcelona game from 21 years ago.
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This year’s edition of Barcelona boasts the best player on the planet (Lionel Messi) and an awesome attacking triumvirate (Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar) that has terrorized opponents. The 1994 side, dubbed “the Dream Team,” had Romario and Hristo Stoichkov, two of the best players in the world at the time, as well as Ronald Koeman and Pep Guardiola.
Fabio Capello’s Milan had to make do without several key men, including Dutch forward Marco van Basten and Gianluigi Lentini (then the world’s most expensive player) through injury. Also, captain Franco Baresi and fellow defender Alessandro Costacurta were both suspended.
Likewise, Juventus will be missing the injured Giorgio Chiellini for Saturday’s game, making its job of stopping one of the most explosive Barcelona sides in history that much tougher.
With Messi on form right now, Barca looks unbeatable. The same was said of Barcelona in 1994. Pundits and neutral observers declared Milan had no chance against the Catalans, a sentiment echoed by Johan Cryuff, who coached Barcelona to the title just two years earlier when they beat another Serie A club, Sampdoria, in the final in London.
Cryuff didn’t hide his confidence—or his contempt for the Italians—in the build-up.
“Barcelona are favourites,” Cruyff said at the time. “We’re more complete, competitive and experienced than [in the 1992 final] at Wembley. Milan are nothing out of this world. They base their game on defence, we base ours on attack.”
What happened next was one of the greatest dismantle jobs in the modern era of the European club game.
Milan smothered Cryuff’s team right from the get-go—while Marcel Desailly dominated and Demetrio Albertini created, Guardiola sputtered. Barcelona couldn’t bring the ball out from their half. Romario and Stoichkov rarely had chances to test the Italians’ defence. When they did, Paolo Maldini and his cohorts comfortably dealt with the challenge, even without Barese and Costacurta.
Daniele Massaro scored twice, the second goal coming just before halftime, to give Milan a shocking lead at the break. Two minutes after the restart, Dejan Savicevic scored on a beautiful lob from distance that beat Barcelona goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta. It was over at that point, but Milan, perhaps wanting to stick it to Cryuff, piled on the pressure and added a fourth through Desailly in the 58th minute.
That was it. The final half hour must have felt like an eternity for a Barcelona side that had been humiliated by Milan in front of a worldwide audience. Cryuff’s cast of all-conquering heroes had been conquered, laid to ruins in Athens at the hands of the mighty Italians.
Is Juventus going to dispatch Barcelona to the tune of four goals on Saturday? Probably not. Is the Bianconeri’s challenge in Berlin just as daunting as the one Milan faced in Athens? Not quite.
But make no mistake—Juventus is up against it. Few are giving them much of a chance. Most expect Barcelona to win, and to do so convincingly.
They said the same thing 21 years ago, though.
