Milan vs Barcelona 1994 Champions League final

I was browsing in youtube yesterday and came across this user who has uploaded the whole match between Milan - Barca from 1994. Many know of our success back in those years and if you want to see one of the greatest Milan performances in history then this is a must watch. I'm posting this mainly for those who maybe didn't get a chance to see Milan back in those years.

A little history lesson...

This Milan was Capello's Milan, a tactically more subdued and tougher Milan than Sacchi's high pressing attacking Milan. Ahead of this match we were billed for slaughter.

Barca were then as they are now, a superb technical team that had superstars in every position. Some of the names in the lineup included Zubizeretta (sp?), Koeman, Nadal, Guardiola (some might have heard of him ), Sergi, Stoichkov, Bergiristain and Romario.

As for us, well, we'd lost our dutch trio with Van Basten's injury from a year before pretty much stopping him. Gullit had gone onto other pastures (Sampdoria if I remember rightly before returning to Milan for 1994-1995). Rijkaard had returned to Ajax (when he'd come back to haunt us in 1995). Meanwhile, we'd lost our CB pairing of Baresi and Costacurta to suspension, meaning we'd have to makeshift to a CB pairing of Maldini and Filippo Galli (now in our youth setup).

Essentially, it was touted as being Barca's CL for certain. What happened didn't exactly go to script...

http://www.youtube.com/user/pampa26#play/uploads

Enjoy

Edit: sorry this was meant to go in Champions League section.

This has to be a sign..
Coincidence or not, I felt nostalgic last night and searched youtube for this match and watched most of it.
Truly an epic performance by Milan and one of the best CL-finals.

Originally Posted by ThrusT

This has to be a sign..
Coincidence or not, I felt nostalgic last night and searched youtube for this match and watched most of it.
Truly an epic performance by Milan and one of the best CL-finals.

Coincidence indeed.

In all honesty watching this Milan and our demolition of Steaua in 1989 lately is rather depressing when compared to the current group of players. You look at how tight the team was as a unit back then and how everyone in the side works so hard, switching positions frequently with great movement and yet keeping structured, pressing early and passing swiftly and you realise that right now we're nothing compared to that side.

If I was Leo I would use these matches as an example to the current group.

The best match ive ever seen.

With that in my memory i refuse to see it again

Ah... childhood memories...

Great players, great team, great coach and great MGT.

That Barcelona final was one of the best final from a Milan fan perspective.
Funny thing is, Milan was also in one of the best if not the BEST CL final ever too, just so happened that Milan lost in that one.

Funny because this summer I downloaded about 50 minutes of highlights from this game. Amazing match, especially the way our passes were making the mark, plenty chances being created, interchange between players and whatnot. Oh the good old days

could this year be our year again?

Originally Posted by HO-YOUNG

could this year be our year again?

Let's at least wait until we reach final 8 to start dreaming...

What can I say? Desailly is a beast in the midfield and is rightfully rewarded for a goal at the end!

Originally Posted by Jeff

What can I say? Desailly is a beast in the midfield and is rightfully rewarded for a goal at the end!

Very true, but that said, I don't think there was a single performance in the side that day that would have been rated less than 7 (maybe Seba Rossi as he had so little to do). What really hit me was also the fullbacks. Comparing them to what we have today and you can see how far we've fallen there.

This was the first football game I saw in my life!

So, I'm Milan fan for 15 years now.

I have a tape of that match, I've watched it at least 5 times. It was fantastic match, a fantastic win for us when nobody gave us a chance.

Barcelona's first 11 in that match was:

----------------Zubizarreta----------------
----------Koeman-----------Nadal---------
--Ferrer----------------------------Sergi--
-----------------Guardiola-----------------
-----------Amor------------Baquero-------
-Stoichkov---------------------Bergiristain-
------------------Romario-----------------

It was all-star Cruyff's Barcelona, super strong side. Zubizarreta was a NT keeper, Koeman was great libero with excellent long passing ability and ferocious shooting, great side backs (NT also), Guardiola great playmaker and about Stoichkov or Romario I don't even have to spend words. Simply two of 5-6 best players at the time.
Nowdays Guardiola is copying this system, Pique is suppose to be new Koeman, Xavi is new Guardiola ()...

And Capello Milan side was the best side I ever saw.

For that season, they've lost some of most important players, Rijkaard left, Van Basten was injured, Gullit left (but he was nowhere near Gullit from late 80's anyway)... Don Fabio continued where Sacchi left. He brought in Marcel Desailly to replace Rijkaard, who was also naturally a defender, Savicevic was supposed to be a supporting striker they didn't have in years... Capello's style was very similar to Sacchi's but the pressing was one player on the opposition player with the ball (Sacchi's pressing was 3 or even 4 players on opposition player with the ball).

We had our two first choice CB's suspended for the game. Many Milan supporters don't know that this was the first time Paolo Maldini was playing CB in his career in Milan. Our lineup was:

--------------------Rossi---------------------
-------------Galli--------------Maldini---------
--Tassotti--------------------------Panucci---
---------Desailly--------------Albertini--------
---Boban------------------------Donadoni-----
---------Savicevic----------------------------
------------------------------Massaro--------

We completely dominated the proceedings from the very start, we were pressing them strongly with two strikers and four midfielders, Desailly was absolutely magnificent, he destroyed their midfield almost all alone, it was the best DM performance I saw in my life. Our side backs made great marking jobs on Stoichkov and Bergiristain (Panucci played probably the best match in his whole career and he was just 21), Galli marked Romario so he barely touched the ball.

In attack, Savicevic was unstoppable, Ferrer couldn't match Donadoni's pace and with the two individual runs and assists for Massaro we were 2:0 ahead at half time. Barcelona was nowhere to be seen in the second also, and we scored two more, one stunning "chip" by Savicevic, probably the best CL goal ever.

How nice it is to remember those times in there tough times for Milan.