Arsenal 1998 0 Inter Milan 1994 2
(Bergkamp '4, Manicone '50)
The Bergkamp derby. A side that massively underachieved in the domestic season but won a European trophy against a side that tumbled out of Europe at the first hurdle but won a domestic double. I had expected it to be quite a close contest but in the event Inter dominated from start to finish.
The Bianconeri took the lead with their first attack. Bianchi crossed and Bergkamp headed past Seaman (note: Bergkamp never scored a headed goal for Inter in his brief time there and only 3 in his entire Arsenal career).
Arsenal could not get out of their own half and with fifteen minutes gone should have been further behind. Their offside trap failed and a chipped ball over the top was chested down by Bergkamp but a brilliant diving save by Seaman spared his back four's blushes.
Inter continued to press. Arsenal began to get more possession but found no way through Bergomi and the Inter defenders. It took more than half an hour before Zenga needed to pay even passing attention when Ray Parlour at last found some room and put a cross through the box. Shortly after, Arsenal's Bergkamp sent a long range shot over the crossbar but that was as close as they came in the first half.
Inter meanwhile continued to trouble Seaman. Right on half time Nicola Berti picked off a poor pass out from the back. Seaman came rushing out and the Inter midfielder coolly chipped him but saw the ball pass just over the bar.
Things hardly changed in the second half. Jonk sprayed a long pass to Berti who shot from the edge of the box had Seaman at full stretch. The Arsenal defence failed to clear the resulting corner and in the pinball chaos of the penalty area, the ice-cool Bergkamp was able to trap the ball, swivel and slide a pass through the tangle of legs to Manicone at the far post to tap in. Seaman, who was closing down the angle for the Bergkamp shot that never came had no prayer.
Arsenal flung everything forward in the hope of reducing the deficit. Wright put Bergkamp through but his shot from a wide angle was blocked out by Zenga. Overmars found more space but over hit his cross and Wenger brought on Platt for Parlour and Anelka for Wright. Platt was largely ineffective and drifted inside too much, causing the Arsenal midfield to lose its shape. Shalimov, who had replaced Jonk, exploited the space on a number of occasions, although Inter's forward ambition had effectively ended with the second away goal and the final half hour was a classic Italian exercise in closing shop. In this they were successful, although Anelka perhaps came closest to salvaging something for Arsenal with a close range diving header on 70 minutes but Zenga, at full stretch was up to the challenge.
The tie already looks well beyond the Gunners, who will have to hope that Inter's domestic form haunts the San Siro.
In a very even contest, Valencia got a valuable away goal but could not hang on for the win. Valencia got off to a good start when Claudio Lopez dispossessed Patrick Muller and put a dangerous cross through the box on 6 minutes but then largely drifted out of the game. Lyon took control and dominated the rest of the first 20 minutes. Shortly after the initial Lopez attack, Lyon broke on the counter and very nearly scored. The ball was fed to Sonny Anderson inside the Valencia pentalty area and only a desperate Canizares save at the Brazilian's feet prevented him scoring. Mauricio Pellegrino scrambled the clearance away. Lyon built more pressure. Anderson had a powerful shot parried and Juninho, arriving at the back post would have scored but Kily Gonzalez, tracking back, blocked the goal bound shot with Canizares beaten.
On 21 minutes Valencia began to work themselves back into the game. A nice passing move between Amedeo Carboni and Lopez led to a smart Coupet save. Then back came Lyon. Mark Vivien Foe launched a powerful run into the box and had his shot blocked by a sliding Miroslav Djukic. It was then Valencia's turn to attack but Gaizka Mendieta's shot from the edge of the box hardly troubled Coupet.
Foe was booked shortly after for a foul on Gerard at the edge of the box but the free kick was wasted and the half petered out. Even posession, a 5-3 shot count and nothing separating the sides at the break but Lyon having been much closer to scoring.
Valencia began brightly in the second half but pressed too high and with Carboni stranded in the Lyon box, a French counter attack set Govou free. He shot wastefully into the side netting. Just after the hour came Valencia's best spell. Only a brilliant one handed save by Coupet prevented Kily from scoring on 61 minutes after Angulo and Lopez had cut the Lyon defence apart.
Cuper made a substitution that seemed to indicate he was looking to see out a draw when he took Angulo off and brought on Luis Milla but instead the combative midfielder was instrumental in seeing Los Che take the lead. On 64 minutes he was on the end of another Valencia passing move to test Coupet and force a corner. From the corner, Pellegrino out jumped Edmilson. His header seemed to be dropping wide but Milla popped up at the back post to nod it into the net.
Lyon were rocking but just as it looked for likely that Valencia would score again and kill off the tie, the Lyon captain, Philippe Violeau hauled his side back into the contest. Gerard weakly lost possession in midfield and Violeau burst forward, picking up a flicked pass by Anderson to bustle between the Valencia defenders and put his shot away with 12 minutes remaining.
Milla joined Foe in the book shortly afterwards and Lyon could well have snatched the win with a late Juninho chance but 1-1 was a fair result, reflected in a 8-7 shot count.
1993 was a crazy year for Inter Milan. They had the brilliant Uruguayan magician Ruben Sosa, an Italian defence marshaled by Zenga, Bergomi and Paganin and a midfield boasting Nicola Berti and Wim Jonk. And they had Bergkamp, their star signing from Ajax - who was expected to do for the blue/black half of the city what Van Basten had done for the red/black half. After a pleasantly surprising second place the prior season, the addition of "The best No.10 in the world" was expected to propel Inter to the summit. Instead of challenging for the title they were almost relegated and yet in the midst of a turbulent season they somehow managed to win the Uefa Cup (back when doing so was at least as hard as the European Cup).
IDWM describe Bergkamp's time in Milan as the midst of a religious war and cover the troubling season as follows:
"Under Bagnoli Inter had finished in a highly unexpected second place in 1992-93, falling four points short of Fabio Capello’s Milan. With the purchases of Bergkamp and Jonk, coupled with Milan’s Dutch trio now consigned to the history books following the departures of Gullit to Sampdoria, Rijkaard to Ajax and Van Basten’s tragic battle with injuries. Pellegrini felt a little sprinkling of Dutch magic could deliver Inter their first title since 1989.
Bagnoli, the architect of Verona’s famous Scudetto in 1985, had achieved second place with what was the common tactical template in Italy at the time; sit deep and hit on the counter. He used the lightening pace of Ruben Sosa to great effect; the Uruguayan scored 20 goals in 1992-93.
The seeds of Inter’s abysmal 1993-94 season were sown as early as pre-season. Bagnoli makes the claim that Pellegrini never relayed any message about changing the system, and the new season commenced with a style of play that was unchanged from the previous campaign. Bergkamp became immediately isolated on the pitch with little support from Inter’s midfielders. ‘’I’d be up there with (Ruben) Sosa and every game we’re up against five defenders.’’
They began the season indifferently but were making strides in the UEFA Cup with Bergkamp seemingly an invigorated player in the tournament. He netted a hat trick (including a brilliant scissor kick) against Rapid Bucharest in the first round and put Norwich City’s European adventure to the sword with a goal in either leg in round three.
In the defensive quagmire of Serie A, Bergkamp and Inter were floundering in Bagnoli’s counter-attacking system and argues that he couldn’t have succeeded under the coach’s stringent tactics. ‘’I’d be up there with Sosa and let’s say two midfielders have joined the attack as well…I look back and my defenders and other midfielders are still deep in their own half! There’s a huge space between us and it’s dead space! It’s killing me, it’s killing the team.’’
To compound the issue, off the pitch he was struggling too, very much an introvert, he had a hard time integrating himself within the Inter locker room. Both interviewed for his book, Bergomi and Ferri were critical of his unwillingness to socialise with his teammates. Ferri was most vocal, ‘’we found him rather cold. Everyone in the team tried, but he was quite cold.’’ Bergomi was more diplomatic stating that ‘’Dennis could have done more to adapt, to become more Italian.’’
His partnership with Sosa, which wasn’t working on the pitch, became more complicated when the Uruguayan described Bergkamp as ‘’strange and solitary’’ and that he ‘’does not laugh, does not speak and I will not ever pass him the ball’’ to the Italian media.
If the diminutive Uruguayan’s explosive pace and head-down style of dribbling was perfectly suited to Bagnoli’s game plan, Bergkamp’s sublime vision wasn’t. If Bergkamp needed collaborators in order to shine, Sosa was undoubtedly a soloist; their partnership was always destined to fail.
Bagnoli was sacked after a 2-1 loss at home to Lazio in February 1994 and was replaced by Giampiero Marini, who proceeded to only win twice in the remaining twelve league games as they narrowly avoided relegation by a single point. Yet their season ended in glory as they beat Casino Salzburg over two legs to win the UEFA Cup with Bergkamp ending as top goalscorer with eight goals."
That Inter side showed in flashes what might have been - and certainly the interference with and sacking of Bagnoli undermined things but it was a perfect example of the sum being somehow less than the parts. Sosa, a great player, just wasn't a good fit for Bergkamp. Partnerships are as important as their component talents. Yet the problems went far beyond the strikers (Inter managed more goals that season than champions Milan). The Inter defence shipped 45 goals in the league, more than relegated Piacenza but that got overlooked in the narrative because Zenga, Bergomi and Paganin were local heroes. Bergkamp became a convenient scapegoat for half a city's disappointments.
He lasted one more unfulfilling year before regime change at the top of the club saw him sold.
Bergkamp's unhappy time at Inter reduced him from a world elite star, courted by Barcelona, Juventus, Milan and Inter when he decided to leave Ajax to an achievable signing for Arsenal, who were a Cup Winners Cup side, hardly one of the continental elite. It might have been really the only significant thing Bruce Rioch achieved in his short reign at the club and yet it set Arsenal on course for it's most successful era. Thierry Henry and Arsene Wenger usually get the attention when thinking of those great Arsenal sides (and "the Invicibles" are in this tournament too) but as a lifelong Arsenal fan I would always have Bergkamp as far and away the most important, most talented, irreplaceable player in club history.
The 1998 sides was Arsene Wenger's first full season at the club. Since the Bergkamp (and Platt) signings of 1995 he had added Bergkamp's Dutch teammate Marc Overmars, a muscular french midfielder from the Milan reserves called Patrick Vieira, Freddie Ljungberg- a young Swede winger and two of his Monaco stalwarts, Emanuel Petit and Giles Grimandi. Along with the George Graham-era defense and the aging maestro Ian Wright, the 1997/1998 Arsenal side would mark the club's centenary season with a league and cup double. Bergkamp won player of the year. Then that summer he went to the world cup and scored one of the greatest goals of all time.
The Bergkamp derby pits a side that failed miserably in its domestic competition (undoubtedly the best league in the world at the time) and still conquered Europe against a side that blew away the English Premier League (including a great Manchester United side) but lost to PAOK Salonika in the first round of the Uefa Cup. It's hard to call a favourite.
L'Olympique Lyonnais are a wild card team in this tournament. They can hardly be said to have the European pedigree to rub shoulders with the great Milan or Barcelona sides. Their only trophy was their French League title (the first of seven consecutive titles), which they prized out of the hands of Lens on the final day of the season. But they lost half their Champions League matches that season (two of the three to Barcelona) before exiting the Uefa Cup to Slovan Liberec. That is the case against them being here. The case for them goes that they are representative of a "Lyon era" that began with this team and went on for almost a decade. In that time they were regular participants in late Champions League rounds, including a semi-final in 2010. I chose the 2001/2002 incarnation over the later versions mainly because it includes a number of players who are worthy inclusions in the tournament but would otherwise not be there. It's a personal choice but I'm more excited by Sonny Anderson over Gomis, Juninho over Kallstrom, Marc Vivien Foe over Makoun, Edmilson over Cris and Coupet over Lloris. So here are Lyon, a team with no pedigree but if Valencia underestimate them, things could go horribly wrong for the 2000 Champions League finalists.
Valencia under Hector Cuper challenged the Real-Barcelona hegemony in Spain and for a brief time were the most dangerous team in the Champions League draw - reaching back to back finals in 2000 and 2001. They came heart breakingly close to winning the second final, losing on penalties but it was the first team from the prior season that the mind conjours up when thinking of Valencia in its pomp. Claudio Lopez and Angulo at the tip of a deadly counter attack. Kily Gonzalez and Gaizka Mendieta on the flanks, Farinos holding the middle and Gerard a roving creative menace. All of that made possible by a classic back four - Djukic and Pellegrino in the middle, Anglomar and Gerardo on the flanks all marshaled by Canizares in goal. The bench had depth too, Juan Sanchez, Joachim Bjorklund, Adrian Illie and David Albelda.
They sold Lopez to Lazio for big money after the final (also Farinos to Inter and Gerard to Barcelona). They brought in a raft of players with the cash some of whom worked (Baraja, Ayala, Aimar) and some of whom did not (Carew, Deschamps, Zahovic) and whilst they again made the final and perhaps should have won it, they were a distant fifth domestically. A year later, with Benitez replacing Cuper they won the domestic league but never reached the same heights in Europe.
Sonny Anderson vs Claudio Lopez could be a mouth watering display of running attack.
From a position of complete control at halftime in the first leg, Lazio had conspired to hand Bayern a route back into the tie via two away goals in the final twenty minutes. It was a lifeline that the German giants grasped and never let go of and in this return leg in Bavaria they were less than gracitious hosts, hogging the ball and never giving the visitors time or space to play their game.
Indeed, but for the heroics of Marchegiani the result would have been much uglier for the Italians. Like Horatio at the bridge he defended, seemingly alone the Roman goal. He was called into action in the sixth minute when Mandzukic used his height to head a Ribery cross on goal and again on ten minutes when Muller flashed a shot in from the edge of the box. Bayern were totally dominant and pressing with the same aggression that had garnered them those two precious late goals at the Olympico.
The Lazio defence creaked, bent but held and on twenty minutes the mustered their first chance in attack. Juan Sebastian Veron found space on the edge of the German box but fizzed his shot wide. It was to be the only chance for Manuel Neuer to get his knees dirty in the half.
Bayern pressure continued and the Lazio resistance was increasingly desperate. On thirty two minutes Mandzukic hit the post with his shot with Marchegiani routed to the spot. The rebound fell to Muller but the German's shot was too close to the keeper and Marchgiani was able to push the ball away. History repeated ten minutes later, Mandzukic again fired on goal, Marchegiani this time clawed the ball away but straight at Muller but the normally sure-shot striker blazed over the bar when it seemed harder not to score.
Halftime arrived with the score somehow still level and perhaps the Lazio fans could dare to hope that the Bavarian storm had blown itself out after an 8-1 shot differential. If so, they were to be swiftly disappointed. The second half was much like the first. The pressure built on the Lazio goal, the biancoceleste shirts fell deeper and deeper and could not keep hold of the ball long enough to give Salas and Mancini a chance to test the opposition defense. Nedved was a complete non-factor and even the combative Simone was over matched by the double act of Martinez and Schweinsteiger.
Two minutes before the hour mark, Bayern finally moved ahead for the first time in the tie. Ribery again found space and put a cross into the box and Mandzukic once more used his aerial dominance to climb above Nesta and head past Marchegiani.
Now having to chance to game, Lazio began to gamble and push forward. Three minutes after the Mandzukic goal, Salas hit the post with their best chance of the match. The game became stretched, Bayern found space to counter attack and on seventy minutes, with Lazio caught up field, Robben was brought down as he bore down into the box on the break. The penalty was coolly slotted away by Muller and Bayern were through. Lazio will look back on those away goals as the difference but the final shot differential in this tie was 14-2. The best team clearly won.
1999/2000 SS Lazio 2 2012/2013 Bayern Munich 2
(Nedved 31', Salas 42') (Muller 70', Gomez 85')
A stirring late comeback saw the German giants Bayern haul themselves back into a tie that appeared at half time to be getting away from them.
Bayern had actually started the brighter of the two sides but Lazio showed how dangerous they could be on 20 minutes when they launched a counter attack and their mercurial playmaker Juan Sebastian Veron put Roberto Mancini clean through. Neuer saved well.
Eleven minutes later however, and Neuer was left rooted to the spot as Pavel Nedved guided a header from Marcelo Salas's whipped cross into the top corner of the Bayern goal. Bayern nearly equalised from a Manzukic shot on 38 minutes but conceded again right on half time when Marcelo Salas slid the ball under Neuer having rolled around Dante's tight marking and onto a neat Nedved pass inside the box.
In the dressing room the Germans perhaps took comfort from the fact the shot tally in the first half had been level and possession slightly in their favour but it seemed that luck had deserted them when on 57 minutes Muller was put in by Javi Martinez only to slide his shot across the face of goal and worse was to follow on the hour when Alaba was clearly hauled down inside the box without a penalty being given.
Mario Gomez came on as the Germans threw everything forward. The tall striker was immediately onto a cross but his header looped wide. Then came the goal that pulled them back into things on seventy minutes. Muller, the master predator seized on a blocked clearance and blasted the ball past Marchegiani. Going back to Munich only 1 goal down and with the away goal in hand might have seemed a good return but Bayern continued to press and on eighty five minutes got their second to stun the Olympico crowd. Gomez again towered over his markers to send a bullet header goalwards. Although Marchegiani clawed it out he could do nothing to prevent Gomez bundling home the rebound.
2-2 and with all the momentum, Bayern may not have welcomed the final whistle but they will feel confident of ending the Italian threat at home. Lazio must regroup and focus on what worked in the first half. With Salas, Veron and Nedved, goals will always be possible.
1993/1994 Paris St Germain 0 1993/1994 Barcelona 2
(Stoichkov 36', Stoichkov 42')
The first leg of this tie had been a pulsating 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp with Paris twice shocking the Dream Team on the break. They entered the second leg needing only a low score draw to advance on away goals and with history on their side to a degree - the post-Athens defeat Barcelona side of 1995 had lost 1-0 against PSG with very close to the same line ups.
Paris should have gone ahead as early as the 13th minute when a Ronald Koeman handball gifted them a penalty. However Rai crashed the shot off the bar and over.
Barcelona pushed forward and Lama made his first save from Guardiola on 24 minutes, shortly before 3 minutes later another bullocking run from George Weah put Rai into a good position but Zubizarreta saved well. The home side threatened again on the half hour with a dangerous cross by Colleter was cut out by Koeman.
On 36 minutes Barcelona took control. A flowing move put Beguiristain into the box. His pullback to Bakero was brilliantly saved by Lama but the ball dropped to Stoichkov who could not miss and didn't. Just six minutes later, the Bulgarian maestro made the tie safe with his second. It was another long passage of crisp passing that eventually rolled the ball into Stoichkov's path on the edge of the box and he drove a venomous low shot at an angle under Lama's body and into the far corner of the net.
After the initial flurry of PSG chances, the half ended with Barcelona enjoying 67% of possession and having cancelled out the two away goals, in a commanding lead. There was no hubristic meltdown in the second half. Laudrup came on just before the hour but again had little impact. Weah should have halved the deficit shortly after when again his power had the Barcelona defense in trouble. His initial shot was parried by Zubizarreta but Weah could only steer the rebound inches wide.
PSG threw on more forwards as time ran down. Xavier Gravelaine forced another good save from the Barcelona keeper on 88 minutes but time ran down with Barcelona never looking too troubled.
