I have selected 32 European teams from the period 1989-2015. Using a modded version of Fifa I am going to have them play a tournament to see which will be crowned Champions of Uefa.
This is not a scientific experiment. It will inevitably be skewed by personal bias, both conscious (in the selection of the 32 team short list) and likely unconscious (in the player ratings I give to the edited Fifa players). I'll do my best to set the teams up along the formations and tactics of their then managers. A number of players will appear on several teams (Clarence Seedorf in particular). I'll try and get the balance right, so Seedorf's attributes will hopefully reflect the player he was in that particular vintage (i.e. the slower, measured controller at Milan vs the running machine at Ajax). I also plan to watch back youtube / tapes of these sides to refresh the memory of players and hopefully limit the nostalgia bias.
The tournament is an old school Uefa Cup format. Two leg knockout with away goals. Red card will be 1 match ban. Accumulated three yellows will be 1 match ban. The computer will control both teams so my lack of gaming skill cannot impact on things. Fixtures will be decided by a random draw after each round.
The 32 teams are:
Team Qualification
1988/1989 AC Milan European Cup Winners
1990/1991 Red Star Belgrade European Cup Winners
1992/1993 Marseilles European Cup Winners
1993/1994 AC Milan European Cup Winners
1994/1995 Ajax European Cup Winners
1996/1997 Borussia Dortmund European Cup Winners
1998/1999 Manchester United European Cup Winners
2001/2002 Real Madrid European Cup Winners
2003/2004 Porto European Cup Winners
2008/2009 Barcelona European Cup Winners
2012/2013 Bayern Munich European Cup Winners
2013/2014 Real Madrid European Cup Winners
1993/1994 Barcelona European Cup Finalists
1999/2000 Valencia European Cup Finalists
2004/2005 AC Milan European Cup Finalists
1993/1994 Inter Milan Uefa Cup Winners
1994/1995 Juventus Uefa Cup Runners Up
1995/1996 Bayern Munich Uefa Cup Winners
1997/1998 Inter Milan Uefa Cup Winners
1999/2000 Lazio Uefa Super Cup Winners, Scudetto
1994/1995 Parma Uefa Cup Winners
Wild Cards
2000/2001 Roma Scudetto Winners
2002/2003 Arsenal "The Invincibles"
1997/1998 Arsenal Double Winners1992/1993 Deportivo La Coruna Finished level on points with Barcelona
1993/1994 Paris St Germain Ligue 1 Winners
2001/2002 Olympique Lyonnais Ligue 1 Winners
1993/1994 Sampdoria Coppa Italia
1995/1996 Fiorentina Coppa Italia
1998/1999 Dynamo Kiev Champions League Semi Finalists
1993/1994 IFK Gotenborg Champions League Group winners
1999/2000 AS Monaco Ligue 1 Winners
Of course there will be a number of sides that you might say are more deserving than some of those I have included. Chelsea's Champions league side for example. And Liverpool fans will decry the exclusion of their Istanbul heroes while the vanquished Milan team gets in. But to me that really was a freakish 45 minutes. Only a scouser could argue that if they played that final a hundred more times, Milan wouldn't win 99 of them.
I could have included at least 1 more great Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern side but I wanted some variety and so classic sides like Batistuta's exciting Fiorentina and Jesper Blomqvist's giant killers from Sweden come in despite having little silverware to show. If I had to make a prediction now on which of the above is top seed I'd say a short list of 1989 Milan, 2002 Real Madrid and 2009 Barcelona.
On to the draw and the laborious exercise of getting the Fifa sides created just so.
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