Barcelona 93/94 vs PSG 93/94
Their achilles heel was their coach's hubris. Cruyff turned up to the 1994 final to collect the trophy, not win it. "Barcelona are favourites," Cruyff had said before hand. "We're more complete, competitive and experienced than [in the 1992 final] at Wembley."
I watched back the 5-0 Classico win and the Champions League defeat to try and understand how they didn't win. It's hard to recognise that they are the same two teams. It's clear that in Athens that night their heads were not where they needed to be. A loose clearance from Nadal was compounded when he dived in on Savicevic, missed and left the Montenegran clean through. Cover comes from midfield as Savicevic reaches the touchline but Koeman inexplicably leaves Massaro (the only threat) to mark thin air. Savicevic's ball over finds the Italian who couldn't miss. The second goal is worse. Donadoni beats Ferrer and gets to the touch line - Barcelona are back in numbers but slow to close Donadoni down and when he cuts the ball back the Spanish defenders are like statues - all four around Savicevic while Massaro- the target of Donadoni's pass is unmarked to fire in from ten yards. The third was a piece of brilliance from Savicevic- an audacious lob from the touchline- and with that you can see they are gone. The fourth, Desailly's bulldozer of a run, is against players who have stopped playing.
The shoe was on the other foot earlier that year against Real. Romario scored a sublime hattrick, Bakero and Begiristain ran riot and without the 3 foreigners restriction, Barcelona could bring Stoichkov off and put Laundrup on at halftime. Capello speaks of his relief before the final when he found out Cruyff had chosen Laundrup to be the unlucky foreigner to miss out but there is no such rule in this competition. So Paris Saint Germain will face the full Dream Team. It looks a big mismatch but then so did the Athens final.
Paris St Germain in 1993/94 were not an oligarch fueled side of superstars. They won the French league that year (their second ever) and lost to George Graham's Arsenal in the semi-final of the Cup Winners Cup having been Uefa Cup Semi-finalists the prior year (and domestic bridesmaids to European Cup winners Marseilles). A year later they would make the Champions League semi-final (completing a hatrick of consecutive semi-final defeats in all three competitions) but that side could only place 3rd in the league.
Goals came from George Weah- a year away from his move to Milan and World Player of the year- and a young precocious talent named David Ginola. The creative strings were pulled by two Brazilians- Valdo and the Selecao captain Rai. Paul le Guen held the midfield and the defense boasted solid players like Alain Roche and another Brazilian, Ricardo Gomes. The coach was European Cup winning coach Artur Jorge.
So this clash on paper should be the Dream Team's but PSG are every bit as capable a banana skin as Milan were. Weah could feast on slack defending (Koeman was a great distributor and free kick ace but he was no Franco Baresi when it came to marking). This tie has the potential for goals. In 1993/94, Barcelona nearly blew their European campaign at the first hurdle, losing 3-1 in Kiev before a 4-1 win in the return leg saw them through. They're a flawed genius of a side. Capable of winning it all or blowing it spectacularly at any moment.
Barcelona '94
GK Zubizaretta
FB Ferrer
CB Nadal
CB Koeman
FB Sergi
MF Bakero
MF Guardiola
MF Amor
RF Stoichkov
CF Romario
LF Begiristain
Subs
Laundrup, Salinas, Eusebio, Juan Carlos, Goikoetxea, Estebaranz, Ivan,
Formation wise, both teams are roughly 4-3-3
PSG '94
GK Lama
FB Llacer
CB Roche
CB Ricardo
FB Colleter
MF Valdo
MF Le Guen
MF Guerin
RF Rai
CF Weah
LF Ginola
Kombuare, Bravo, Gravelaine, Cobos, Fournier, Sassus
No comments:
Post a Comment