1994 European Cup Final

The 1994 European Champion Clubs' Cup Final was a football match between Spanish club FC Barcelona and Italy's A.C. Milan, played on 18 May 1994 at the Athens Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece.

Barcelona were favourites to win the their 2nd European title in three years over the 1993 runners up, having just won La Liga. Milan's preparation before the final was in disarray: sweeper and legendary captain, Franco Baresi was suspended, as was defender Alessandro Costacurta; while UEFA regulations which ordered that a team could only field a maximum of three non-nationals meant that their coach Fabio Capello was forced to leave out Florin Raducioiu, Jean-Pierre Papin and Brian Laudrup.

Milan played in their all-white away strip, which historically they use in finals of the European Cup and Champions League, while Barcelona played in their red and blue strip. AC Milan dominated early and were rewarded when Dejan Savicevic ran down the right flank and passed to Daniele Massaro who tapped the ball into an empty net. Massaro banged in his second just before half time to make it 2-0 after a brilliant run by Roberto Donadoni down the left wing.

In the 47th minute Savicevic capitalised on a defensive error by Miguel Angel Nadal to lob goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta for the third goal. Eight minutes later, Milan defender Marcel Desailly beat the offside trap to make it 4-0, which ended up being the final score. Pundits described A.C Milan's performance against Barcelona in the final as the greatest ever by a team in European Cup/UEFA Champions League history. Desailly became the first player to win the trophy in consecutive years with different clubs after winning with Olympique Marseille in 1993.

Match Details

footballbox
date= 18 May 1994
team1= flagicon|ITA A.C. Milan
score= 4 – 0
team2 = FC Barcelona flagicon|ESP
goals1 = Massaro goal|22 goal|45
Savićević goal|47
Desailly goal|59
goals2 =
stadium = Olympic Stadium, Athens
attendance = 70,000
referee = Philip Don flagicon|ENG

ee also

*UEFA Champions League 1993-94

External links

* [http://www.rsssf.com/ec/ecomp.html European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation]
* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/history/Season=1993/intro.html 1993-94 season at UEFA website]