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#1 Barcelona against AC Milan - 1994 Champions League Final
The top spot on this list goes surprisingly to Barcelona – namely, Johan Cruyff’s legendary ‘dream team’, as they were thoroughly embarrassed and destroyed by Fabio Capello’s AC Milan team in a match that has since been labelled as “the night the dream died”.
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Barca went into the game as heavy favourites, as it was felt that Milan’s back-line – without key defenders, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta, who were both suspended – would simply buckle under the pressure of Barca’s stellar attack – which included Romario and Hristo Stoichkov.
Cruyff himself stated this, claiming Milan were “nothing out of this world” and were a purely defensive side.
Supposedly, Cruyff’s team talk was to simply tell his side “you’re better than them and you’re going to win” but that just wasn’t the case. Milan pushed and pressed from the off, fighting fire with fire with Demetrio Albertini dominating the midfield and not allowing Pep Guardiola any room to breathe, which in turn stifled Romario and Stoichkov, who barely saw the ball.
Milan scored two in each half – the best of which was Dejan Savisevic’s lobbed goal from distance - and even had a first-half goal disallowed, such was their dominance. After the match Cruyff claimed his side hadn’t played badly – it was more that they hadn’t played at all.
The 4-0 scoreline remains the heaviest defeat for any side in a Champions League final and stands as a stark reminder of where arrogance and a little too much self-belief could take a team. It remains probably the worst cup final performance from a big team in the game’s history.
