Athens 1994: Capello's Milan and the 4-0 against the Dream Team

On 18 May 1994, at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Fabio Capello's Milan beat Johan Cruyff's Barcelona 4-0 and lifted their fifth European Cup. They reached the final without their two first-choice centre-backs, with several key players missing and cast as the underdogs. They left with one of the most memorable routs in the competition's history and the feeling of having closed an era: that of the Dream Team.

In June 1991, Capello replaced Arrigo Sacchi on the Milan bench. Sacchi had taken the club to the European Cups of 1989 and 1990, and the appointment of his successor was controversial: many saw him as a man too close to the club's president, Silvio Berlusconi. Capello answered on the pitch. His Milan went 58 league games without defeat, between May 1991 and March 1993, a record in Italy, and won three titles in a row. In Europe, however, they fell just short: in 1993 they lost the final 1-0 to Olympique de Marseille.

The 1993-94 side was more sober than Sacchi's. It won Serie A with just 36 goals in 34 matches, but conceded only 15. In the Champions League it reached the final unbeaten, having let in two goals in eleven games. One of the keys was the Frenchman Marcel Desailly, a European champion with Marseille in 1993: Capello moved him out of defence and into a holding midfield role, so that the rest of the midfield could push forward.

On the other side was the team of the moment. Cruyff had been in charge of Barcelona since 1988 and on 20 May 1992, at Wembley, he had given the club its first European Cup: 1-0 against Sampdoria with a Ronald Koeman free kick in the 112th minute, in extra time. In 1994 that team had Andoni Zubizarreta in goal, Pep Guardiola in midfield and, up front, Hristo Stoichkov and the Brazilian Romário, who according to Cruyff had scored 30 goals in 33 games.

Four days before Athens, on 14 May, Barcelona had won their fourth league title in a row in the most dramatic fashion. They beat Sevilla 5-2 at the Camp Nou while the leaders, Deportivo de La Coruña, drew 0-0 with Valencia after Miroslav Djukić missed a penalty in the last minute. In the Champions League, Cruyff's side had won their group and knocked out Porto 3-0 in the semi-final, with two goals from Stoichkov and one from Koeman.

Milan, on the other hand, arrived with a depleted squad. In the semi-final against Monaco, won 3-0 at San Siro, Franco Baresi picked up a booking that ruled him out through suspension and Alessandro Costacurta was sent off in the first half. Marco van Basten had not played all season because of his ankle injury, and Gianluigi Lentini, who had been the most expensive footballer in the world, was also injured.

On top of that came UEFA's rules, which allowed only three foreigners per team. Capello chose Desailly, Zvonimir Boban and Dejan Savićević, and left out Jean-Pierre Papin, Florin Răducioiu and Brian Laudrup. Cruyff faced the same problem and decided to play Koeman, Stoichkov and Romário, without the Dane Michael Laudrup. To cover the absences, Capello put together a back line of Mauro Tassotti, Filippo Galli, Paolo Maldini and the young Christian Panucci.

Cruyff made no secret of his confidence. He said his team was more complete, more competitive and more experienced than the one at Wembley, and that Milan were nothing special: a team built on defence against one built on attack. He had also said that a Barcelona win would be a win for football. Demetrio Albertini recalled years later that, on the morning of the final, the papers showed Cruyff posing with the trophy, and that the image fired up the rossoneri dressing room.

Around 70,000 people filled the stadium, with the Englishman Philip Don refereeing. Milan, in white, were quicker from the start. In the 22nd minute, Savićević burst forward and laid the ball off for Daniele Massaro, who only had to push it into an empty net. Just before half-time, Roberto Donadoni got away down the left and Massaro finished again: 2-0.

The third came just after the restart and is the goal that is remembered most. In the 47th minute, Miguel Ángel Nadal miscued a clearance, Savićević won the ball and lifted it over Zubizarreta, a perfect lob that left the goalkeeper unable to react. In the 58th minute, Desailly took advantage of a pass from Albertini to make it 4-0. Capello later summed it up as a victory for tactics and for speed. Massaro, who had missed by inches in the 1993 final, this time left with two goals.

Milan played in their white shirt, the colour the club usually wears in European finals. It was the 1993-94 season's away kit, made by Lotto, which in the Italian league carried the Motta brand on the chest. In Athens, however, the chest was clean. UEFA had allowed advertising on shirts since 1982, but because of its television contract the finals remained free of sponsorship, and this Milan-Barcelona was the last final between two teams without a sponsor. Logos were only allowed in the final from 1995.

Desailly became the first player to win the European Cup in two consecutive years with two different clubs. Barcelona, by contrast, began to fall apart: Zubizarreta was told the next day that he would not be staying, Michael Laudrup left for Real Madrid and the relationship between Stoichkov and Romário broke down. Cruyff was sacked two years later. Milan returned to the final in 1995, their third in a row, and lost it 1-0 to Ajax in Vienna.

For more than three decades, that 4-0 was the widest margin in a final of the Champions League era, until PSG beat Inter 5-0 in 2025. But Athens is remembered for more than the scoreline: a team without its first-choice defence, without Van Basten and with three foreigners forced upon it took apart the favourites who had promised to win in the name of football. It was the most perfect night of Capello's Milan and the beginning of the end of the Dream Team.