28 years ago tonight, in Amsterdam, Real Madrid won the European Cup for the seventh time and the first since 1966.
Nobody outside the dressing room thought it was coming. Madrid had finished fourth in La Liga, 11 points behind Barcelona. Juventus were in their third Champions League final in a row. At Juventus, Marcello Lippi had Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero, Edgar Davids, and Didier Deschamps.
The goal came in the 66th minute. Roberto Carlos
drove in from the left, the shot was blocked, the ball squirted out to Predrag Mijatović, and from a tight angle, he lifted it past Angelo Peruzzi. Juve never recovered.
Thirty-two years. Six European Cups that most of the people in the stadium had only ever seen in black and white. Mijatović himself, years later, said winning it was “like passing from black and white into colour.”
Heynckes was sacked within a fortnight. Fourth in La Liga, the board decided, was unforgivable. He went and won it again with Bayern in 2013. Real Madrid have won eight more Champions League titles since then.
