In your opinion what are the best sides to fall short and not win Europe's premier competition during a particular year? Mine would have to be. Chelsea - 04/05 Bayer Leverkusen - 01/02 Rangers - 92/93 Ajax - 95/96 St Etienne - 75/76 R Madrid - 61/62
My list in no particular order: Sampdoria 92 Juve 83 Borussia Moenchengladbach 77 Benfica 68 Olympique Marseille 91 Barca 61 AC Milan 93 I would have listed more Juve sides but I don't want to be more biased.
Not in that year. Real had better midfielders and forwards like Michel, Butregueno and Sanchez but PSV were better as a team as well as defensively.
Don't forget the chair-ripping proceding the final. Only kidding! In this case though, you couldn't blame the Leeds fans for being pissed. After reading that summary that you found, Leeds had definitely got robbed.
A better team? They were champions without winning any of the last six games of the tournament. They had a solid defense and little else. Real Madrid was far superior.
Then how come they lost? Mmm.... I suppose Hans Van Breukelen, Erik Gerets, Ronald Koeman, Berry Van Aerle, Gerald Vanenberg and Soren Lerby don't spring to mind.
That seems sensible. From 1987-1990, Real had a very good team but in that period, the campaigns always came to an end at the semis, losing to Bayern, PSV (as we already know ) and then Milan twice in a row. I also want to add Dynamo Kiev's teams from 1987 and 1999. In 1987, they had at least eight Soviet internationals and in 1999, Shevchenko and Rebrov had shown what they were made of. Both teams coached by Valeri Lobanovski, who also coached in the 1970s but I wouldn't put that team on that list because I don't know much about the players in that team except for Blokhin.
Olympique Marseille 1991: Olmeta - Boli, Mozer, Casoni - Amoros, Fournier (75 Vercruysse), Germain, Di Meco (111 Stojkovic) - Waddle, Papin (c), Abedi Pelé Defeated AC Milan in the quarter-finals and hot favourites to beat Red Star.
Real Madrid may have been flashier, but definitely not FAR superior. PSV had a very strong team with key dutch players like Van Breukelen, Van Aerle, Koeman, Van Tiggelen, Vanenburg and Kieft who would go on to win the European Championships with Holland a month later. Add to that captain Gerets and some strong and very experienced danish players in Lerby, Arnesen and Nielsen. They were always going to be a tough team to beat.