Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 6 i World Soccer Presents

The magical magyars – led by strikers Ferenc Puskas and sandor Kocsis, attacking half-back Jozsef Bozsik and withdrawn striker nandor Hidegkuti – should have won the 1954 World cup final in Berne. But the Hungary team of a year earlier were an even better side. “We should be alright here stan, they haven’t got the proper kit,” was england captain Billy Wright’s ill-fated assessment of Hungary to his teammate stan mortensen ahead of the “match of the century” at Wembley stadium on november 25, 1953. Hungary captain Ferenc Puskas and his team-mates wore lightweight boots in a game that would end in a humiliating 6-3 defeat for england, ending their unbeaten run at home against continental opposition. While for england it signalled a crushing end to their self-appointed status as…

Real madrid won the first five editions of the european cup, but Barcelona had the joy of becoming the first side to eliminate Los Blancos from european competition, in the first round of the 1960-61 european cup. Barca went on to reach the final that campaign, but they were beaten by Benfica, who were crowned champions of europe after winning 3-2 in the final in Berne. Charismatic Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann had built an ambitious, attacking side. “if we do not have the ball, we have to mark; if we have it, we must run into space,” he remarked, as he defined the core of his gameplan. “this is the fundamental principle of football. i don’t mind if our opponents score three or four goals as long as my team…

55 Magic number 2022 marks 55 years since Celtic’s sole European Cup victory In an age when multi-national club sides are the norm, it is remarkable to consider that celtic became the first-ever British winners of the european cup with a team made up not just of11 scotsmen, but with a starting line-up all born within 30 miles of their Parkhead ground in Glasgow. The celtic side was packed with scotland internationals who had been brought together by Jock stein. He fashioned a title-winning team that, according to World Soccer’s John stone in July 1967, “outplayed, outmanoeuvred and outwitted” internazionale in front of a crowd of 45,000 at Lisbon’s estadio nacional. “With their annihilation of inter… they proved themselves indisputably as a great side. now, not only scottish sides will be…

In1960, the first edition of World Soccer carried a two-page spread on what the magazine declared was the greatest game ever played: the 1954 World Cup semi-final between Hungary and Uruguay. Yet it is a match that slipped quickly from the game’s collective memory, rapidly eclipsed by the feats of Brazil, who won their first World Cup in1958. That inaugural World Soccer issue had remarkably little to say about the reigning world champions; a team that all these years later still have a claim to be considered the best ever and remain the only South American side to win the trophy in Europe. But that 1958 triumph, in Sweden, came before the age of television – which for much of the planet made its World Cup debut in 1970, the…

The idea that nobody remembers second place, that only winners go down in history, is a popular one in football. Yet it is also a myth. After all, has any team proved more influential or more memorable in the history of the sport than the Netherlands team of the 1970s? They were the nearly men of international football, the team of total footballers who reached successive World Cup finals. But, having done the hard part, fell to the hosts on both occasions. Rinus Michels, the coach who had built Ajax into a European power, was the man who forged a team from rival factions of Ajax and Feyenoord players at the 1974 finals in West Germany. With Johan Cruyff as the captain and attacking fulcrum, the Netherlands outplayed Brazil and…

In1980, Flamengo were crowned Brazilian champions for the first time in their history. Although they had long been established as one of Rio’s dominant clubs, winning the state championship five times in the 1970s, and never been relegated from the top flight – a record they still hold to this day – it took the arrival of a remarkable individual talent for their success to go beyond local borders. Zico’s rise to prominence coincided with the greatest period in Flamengo’s history. With him in the side, they went into the 1981 Copa Libertadores – their first-ever appearance in the continental competition – full of confidence. They cruised into the final where they met Cobreloa of Chile, overcoming them 2-0 in a play-off, after each team had won one game of…

Denmark enjoyed little international success before Sepp Piontek’s appointment in1979. In fact, they had never qualified for the World Cup and had participated in just one European Championship; a fourth-placed finish back in1964. But the pipe-smoking German, who had played 278 league games for Werder Bremen and won six caps for his nation, built a team that stepped up to the world stage with thrilling effect. After their efforts at the 1984 European Championship, qualifying ahead of England, and their impressive group stage performance at the 1986 World Cup finals, they earned the nickname “Danish Dynamite”. Piontek brought discipline to the relaxed Danish way of life, guiding a group of talented individuals who were widely perceived as chain-smoking, beer-drinking everymen, but who also played their club football for some of…

In May1989, in Barcelona’s Nou Camp, a footballing revolution reached its zenith. Milan, coached by Arrigo Sacchi and backed by media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, swept aside Steaua Bucharest 4-0 to win their first European Cup for 20 years. It was a performance described in World Soccer’s June1989 issue as “the best footballing exhibition in a European Champions Cup final since Ajax beat Juventus in Belgrade in1973”. Milan had ridden their luck in the competition’s early rounds, before a 5-0 thrashing of Real Madrid in their semi-final second leg sent shockwaves across Europe. Sacchi’s Milan played like no previous Italian side. His role models were Brazil’s 1970 World Cup winners and the Ajax of Rinus Michels. By abandoning man-marking and introducing an intensive, attackminded pressing game, he revolutionised Italian football. Having…

Ajax’s 1995 Champions League final triumph, featuring a team of mostly local talent, would seem impossible today. A side containing academy graduates such as the De Boer twins, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Michael Reiziger and Edwin van der Sar beat Milan1-0 in the final in Vienna, with the winning goal scored by18-year-old substitute Patrick Kluivert. The successful project was overseen by Louis van Gaal, a coach with the confidence – his critics would say arrogance – to promote youth ahead of experience. There were old heads in the side too, notably Frank Rijkaard, who had returned to Amsterdam after success in Italy with Milan. But Van Gaal’s Ajax played with youthful exuberance. Van Gaal’s approach was both a continuation of Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff’s Total Football approach that had…

France, who had won the World Cup two years earlier on home soil, crossed the border into Belgium and Netherlands and became the first team to win the European Championship as reigning world champions. West Germany had done it the other way round, winning the 1972 Euros and then the 1974 world title. France did it in style at Euro 2000, with entertaining football and sparkling individual displays. The 1998 World Cup team was reinforced by Patrick Vieira in midfield, and had a potent strike force in Thierry Henry and emerging talents David Trezeguet and Nicolas Anelka. Zinedine Zidane at his peak once again proved the key to success. It was not just the best display of the playmaker’s career, but arguably the most dominant display of any player at…

After a 45-year gap since they were last crowned club champions of Europe, Jose Mourinho’s Inter – whose starting line-up didn’t contain a single Italian player – beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Champions League final to claim their third trophy of the season. While it was an historic achievement for the club, featuring outstanding performances from Diego Milito, Wesley Sneijder and Lucio, Mourinho was the star of the show, building a team entirely in his own image: organised, ruthless and prepared to do whatever it took to win. It was a team that was, in many ways, the antithesis of the Barcelona and Spain teams that were winning trophies and plaudits at that time. Mourinho, a former coach at the Nou Camp, had missed out on the Barca job…

Many clubs and oligarchical owners have a desire to see their team play with the fluency and technical mastery of Pep Guardiola’s side. The problem is that Barcelona’s sort of integrated, coherent football sits uneasily with the oligarchical model. Football, as countless sugar daddies have discovered, is not just about going out and buying a dozen great players. Arrigo Sacchi quit as sporting director of Real Madrid in the first Galacticos era because there was “no project”. He objected to the use of defensive midfielder Claude Makelele to plug the gaps left by the great names who drifted around in front of him, performing their creative duties with little sense of defensive responsibility. This, said Sacchi, was “reactive” football, a comment which seemed particularly relevant during this season’s first Clasico…

Four years on from 2015, when they became the first team to win the Women’s World Cup three times, USA went to France in 2019 as huge favourites. But history was not entirely on their side: nobody, in the men’s or women’s game, had won back-to-back World Cups with the same coach since Vittorio Pozzo did so for Italy in1938. Furthermore, they had not won the trophy outside North America since 1991, and never in Europe. Would this team be able to live up to the hype? The answer was a resounding yes. They cruised through the group stage frighteningly easily – showing no mercy in a 13-0 victory over Thailand, before comfortably overcoming Chile (3-0) and Sweden (2-0), their supposed rivals for top spot – then progressed to the…

30 Magic number From the end of 1935 to 1939, Italy went 30 games without defeat Italy won the World cup in1934 under a fascistic cloud. the tournament was staged in italy, with dictator Benito mussolini seeking to use it as an opportunity to promote his ideology. the hosts lifted the trophy after an extra-time victory over czechoslovakia in the final, yet their success has been tarnished by accusations of match fixing. Victory at the Berlin olympics two years later – another tournament staged under the watchful eye of a fascist dictator, adolf Hitler – did little to abate those doubts. Yet the victory in 1938, achieved in front of hostile crowds in France, put the team’s excellence beyond doubt. While mussolini would claim it as a victory for his own…

There are many people who still argue that, man for man, the 1958 World cup-winning side were better than the team that triumphed 12 years later. Part of the reason the side that played in sweden are not so renowned elsewhere is that, unlike the 1970 finals, the 1958 event was not seen by a global audience on colour television. But the sides did have one thing in common: Pele. Having failed to win the World cup on home soil in 1950, and then been shamed by the “Battle of Berne” in switzerland four years later when they lost 4-2 to Hungary in an ill-tempered quarter-final, Brazil left nothing to chance ahead of the 1958 finals. Their party in sweden included a scout, a physical trainer, a dentist and even…

In1956, a timid 15-year-old named Edson Arantes do Nascimento visited Santos for a trial. The professional clubs of his home city of Sao Paulo had rejected him, but Santos coach Lula spotted something and within months “Pele” had made his first-team debut. With Pele and strike partner Coutinho leading the way, Santos were irresistible, winning five successive Brazilian titles (1961 to 1965), plus two Libertadores Cups and Intercontinental Cups, both in 1962 and1963. The club’s most successful campaign came in 1962. In the Copa Libertadores, they defeated Universidad Catolica in the semi-finals and met defending champions Penarol in the final. Pele scored a brace to secure the first title for a Brazilian side. That same year, they also defended the Sao Paulo Championship (with 37 goals from Pele), the Taca…

8 Magic number The number of minutes it took United to score three times against Benfica As manchester United paraded the european cup around Wembley, the crowd chanted one name above all others. United manager matt Busby had reached the pinnacle of the european game a decade after surviving an air crash that had all but wiped out his “Busby Babes” side. seven players were among the 23 people killed at munich airport on February 6, 1958, as United, the reigning english champions, flew back from a european cup semi-final against Red star Belgrade. the most talented player of all, Duncan edwards, died from his injuries two weeks later. Busby rebuilt his side around survivors Bobby charlton and Bill Foulkes. money was also spent on new players, with Denis Law signing…

5 Magic number In1972, Ajax won all five competitions they entered, including an “unofficial” UEFA Super Cup In1970, ajax won their third league title in four years under Rinus michels. Yet the amsterdammers’ claims to being the netherlands’ dominant side were undermined by the fact that Feyenoord had just become the first Dutch side to lift the european cup, while they themselves had lost 4-1 to milan in the final a year before. The gauntlet had been laid down, and ajax duly rose to the challenge. Michels, the coach widely seen as the father of “total Football” finally got his hands on the trophy in1971, beating Panathinaikos at Wembley in the final, before leaving for Barcelona in the same summer. But the team he left behind went on to bigger and…

You would have to describe the netherlands as the nearly team of the 1970s; runnersup in both the 1974 and1978 World cups, and arguably unlucky in each one. they should surely have exploited the fact that they took an early lead against West Germany in munich in the 1974 decider. they again faced the host nation in the 1978 final, when they came within a whisker of beating argentina in ordinary time, only to be brushed aside by the energy and thrust of mario Kempes and co. in extra time. But the Oranje would surely have won had only Johan cruyff been there. Although coach Rinus michels led ajax to the first of their three consecutive european cup triumphs in the early 1970s and came back from his spell at…

Quite possibly the greatest team to never win the World Cup, the Brazil side that dazzled and delighted at the 1982 finals in Spain contained some of the finest footballing talent the world has ever seen. After the disappointments of1974 and1978, when an over-emphasis on physical preparation backfired, Brazil turned to Tele Santana, a coach who was committed to attacking football. Santana’s squad was blessed with incredible midfield talent, but was weak in both penalty areas, lacking both a great centre-forward or a great goalkeeper. As a result, Santana took a decision that most coaches would not have dreamed of, and played four creative midfielders – Zico, Socrates, Falcao and Cerezo – in the same side. His side travelled to Spain as favourites. They had enjoyed a 100 per cent…

Listening to the verdicts of the Liverpool players involved in their1984 European Cup triumph, it would be reasonable to assume that they had won the game comfortably rather than in a tense penalty shootout. “We were all just so calm, ready to go. This was a team of winners and nothing affected us,” defender Mark Lawrenson told World Soccer. “One of the lads started singing the Chris Rea song, I Don’t Know What It Is But I Love It, in the tunnel…it probably gave [the Roma players] a hint that we weren’t worried about what was to come. “We were the better side.” This was the aura that the Reds had built around themselves since their first taste of European success in1977. Although Phil Neal was the only survivor from…

Never in World Cup history – or perhaps any competition – has a team so famously and so spectacularly been built to serve the talents of one individual. Right from the start of the 1986 finals in Mexico, when he created all three of his country’s goals in their opening game against South Korea, through to the final when, as Argentina’s captain, he lifted the trophy after a 3-2 victory over West Germany in Mexico City’s Azteca stadium, Diego Armando Maradona was the star of the show. In the quarter-final against England, Maradona scored two of the most famous World Cup goals of all time: one for its controversy, and the other for its sheer brilliance. The notorious “Hand of God” and the “Goal of the Century” (as it was…

In1986, Milan were scandal-ridden and bankruptcy-bound. Silvio Berlusconi, a lifelong fan of the club that had built his initial millionaire’s empire through a media conglomeration based on regional commercial television channels, decided to step in. His father Luigi did not approve, warning: “The only return on your money will be the bad publicity that comes to every president of that club.” Berlusconi, however, was not so much on an ego trip as a commercial voyage. He was the personification of the aggressive commercialism that swiftly revolutionised European club football and led directly to the creation of the Champions League. Berlusconi went out to win friends through football. So successfully did his business expand – and his ego along with it – that he employed his corporate pre-eminence in Italy as…

In the 20th century, only four teams managed to win a treble of the league, domestic cup and European Cup: Celtic in1967, Ajax in1972, PSV in1988 and, on the eve of the millennium, Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. It was a crowning achievement for Ferguson, who by this stage had established United as England’s dominant team, following the creation of the Premier League in1992. In that time, the Red Devils had won five league titles and two FA Cups, but had yet to conquer the recently rebranded Champions League. A number of factors played their part in helping United graduate from domestic dominance to European glory. Jaap Stam’s arrival from PSV for a fee of £10.6 million – then a world record for a defender – shored up the back-line, while…

One of the finest teams to come out of Argentina, Boca Juniors won three Copa Libertadores in four years, plus the Argentinian Apertura and World Club Cup in both 2000 and 2003. Two early Martin Palermo goals against Real Madrid in November 2000 gave Boca their second World Club Cup and Carlos Bianchi – who won it with Velez Sarsfield in1994 – the distinction of becoming the first coach to win the trophy with two different clubs. Bianchi joined Boca in1998 and the side were unbeaten as they won the Apertura that year. The Clausura title followed six months later, but in 2000 he took the team to another level. The spine was built on the Colombian trio of Oscar Cordoba in goal, Jorge Bermudez at centre-back and holding midfielder…

In 2008-09, Pep Guardiola completed the remarkable feat of winning the treble in his first-ever season as manager. Two years later he was forced to settle for just two out of three, as Barcelona lost to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. Yet while it may have been less successful, the 2010-11 season felt more pure. For a start, many of the first XI had the swagger of becoming world champions with Spain in 2010. The midfield duo of Xavi and Andres Iniesta were the heartbeat of both teams, with La Masia graduate Sergio Busquets now very much established as their defensive anchor. David Villa, Spain’s top goalscorer in South Africa, arrived in the summer of 2010 to replace Thierry Henry, while Samuel Eto’o, Barca’s other attacker in…

Spain’s Euro 2012 success in Poland/Ukraine saw them become the only national team to win three major trophies in a row and the only side to retain the European title. World Soccer’s Gavin Hamilton wrote in the July 2012 issue: “Spain’s breath-taking display in the final was a fitting finale to a wonderful tournament. Inevitably, Spain have earned plaudits as one of the great, possibly the greatest, teams of all time.” Four years after Luis Aragones won the 2008 Euros, Vicente Del Bosque continued the success with a World Cup triumph in 2010 and the 2012 Euro title. Yet the final instalment in the trilogy, their Euro 2012 glory, was the most Spanish and the most dominant. Spain went into the tournament as overwhelming favourites with history beckoning, and swept…

On May18,1960, Real Madrid defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 at Hampden Park to lift their fifth European Cup in a row. It took 60 years, but finally their achievement was matched: by Olympique Lyonnais Feminin. Just as Madrid became synonymous with the European Cup in the late 1950s, so did Lyon with the Women’s Champions League in the 2010s. Under the leadership of president Jean-Michel Aulas, they achieved a level of dominance that is incomparable across football. Even that great Madrid side only picked up two league titles alongside their European successes – Lyon won14 leagues in a row between 2007 and 2020, with two additional Champions Leagues in 2011 and 2012, giving them a total of seven. Like Madrid, their success was built with a combination of club stalwarts and…

644 Magic number Total goals scored by Labruna, Moreno and Pedernera for River In october1941, while much of the world was overshadowed by the second World War, a footballing dynasty was being forged in argentina. It was the end of the domestic campaign, and River Plate hosted their Superclasico rivals, Boca Juniors. the title had been decided a week earlier, with a defeat for Boca meaning that they could not catch the league leaders. nevertheless, they were intent on disrupting the party at the monumental stadium. The ground itself was still new, finished in 1938 as a symbol of River’s burgeoning dominance, and the newly crowned league champions produced a performance worthy of their impressive, modern home. they outwitted, outclassed and outplayed their rivals, winning 5-1 having raced into a 3-0…

The coverline on the launch edition of World Soccer in October 1960 said it all “Real Madrid – greatest ever.” Today, more than 60 years later, many would argue that that claim still runs true. No team has done more to ensure the status of the European Cup as the world’s foremost club competition than the Real Madrid side that won the trophy five times in a row from the launch of the competition in1955. The sequence culminated in the Spanish giants’ 7-3 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt at Glasgow’s Hampden Park on the evening of May 18, 1960. The crowd of almost130,000 included a teenage Alex Ferguson, who would later recall how Madrid’s exhibition football that night opened up his eyes to the wider European game. Alfredo Di Stefano had…

La Grande Inter, a team masterminded by Helenio Herrera, won the Serie A title three times in four years, but it was their exploits in the European Cup that stood out; they became the first Italian side to win back-to-back European Cups. They became known as ruthless exponents of the defensive Catenaccio system, in marked contrast to the more expansive football that Herrera had promoted at his previous club, Barcelona. In the Serie A seasons from 1961-62 to 1966-67 they were phenomenally mean, conceding less than a goal a game throughout – and letting in only 20 in 1962-63, or 0.59 per match. The Franco-Argentinian boss had arrived at Inter in 1960 and brought European Footballer of the Year Luis Suarez from Barca a year later. A switch to more…

The Brazil side that won the World Cup in 1970 by beating Italy 4-1 in the final has long been seen as one of the greatest ever. Millions watched the tournament on colour television for the first time, and were entranced by Brazil, in their vibrant yellow shirts, playing wonderful football under the Mexican sun. “It was not simply a magnificent and thoroughly deserved triumph for Brazil,” the July 1970 edition of World Soccer recorded. “Here was proof that football played the way it was meant to be, with artistry and skill, can still succeed in the modern era.” But it could have been so very different. Pele, having been kicked out of the 1966 tournament, had quit the international game. Although he was persuaded to return, relations were not…

Ajax had been the leading club side of the early 1970s, winning three consecutive european cups, but the departure of Johan cruyff to Barcelona in 1973 marked a shift in power away from amsterdam and towards southern Germany. Bayern munich’s first season in the Bundesliga was in 1965-66, and within three years they were league champions. three years later they finished top again, this time with the squad that was set to change the face of German football. Six members of that 1971-72 Bundesliga-winning squad – sepp maier, Paul Breitner, Franz Beckenbauer, Georg schwarzenbeck, Uli Hoeness and Gerd muller – went on to help West Germany become european champions. Just as ajax had laid the foundations for the netherlands team of that era, Bayern’s players formed the spine of the…

Founder members of the Football League, Nottingham Forest were floundering in the second tier of English football when Brian Clough arrived in1975. With his long-time confidante, Peter Taylor, Clough repeated the feat he had achieved with Derby County by gaining promotion from the Second Division and then winning the First Division title in successive seasons. Between November1977 and December1978, Forest set a new record – since beaten by Arsenal – by going 42 league games unbeaten. They then went on to win the European Cup at the first attempt, a feat only previously achieved by Real Madrid and Internazionale. They beat reigning champions Liverpool on the way to a 1-0 final victory over Malmo in May1979. Even more remarkably – and testament to Clough and Taylor’s management – the team…

Italy went into the 1982 World Cup in Spain on the back of a matchfixing scandal that led to several arrests, and Milan and Lazio being relegated to Serie B. Paolo Rossi, the most high-profile of those arrested, was given a three-year ban, which was reduced by12 months to allow him to play in the finals. The tournament was the first to feature 24 teams and was played in two group stages before the winners of the second phase contested the semi-finals. With three draws in their first-round group – against Poland, Peru and Cameroon – there was little indication of what was to come from Enzo Bearzot’s team. But in the second phase the sterile Italians began to play. The midfield pairing of Giancarlo Antognoni and Bruno Conti became…

By the early 1980s, a trend had set in at major international tournaments with teams of substance beating those of style. Some of the best footballing teams lost out: Netherlands in the 1974 and1978 World Cups, and Brazil at Spain ’82. West Germany’s functional game had dominated the European Championship in1980, but four years later France broke the mould. By Beating Spain to become champions, they proved that a team with flair could overcome pragmatism. Coach Michel Hidalgo built his side around a generation of talented youngsters, containing the midfield alliance of Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana, Bernard Genghini and their mesmerising captain and attacking genius Michel Platini, who established himself as one of France’s greatest-ever players. France had gone close to winning the 1982 World Cup, when some observers had…

After the exhilarating events of the 1970s, Dutch football took a turn for the worse in the early and mid-1980s. The national team missed out on the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, while France emerged as the dominant nation in Europe, winning Euro ’84. But, in the second half of the decade, a group of players emerged who would push Dutch football back to the centre of the European game, playing a slightly less adventurous version of Total Football. In May 1988, PSV, featuring young sweeper Ronald Koeman, won the European Cup, while Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten were spearheading Milan’s revival in Italy’s Serie A. At international level, Netherlands, with coach Rinus Michels back at the helm, went to the 1988 European Championship in neighbouring West Germany –…

By winning the first European Cup in the club’s history in their own classy style, Johan Cruyff’s masterful side of the early 1990s provided the benchmark for future Barcelona teams. It was at England’s national stadium, in May 1992, that La Blaugrana lifted the trophy, albeit in their distinctive alternative orange strip. It was their third attempt – having lost in the 1961 and1986 finals – beating Sampdoria in extra-time with a spectacular Ronald Koeman free-kick and making them the second Spanish side to lift the trophy. Much credit for the triumph was due to Cruyff, who had returned to the club in1988 and was to enjoy more success as a coach with Barcelona than he had done as a player in the 1970s. Before his arrival, Barca had won…

Down the years, the European Cup – under whatever name – has produced some great finals, some thrilling finals, some engrossing finals…but never anything as dramatic as this. Manchester United’s achievement of the treble, matching the feats of Celtic, Ajax and PSV, was eclipsed by the incredible climax to 94 unforgettable minutes at the Camp Nou. Just as United and their fans could barely believe it, neither could Bayern. In the chaos that followed Pierluigi Collina’s final whistle, United manager Alex Ferguson looked as shell-shocked as his opposite number, Ottmar Hitzfeld. The difference was that Hitzfeld continued to look shell-shocked as the preliminaries to the presentation were undertaken, while Ferguson quickly emerged from his stupor to celebrate. So the United legend goes on, accruing more and more lustre just as…

The notion of Arsenal going a whole season unbeaten was actually suggested by Arsene Wenger in September 2002. His side had begun the campaign in style, breaking the domestic record for scoring in consecutive games and notching up the most away league games without defeat. “It’s not impossible to go through the season unbeaten and I can’t see why it’s shocking to say that,” he said, ahead of a Premier League clash with Bolton Wanderers. “Every manager thinks that but they don’t say it because they’re scared it would be ridiculous.” After going on to reach a Premier League record of 30 games unbeaten, Wenger’s side eventually lost to Everton in October 2002 to Wayne Rooney’s first goal as a professional. Wenger’s fairy tale was mocked by some, but the…

It was billed as the biggest club match in history: Barcelona versus Real Madrid – two teams boasting 13 world champions between them and the last two winners of the World Player of the Year award, as well as the three favourites to win the prize this year. Two teams boasting the world’s best players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi, plus Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, the men who have won trebles in the last two years. Never before had a club match brought together so much talent. And, for once, it lived up to its billing. On one side, at least. While Barcelona were sublime, Real Madrid, as one columnist complained, were “ridiculous”. Barcelona tore Real apart. Mourinho had insisted before the match that the Clasico would not decide…

Real Madrid’s quest for “La Decima” had become such an “obsession”, in the words of president Florentino Perez, that it had almost become unhealthy. Thus, when they finally ended their 12-year wait for their tenth European Cup trophy, under Carlo Ancelotti in 2014, it was as if the shackles had been removed, leading to even greater achievements. Their three-year period of European dominance begun in January 2016, when Rafael Benitez – who’d taken over from Ancelotti at the start of the season – was sacked and replaced by club legend Zinedine Zidane. The Frenchman’s task was initially to simply steady the ship: Los Blancos were two points behind Barcelona having played an extra game, and the title had all but been conceded. Yet Zidane’s arrival did far more than settle…