The Perfect Ten Part 4: Borussia Dortmund vs Juventus (1997 UCL Final)

Borussia Dortmund reached their first ever European Cup Final when they defeated Manchester United 2-0 on aggregate in the Semi-Finals. However, they were now up against the holders and firm favourites Juventus, who boasted superstars such as Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps, Ciro Ferrara and Alessandro Del Piero. The reigning champs had embarrassed the German club 6-1 in the European Cup Final a mere four years ago, and were on course to repeat history as the trophy had Juve written all over it. However, it wasn’t to be as Dortmund completed one the biggest upsets ever and also won their first ever European Trophy in the process.

Juventus dominated possession as expected but the unfancied Dortmund side played to their strengths and attacked Marcello Lippi’s side on set pieces. However, barely 34 minutes into the contest, the match was a lopsided affair as Dortmund had struck the favourites twice, thanks to a quick-fire brace from Karl-Heinz Riedle. His first was stabbed home from a majestic Paul Lambert cross while his second, merely five minutes later, was a bullet header from a pinpoint Andreas Moller cross that flew past Peruzzi. The second strike didn’t give Juve any time to even regain their composure, but since the German club were unfancied, there were high hopes that Juventus would easily overturn the deficit.

The second period offered much of the same in terms of possession, with Juventus dictating play and drilling shots onto the Dortmund net, hoping that they would crawl back into the contest. They finally found some respite from the German storm in the 65th minute with a wonderfully worked goal. Following an interception from a Dortmund counter attack, the ball made its way up the pitch to Boksic, who completed a superb cross to Del Piero who then instinctively back heeled the ball into the net past Klos. With this, the German side had conceded their first goal of the night just 18 seconds after losing the ball in the opposition half, and now faced a test on their resolve as less than half an hour of play was still left.

The Juventus side tried everything to find the equaliser, but some clever and resolute defending from Hitzfeld’s side continued to frustrate Lippi’s men. Man marking, in particular, was a visible part of their play, and Zidane was the most high profile casualty as his threat was nullified by an industrious Lambert.
Yet history had other problems for the outcome of this game, as Lars Ricken scored with his first touch of the night to seal his side’s miraculous victory. The 20 year old substitute chipped Peruzzi from 28 yards as he scored just 16 seconds after coming on, with his strike being the quickest by a substitute in a UCL match, a record still intact to this day.

The final whistle confirmed what nobody had expected- Dortmund defeating Juventus 3-1 to win their first ever Champions League. The rupturing of the crowd and the stadium full of 50,000 yellow fans was a sight to behold. Dortmund won their only European Cup to date, and haven’t been able to repeat the feat even after 20 years. However, the manner in which they took out the reigning champions in prime fashion, and on top of that, went against the world to create history, would make the match go down as one of the best ever European games to have ever been played. All of it due to a single reason that everybody loves an upset, and a David needs to defeat a Goliath every once in a while.