1988/89: Stylish Milan return to the top

Steaua Bucureşti 0-4 Milan
(Gullit 18 38, Van Basten 28 46)
Camp Nou, Barcelona

European champions twice in the 1960s, Milan waited till 1989 before clinching a famous hat-trick of wins. On the evidence of the 4-0 dismantling of Steaua Bucureşti in the Camp Nou final, it was worth it. Certainly, there were few impatient voices among the estimated 80,000 Rossoneri fans in Barcelona the night Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten put the seal on an emphatic victory.

The same was true when Milan destroyed Real Madrid 5-0 in a classic semi-final at San Siro. That there were five different scorers - Carlo Ancelotti, Frank Rijkaard, Gullit, Van Basten and Roberto Donadoni - reflected the all-round strength of the team managed by Arrigo Sacchi. Yet they were not always so invincible: needing a penalty shoot-out to beat Crvena Zvezda in round two, and a disputed penalty, the only goal of the tie, to eclipse Werder Bremen in the last eight.

Indeed, the early plaudits had gone to a Steaua side featuring Gheorghe Hagi. The Romanian side romped past Sparta Praha, Spartak Moskva, IFK Göteborg and Türkiye's first semi-finalists, Galatasaray, netting 22 times in the process. But just as Milan came good at the right time, inflicting a third straight semi-final defeat on Madrid, so Anghel Iordănescu's men chose the worst possible moment to develop stage fright.