When the argument about the greatest club sides arises, one of
the most frequent names mentioned is Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan. And
yet, as thoroughly convincing as they were in some keynote games,
their overall record is much more open to debate.
Because, while Bayern Munich's individual performances never
quite reached the level of Milan's narrow peak, you could never say
the Germans didn't convince in a broader sense. In short, the
Bundesliga aristocrats achieved club football's two gold-standard
feats: three domestic titles in a row, overlapped by three European
Cups in a row.
And even though Bayern did not seem as entertaining as their
Bundesliga rivals Borussia Monchengladbach, nor as evolved as their
continental predecessors Ajax, they did match both in other
ways.
For a start, Bayern always outscored Monchengladbach. Indeed,
Gerd Muller often outscored most teams in Europe by himself.
Secondly, they provided Germany's answer to Total Football, while
Franz Beckenbauer - most notably - added a dynamic attacking
dimension to the libero role.
Most tellingly, though, this team set the stereotype for German
resolve. Sure, they may have enjoyed a lot of fortune in their
European Cup finals. In 1974, they were a minute from defeat
against Atletico Madrid; in 1975, Leeds had a goal controversially
disallowed; and, in 1976, Saint Etienne squandered a series of
opportunities.
But then that was the thing about Bayern: they never squandered
theirs. All three sides were eventually overcome and, as a result,
in a list like this, so were most teams from football history.
For many, this Barcelona side are already the greatest team of
all time. And, on a few levels, that's hard to dispute.
First of all, there's the football. Most famously, the 5-0 win
over Real Madrid illustrated the true potential of a team sport. It
was a carnival of technique and cohesion. More impressively,
they've sustained such a level of performance throughout entire
league seasons and on the very highest stage - two Champions League
finals.
It's not just about the style either, there are also the stats.
As we see virtually every week, Barcelona dominate the ball - and
therefore games - like no other club side in history. All quarters
asked, none given. That is the result of what is arguably the most
seamless football pyramid ever seen.
Below, Barca have the perfect youth infrastructure. Above, Pep
Guardiola innately understands and enhances it. He's evolved their
inherent passing philosophy with a vigorously implemented pressing
game.
And that has produced some extraordinary achievements. As well
as winning Spain's first ever treble, Guardiola's Barcelona have
delivered a domestic three-in-a-row and two Champions Leagues in
three years. Along the way, they've also been Spain's most emphatic
league winners in terms of points per game and provided the
division's best ever defence.
But that does not mean there aren't gaps. And one of the biggest
came in the 2009-10 season. Had Andres Iniesta played against Inter
(and had an Icelandic volcano stayed dormant while Barcelona won),
then it is highly probably they would be at the top of this
list.
As it stands, they have yet to defend the Champions League. And,
although the counter argument might be that this is the most
competitive era since European football began, we're not looking
for a side to merely conform to the standards of their time. We're
looking at them to surpass those of football history.
So far, Barcelona have astounded us with their play, with their
philosophy and with their trophy haul. They just need to go one
step further and astound us with what has been an impossible task
for two decades: retain the European Cup.
Whatever the fans sing about never walking alone, in England
this team stands alone. Bill Shankly had first made Liverpool
regular winners before Bob Paisley made them relentless
winners.
But, for all that victory defined this Liverpool, it was a
defeat that created them. After losing both legs of a European Cup
tie 2-1 to Red Star Belgrade, the boot room understood the need for
a more patient, professional approach.
"We realised it was no use winning the ball if you finished up
on your backside," Paisley would later reveal. "The top Europeans
showed us how to break out of defence effectively. The pace of
their movement was dictated by their first pass. We had to learn
how to be patient like that and think about the next two or three
moves when we had the ball."
It was a patience that created the platform for the longest - if
not quite the most intense - spell of success in the European Cup's
history. Over nine glory-drenched years, Liverpool won four
European Cups and seven league titles. And all while Paisley and
then Bob Fagan organically altered the team.
Despite the emphasis on pass and move, though, the team's
success was actually underpinned by maximum protection. Anfield
produced what was statistically the best defence in English
history.
That did, however, lead to an occasional staleness that saw them
twice knocked out of the European Cup in the first round and finish
fifth in the 1980-81 championship. But only those aberrations keep
them off the top. Otherwise, a lesson in longevity.
Bobby Charlton could only look to the supernatural. After the
Busby Babes had been battered in the 1957 European Cup semi-final,
he exasperated "these people are just not human. It's not the game
that I've been taught".
It was the kind of game, however, that brought the competition's
greatest run of glory. Five successive European Cups culminated in
the euphoria of the 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.
The next day, Hugh McIlvanney wrote in The Scotsman
that the crowd "had not simply been entertained. They had been
moved by the experience of seeing a sport played to its ultimate
standards ... the fact [Real] were engaged in winning the European
Cup for the fifth successive year seemed equally inevitable and
incidental in the midst of the most magnificent sporting
artistry."
It's difficult to argue with McIlvanney's words and actually
witnessing such events lends them an esoteric and ephemeral quality
that harder truths can never match.
In that way, though, the 1960 final was fitting. Just like with
the very simple - and astounding - statistic that Real won the
first five trophies, the sheer style of the 1960 final lent them a
sheen that they only occasionally possessed. That record implies
they were relentless, unconquerable winners. But reality argues
otherwise.
Alfredo Di Stefano's 1953 arrival did bring an immediate burst
of league titles. But thereafter followed the paradox that Real
were often Europe's best team without being Spain's. From 1958-60,
for example, they were frequently embarrassed by Helenio Herrera's
Barcelona.
Real, however, won the clasico that really mattered:
the 1959-60 European Cup semi-final. It proved enough to provide
that unmatched fifth trophy, but not enough to finish first
here.
As a title, Total Football didn't just fit the style but the
success. For three exceptional years out of eight excellent ones,
Ajax won virtually every trophy and every game.
In doing so, they also went unbeaten through a European Cup,
secured one of the highest points hauls in the history of any
league and regularly scored over 100 goals a season. And all of
this while a formidable Feyenoord team - themselves European
champions in 1970 - breathed down their necks.
But it wasn't just the numbers, it was also the nature of the
performances. On occasion, Ajax seemed to test the very limits of
the sport - appearing to experiment with the ball, space and time
in the most exacting of matches.
Most of all, there was the 1973 zenith in which they thrashed
the team that would follow them, Bayern Munich, 4-0. That win was
shortly before Johan Cruyff and others left and it emphasised that
it wasn't any opposition that ended this all-conquering side's era
but individual wanderlust. In that sense, as a team, they were
almost unbeatable.
How come liverpool is in the list instead of AC Milan? AC
Milan dominated serie a and europe from 1988 - 1994, a good 6 years
of baresi, maldini, gullit, van basten etc. they won the european
cup in 1989, 1990 and 1994, runners up in 1993 and 1995 as
well.