1994 UEFA Champions League final

The 1994 UEFA Champions League final, originally known as the 1994 European Cup final, was a football match between Italian club Milan and Spanish club Barcelona, played on 18 May 1994 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece.

1994 UEFA Champions League final

Match programme cover
Event	1993–94 UEFA Champions League
Milan Barcelona 4 0
Date	18 May 1994 (1994-05-18)
Venue	Olympic Stadium, Athens
Referee	Philip Don (England)
Attendance	70,000[1]
← 1993 1995 →

Having won La Liga for the fourth consecutive year, Barcelona were favourites to win a second European Cup/UEFA Champions League title in three years. Milan's preparation before the final was in disarray with injured or suspended talent and other issues. Milan's legendary striker Marco van Basten and their £13 million young sensation Gianluigi Lentini (then the world's most expensive footballer) were both injured, while Franco Baresi and defender Alessandro Costacurta were both suspended. UEFA regulations at the time, which limited teams to fielding a maximum of three non-nationals, meant that Milan coach Fabio Capello was forced to leave out Florin Răducioiu, Jean-Pierre Papin and Brian Laudrup. On Barcelona's side, the rule saw coach Johan Cruyff choosing not to pick Michael Laudrup in his squad for the final, which caused Capello to state after the game "Laudrup was the guy I feared but Cruyff left him out, and that was his mistake".^[2] Laudrup left Barcelona for their arch-rival, Real Madrid, at the end of the season.

Milan played in their all-white away strip, which historically they use in finals of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, while Barcelona played in their red and blue strip. Milan dominated early and were rewarded when Dejan Savićević ran down the right flank and passed to Daniele Massaro, who tapped the ball into an empty net. Massaro banged in his second just before half-time to make it 2–0 after a solo run by Roberto Donadoni down the left wing.^[3]

In the 47th minute, Savićević capitalised on a defensive error by Miguel Ángel Nadal to lob goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta for the third goal. Eight minutes later, after Savićević had hit a post and the Barcelona defence had failed to clear, Milan midfielder Marcel Desailly beat the offside trap to make it 4–0, which ended up being the final score.^[4] Desailly became the first player to win the trophy in consecutive years with different clubs after winning with Marseille in 1993.^[5] The match held the record for the largest margin in a final in the Champions League era until it was surpassed in the 2025 UEFA Champions League final, when French side Paris Saint-Germain beat Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich.

Teams

In the following table, finals until 1992 were in the European Cup era, since 1993 were in the UEFA Champions League era.

Team	Previous final appearances (bold indicates winners)
Milan	6 (1958, 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1993)
Barcelona	3 (1961, 1986, 1992)

Route to the final

Further information: 1993–94 UEFA Champions League

Milan				Round	Barcelona
Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg		Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg
Aarau	1–0	1–0 (A)	0–0 (H)	First round	Dynamo Kyiv	5–4	1–3 (A)	4–1 (H)
Copenhagen	7–0	6–0 (A)	1–0 (H)	Second round	Austria Wien	5–1	3–0 (H)	2–1 (A)
Opponent	Result			Group stage	Opponent	Result
Anderlecht	0–0 (A)			Matchday 1	Galatasaray	0–0 (A)
Porto	3–0 (H)			Matchday 2	Monaco	2–0 (H)
Werder Bremen	2–1 (H)			Matchday 3	Spartak Moscow	2–2 (A)
Werder Bremen	1–1 (A)			Matchday 4	Spartak Moscow	5–1 (H)
Anderlecht	0–0 (H)			Matchday 5	Galatasaray	3–0 (H)
Porto	0–0 (A)			Matchday 6	Monaco	1–0 (A)
Group B winner Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 Milan 6 8 2 Porto 6 7 3 Werder Bremen 6 5 4 Anderlecht 6 4 Source: UEFA				Final standings	Group A winner Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 Barcelona 6 10 2 Monaco 6 7 3 Spartak Moscow 6 5 4 Galatasaray 6 2 Source: UEFA
Opponent	Result			Knockout phase	Opponent	Result
Monaco	3–0 (H)			Semi-finals	Porto	3–0 (H)

Match

Details

18 May 1994 (1994-05-18)

21:15 UTC+3

Milan	4–0	Barcelona
Massaro 22', 45+2' Savićević 47' Desailly 58'	Report

Olympic Stadium, Athens

Attendance: 70,000^[1]

Referee: Philip Don (England)

Milan[6]

Barcelona[6]

GK 1 Sebastiano Rossi RB 2 Mauro Tassotti (c)  35' CB 5 Filippo Galli CB 6 Paolo Maldini  83' LB 3 Christian Panucci  88' RM 9 Zvonimir Boban CM 4 Demetrio Albertini  53' CM 8 Marcel Desailly LM 7 Roberto Donadoni RF 10 Dejan Savićević LF 11 Daniele Massaro  45' Substitutes: GK 12 Mario Ielpo CB 13 Stefano Nava  83' RM 14 Angelo Carbone RM 15 Gianluigi Lentini LF 16 Marco Simone Manager: Fabio Capello

GK 1 Andoni Zubizarreta RB 2 Albert Ferrer  58' DM 3 Pep Guardiola CB 4 Ronald Koeman CB 5 Miguel Ángel Nadal  54' CM 6 José Mari Bakero (c)  48' LB 7 Sergi Barjuán  55'  71' RF 8 Hristo Stoichkov  24' CM 9 Guillermo Amor CF 10 Romário LF 11 Txiki Begiristain  51' Substitutes: DF 12 Juan Carlos GK 13 Carles Busquets MF 14 Eusebio Sacristán  51' MF 15 Jon Andoni Goikoetxea MF 16 Quique Estebaranz  71' Manager: Johan Cruyff

Linesmen: Rob Harris (England) Roy Pearson (England) Fourth official: Martin Bodenham (England)

See also

• 1989 European Super Cup – contested between same teams
• AC Milan in European football
• FC Barcelona in international football