My top 5: 1 Chelsea 2012: Beating Valencia to get out of the group stage with Terry and Drogs doing the teamtalk and club is disarray. Coming back from 3-1 down v Napoli after AVB sacked. Beating greatest club side ever, Uefa and ref with 10 men, no centre halves, from two goals down in Camp Nou. Then beating Bayern/Platini in Munchen; again coming from behind with two half-fit CBs, captain, RB and star midfielder suspended. Unser Stadt. Unser Stadion. Unser Pokal 2 Liverpool 05: An even more ordinary side than Chelsea 2012, albeit a flukey win marred by Gerrard diving and ghost goals. Epic win though. 3 Forest 79: How did Cloughie do it? Beat Mice along the way too 4 United 99: Came back from two goals down to beat ZZ and Juve in their own yard. Came back v Bayern late in final. 5 Villa 82: ordinary Villa side beat poor Bayern again. Another miracle.
The Man U game against bayern was an amazing escape, as far as single games go. I agree though that Chelseas path to the final, and final win were extraordinary. Hammered against Napoli, then the home win to go to the next game, Barca unable to better us on 2 occasions, despite men sent off, Ramires wonder goal, Torres sledgehammer to break Barca Hearts. Then the game against Bayern, a home match for them which in itself was outrageous. Three regulars down, two youngsters at the heart of defence back from weeks of injury, that man Drogba. Finally, penalties. I truly believe we were destined to win that Cup right from the home game kick off against Napoli. So many things seemed pre -destined to get us over the line. Will take some topping.
It's up there make no mistake. The Man U and Liverpool finals themselves were more epic but I believe our win as a whole could top the lot given the hurdles we had to get over on the way since the Napoli away leg. Agree with CP, there were times that it felt like destiny; the Messi and Robben missed pens, Drogba header 2 minutes to go after only just falling behind, Torres goal in the Nou Camp. Winning it was always going to be special but the manner made it even better.
Of course as a Liverpool fan I'll say this but... no 1 has to be 2005. - That last minute Gerrard volley against Olympiakos ('Ohhh ya beautyy'). - Beating Juventus, who had a cracking team, with that super long range volley from Luis Garcia. - Beating you lot, who had a formidable side at the time. - Beating Milan in the final - a Milan team full of great players, who arguably would give Barca a pretty good game. That team had Dida, Nesta, Cafu, Maldini, Kaka, Seedorf, Crespo, Tomasson, Gattuso and Pirlo all at their peak. - Coming from 3 down in a final. - Doing all this with Djimi Traore at left back.
Wouldn't argue with you about the actual final game, that was something special, but......... the build up games didn' t have the drama or the sheer incredibility of our passage to the final. Lets face it we were down and out at least 4 times, twice against the absolute worlds best, and got up again and again, refusing to be beaten. Don' think there has ever been a Team who had to overcome so much so often to win the bloody thing. and don't want to ever go through it again like that, my heart couldn't do it twice.
I cant argue with that list! I like to see the great man Cloughie in there. He taught The Special One all he knew!
Both epic journeys but to be 2-0 down to the best club side maybe ever, away from home, with 10 men, with half a defence, captain sent off and they got gifted a penalty from dive and to still get through the tie....to then face probably the 3rd best team in Europe on their own pitch with 4 key players suspended to the point we had to hand a debut to a youngster, playing out of his natural position and then...found ourselves a goal down with 2 minutes to go...and then face another penalty in extra time....all of this with a temporary manager. Could truely be a movie!!
The Lisbon Lions, you can't look past them. As much as Chelsea and Liverpool came back from adversity, it's not like they were a group of plucky Brits who overcame some incredible odds, they're 2 groups of millionaires who won in the minorest way possible after an entertaining match. The Celtic side that won it were nearly all raised in the local area, became the first British side to win the trophy and the only British side to do the quintuple, all back in the days when you actually had to win the league to qualify for it. You can talk about who's the second best all you want and I'm sure you're all very proud of your respective club's achievements but there's no comparison to Celtic's, particularly in modern day football.
Champions League Finals often bring out entertainment no league game can do. In my lifetime (bar Forest) 1) Liverpool 2005 - By all rights Liverpool shouldn't have even got out the group, they were nearing elimination until Gerrard got that late goal. They fluked their way past us but beat teams they had no right to be beating the teams they did. I'll never forget the final though. I'll never forget my dad ringing me at half time and telling him it was 3-0 and it wasn't worth coming home to watch as it could be 7 or 8-0 then when he came home he couldn't believe the match was still going on (extra time). That was definitely one of those "where were you?" moments no matter how much you hate Liverpool 2) Forest 78 and 79 - to retain it having not spent a penny was simply incredible even if it was easier to win in that format. 3) Chelsea 2012 - I do think because it's Chelsea the achievement has been underrated but that was madness. Remember when Barca went 2-0 up we were 1000/1 to draw the game. We got out the group by the skin of our teeth, almost knocked out in the last 16, almost out in the last 8. The Barca game was probably the most incredible game I have witnessed. Not just because it was against the best club side of a generation but I have never seen such resilience/determination from a Chelsea team or in fact any team ever, even under Mourinho. By rights if we had lost 4 or 5-0 under the circumstances (losing our 3 CB's before and during the game) that would have been credible. And then to beat Bayern At their own ground on penalties after being a goal down with 2 minutes to go with our first corner of the game was amazing. Even if the game had been played at Stamford Bridge, Wembley or WHL Bayern would still have been overwhelming favourites. The funny thing is that win was probably the turning point for us as a club. Had we not have won RDM isn't our manager, Samsung probably aren't our sponsor, Hazard isn't a Chelsea player and nor is Oscar. We'd have been royally screwed without that win. 4. United 1999 - They had a run in as tough as ours in 2012 if not tougher. But that match was unlike anything I have ever witnessed. Bayern could and should have been out of sight. I don't know if it's because United lacked he bite and conviction of Scholes and Keane in midfield but they were totally overrun. And then in the end Bayern were undone in the dying seconds by the most basic method of attack - set pieces. Only reason I didn't rank United higher is because they were the best team in England and expected to win it. Unlike Chelsea and Liverpool who nobody gave a prayer at any stage during the game. United fans will point to the fact they won it in 90 minutes but it still doesn't make a difference to me
I see your point but none of Celtics games had he drama of United, Liverpool or Chelsea's wins. Would anyone have Foreseen Liverpool winning the CL when 3-0 down at half time in the final? Or United being 1-0 down in the 90th minute barely having a kick of the football and winning it in 90? Or Chelsea down to 10 men having lost both CB's and 2-0 down against the best side in modern day club football? If we're looking at overall achievements I.e before the campaigns started then Stein's Celtic win hands down. But if we're looking at character and fighting against the odds Liverpool win it for me, with Chelsea a close second and United 3rd
Probably just a case of not being able to compare two eras then probably. You will never again get a top side where all the players are born locally for a start. The old format was a lot easier to win to albeit harder to qualify for. To have 3-4 top sides from each country instead of 1 makes the C.L far harder to win than the old European Cup. Take Real Madrid, 5 European Cups on the trot would never happen now. So Celtic's win is a great shout for say pre C.L and the Liverpool/Chelsea/United wins up for debate thereafter.
Juventus were a top side when we played them, it was right before the match fixing scandal when they lost everyone. Milan were the best team in Europe in 2005. Chelsea's route to the final was hard though, not diminishing it.
Benfica were this brilliant side when United were outplayed by them home and away so not sure why that changes. Napoli were supremely talented going forward as well. That front 3 was as good as anything in Europe. If they'd had a decent backline and GK they would have been serious contenders to win the competition Barca... Well we needn't go there and Bayern on their own patch where they hadn't lost a home European game in something like 21 games was incredible. Liverpool's ranks higher for me because nobody thought they were even contenders. I won't lie when I realised we had Liverpool in the 05 semi I thought it was a forgone conclusion we'd get Milan in the final. Same with Monaco a season before
They came back from behind in the final and won the match outright in the 90. To me that makes them more worthy champions than any side that wins it on penalties and drama doesn't come into it. If you talk about drama then story come into it too and I'm sorry but the Lisbon Lions win that hands down, as I said before. And surely the drama is created by two teams and doesn't affect whether they're a great team or not. Easier to win? not sure about that. You're judging the concept of only having one team from each league as easier but that was only really true for the big, favourite teams. It's also more difficult when you give all competitions your full, Liverpool and Chelsea were both able two ignore atleast two competitions at points in the season. Lastly, a quick look at Scotland's form shows that the international side wasn't exactly great back then either so to have a team of Scots lift the European Cup would seem like a much bigger task than (again not a dig) one of the most expensive sides in the World winning it.
Chelsea did well but none your games had me thinking "what the ****?!!" because of some unbelievable comeback - although Ramirez's goal was incredible. For me, would (obvious bias) have to put us up there as one of the top CL wins, to come-back like that against a team like Milan was at the time, was quite something, I've never enjoyed being a Liverpool fan more than on that night
Fair enough Sir Red. Did you not think the Napoli or Barca comebacks were epic. Mousers rate the Olympiakos comeback, Napoli was as good as that
I think most people agree your final was probably the best C.L final but I think our C.L story as a whole was at least as good. Especially when you factor in we were the first new british winners for 30 ODD years and it was our first ever C.L win. And as good as Milan were, Barca are the best side most of us would ever have seen and we beat them over 2 legs where as you only drew with Milan.
