Real Madrid have always been a pre-eminent force in European football, but the AC Milan team of the late 1980s was stacked with superstars. Beating them, therefore, proved extremely rewarding for one former Los Blancos manager.
Facing an AC Milan side containing Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Carlo Ancelotti and Alessandro Costacurta in the 1989/90 European Cup second round, Real Madrid needed to overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg at San Siro to have a chance of progressing.
While they didn't quite manage to do that, Real Madrid did still win 1-0 at the Bernabeu, with Emilio Butragueno scoring the only goal of the game. If Manolo Sanchi hadn't been sent off in the 74th minute, the Spanish side might have even drawn the tie level.
Real Madrid win hailed as the 'greatest' of manager's career
For then-Real Madrid manager John Toshack, though, simply beating that Milan side proved of great significance. The two sides had faced each other just months before in the 1988/89 European Cup semi-finals, with the Italians winning 6-1 on aggregate. The Welshman had only been appointed in the intervening summer, so managing to beat Milan 1-0, albeit lose the tie, helped his status at the club.
"It was a difficult start, as we lost to Barcelona at the Camp Nou, then were knocked out of the European Cup by Milan,” Toshack exclusively tells FourFourTwo. “We lost 2-0 at San Siro, then won 1-0 at the Bernabeu.
"It was one of the greatest games of my coaching career. We couldn’t go crazy – we had to get back into the tie little by little – but to beat that team, with Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit, was almost impossible.”
Real Madrid were four-time reigning champions of Spain when Toshack arrived from Real Sociedad in the summer of 1989, so certainly had the pressure placed on him quickly.
His Copa del Rey victory in 1987 and second-place finish in La Liga with Real Sociedad the season after built his reputation, which he only managed to add to with a record-breaking term at the Bernabeu.
Winning La Liga in Toshack's first season, Real Madrid scored a then-record 107 goals to lift the title.
“There were some critics who said we were too defensive…” he laughs.
He lost his job by November 1990, however, with a disappointing start to the season and a three-match losing streak cutting short his time at Real Madrid.
