Champions League final: Ranking the 10 most iconic individual performances
10. Paul Lambert (Borussia Dortmund – Juventus, 1997)
Zinedine Zidane is the king of the Champions League, both as a player and as a coach. But there is one final that remains in the Frenchman’s mind, and one player in particular. “Oh my God, this game!” he told Paul Lambert when they met years later.
Lambert joined Dortmund on a free transfer in 1996. Portuguese star Paulo Sousa had just arrived having won the Champions League with Juventus that same summer, but it was the Scottish midfielder who wrote his name into Westfalenstadion legend.
Dortmund defeated Manchester United in the semi-finals to set up a showdown against Juventus in Munich in 1997, and Lambert took it upon himself to mark a playmaker who was emerging as one of the best in the world.
“The problem with Zidane is he slides over your shoulder. He often gets away from the ball, almost trapping you. But the ball isn’t the danger, that’s the problem,” Lambert told the Guardian. “Zidane has pushed me into the background a few times because he’s great. But he’s not going to evaporate, is he?”
Although he made a modest statement, Lambert did not give Zidane an inch and that was the platform from which Dortmund secured a 3-1 win against the reigning champions.
Juventus managers were so impressed that they offered to buy him that summer, and former Juventus midfielder Antonio Conte later admitted: “You were incredible,” Lambert told BBC Scotland.
