1985/86: Dynamo give breathtaking show

Club Atlético de Madrid 0-3 F Dynamo Kiev
Stade de Gerland, Lyon

Sometimes a performance sticks in the memory. Or, if you’re an Club Atlético de Madrid fan, in the throat. In Lyon, the Spaniards didn’t play badly – they were simply no match for a brilliant Dinamo Kiev team which scored in all nine matches. They beat FC Utrecht (5-3 on aggregate), FC Universitatea Craiova (5-2), the 1985 finalists SK Rapid Wien (9-2) and DK Dukla Praha (4-1). Dinamo, with skill and pace in every department, were driven forward by brilliant schemer Alexandre Zavarov and the free-scoring Ivan Iaremchuk, while their strike force combined Igor Belanov (to be named European Footballer of the Year) and Oleg Blokhin. After the final, the whole team marched off to Mexico to represent the USSR in the World Cup.

False sense of security
Having scraped past Celtic FC with a 3-2 aggregate, Club Atlético de Madrid had a peaceful run to the final, beating Bangor City FC, FK Crvena Zvezda and FC Bayer 05 Uerdingen comfortably enough for them to travel to Lyon with a false sense of security. They were shaken out of it as soon as the final kicked off.

Sheer poetry from Soviets
A 50,000 crowd watched in awe as the Soviet team threatened to score virtually every time they went forward. It took only five minutes for Zavarov to put the first goal past Argentinian World Cup goalkeeper Ubaldo Fillol and it was to Atlético’s credit that they somehow managed to prolong their damage-limitation exercise until the closing five minutes when Blokhin and Vadim Evtuchenko sealed a 3-0 win. Atlético were prosaic. Dinamo Kiev were sheer poetry.