🤯 England... 3 finalists still not enough, the RECORD is still ours 📊
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England brought 3 teams to the European finals, but the all-time record was not reached, as it remains shared between Serie A and the same English league.
And above all, the Premier League will not be able to surpass this year either a record set by Serie A, when the Italian teams won 3 European cups in the same season.
Let's go back 35 years, Serie A is among the strongest leagues in the world and the results of the Italian teams confirm it: in 1990, Milan reached the European Cup final, Juventus-Fiorentina is the UEFA Cup final, and Sampdoria plays in the Cup Winners' Cup.
Arrigo Sacchi's Rossoneri won the European Cup the previous year and are favorites again in 1990. Indeed, Milan eliminated - with great effort - Real Madrid and Bayern Munich along the way. The final was tough too: 1-0 against Benfica with a goal by Rijkaard, marking their second consecutive Champions League win.
The UEFA Cup was an Italian affair in those years: Napoli won it in '89, Inter would win it in '91, and in 1990, Juventus and Fiorentina competed for it. The final was played over two legs: Juventus won 3-1 in Turin, and it ended 0-0 in Florence. It was Baggio's last game with Fiorentina before moving to Juve.
The Cup Winners' Cup of the time was even more prestigious than the Conference League: it went to Barcelona in '89, Man United in '91, and in 1990, Sampdoria, led by Vialli and Mancini, claimed it. The match against Anderlecht went into extra time and was decided by a Vialli double.
No other country has ever managed to win all 3 major European competitions in a single season.
England is the other country to have brought 4 European finalists in the same season, which was the 2018/19 season. However, it should be noted that there were only two available European competitions: the Champions League and the Europa League.
The Premier League thus made a clean sweep but could not have reached the 3 Italian victories of 1989/90.
In the Champions League, it was Liverpool's year, defeating Tottenham (in their first final in the tournament) thanks to Salah and Origi. That victory marked a turning point for Klopp: it was his first trophy with Liverpool, who hadn't won a cup since 2012, while the Champions League had been missing since 2005.
In the Europa League, the clash was Chelsea-Arsenal, a final dominated 4-1 by the Blues coached by Maurizio Sarri. A great disappointment for the Gunners, who have only won one European trophy: the Cup Winners' Cup in 1994.
📸 TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA
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