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10. Paul Lambert (Borussia Dortmund v Juventus, 1997)
Zinedine Zidane is Champions League royalty as a player and coach. But there is one final – and one player in particular – that sticks in the French mind. “Oh god, that game!” he Paul Lambert comments When they met years later.
Lambert joined Dortmund on a free transfer in 1996. Portugal star Paulo Sousa came fresh from winning the Champions League with Juventus the same summer, but it was the Scottish midfielder who wrote his name in Westfalenstadion legend.
Dortmund beat Manchester United in the semi-finals to set up a showdown against Juventus in Munich in 1997, with Lambert tasked with man-marking a playmaker emerging as one of the world’s best.
“The thing about Zidane, he goes off your shoulder. He often goes away from the ball, almost baits you. But the ball is not the danger, it’s him,” Lambert told the Guardian. “Zidane put me at the back a few times because he’s brilliant. But he’s not going to evaporate, is he?”
Humble by his reckoning, Lambert didn’t give Zidane an inch and that was the platform for Dortmund to secure a 3-1 victory over the reigning champions.
Juventus chiefs were so impressed that they offered to buy him that summer and, as Lambert told BBC Scotland, former Juventus midfielder Antonio Conte later admitted: “You were incredible.”
