10. Paul Lambert (Borussia Dortmund v Juventus, 1997)
Zinedine Zidane is Champions League royalty, as a player and a coach. But there is one final – and one player in particular – that sticks in the Frenchman’s mind. “Oh my god, that game!” he remarked to Paul Lambert when they met years later.
Lambert joined Dortmund on a free transfer in 1996. Portugal star Paulo Sousa arrived fresh from winning the Champions League with Juventus the same summer, but it was the Scottish midfielder who wrote his name into Westfalenstadion legend.
Dortmund saw off Manchester United in the semi-finals to set up a showdown against Juventus in Munich in 1997, with Lambert handed the task of man-marking a playmaker emerging as one of the world’s greatest.
“The thing about Zidane, he drifts off your shoulder. He often goes away from the ball, almost baiting you. But the ball’s not the danger, it’s him,” Lambert told the Guardian. “Zidane did put me on the backside a couple of times because he’s brilliant. But he’s not going to evaporate, is he?”
As modest as his account is, Lambert didn’t give Zidane an inch and that was the platform for Dortmund to engineer a 3-1 win over the reigning champions.
Juventus chiefs were so impressed they offered to buy him that summer and, Lambert told Scotland, former Juventus midfielder Antonio Conte later confessed: “You were unbelievable.”
