++ [ originally posted by Kaiser Franco ] ++
Sacchi was innovative in that he introduced zone football in Italy, a country that had only known man-marking football until then and which, following the triumphs of Trap's Juventus, considered this as the only viable approach to the game.
Of course way too much credit was given to him for this, as in the end the team was tailor-made for offensive football. Just another case of "being in the right place at the right time" actually.
But the fact remains that this kind of play had disappeared from Europe since the days of Cruyff's Ajax (at least at club level, as one could argue that Platini's France "football champagne" bore a resemblance with it). And in the otherwise dull and static post Liverpool era, Milan brought some much-needed fresh air.
The loss against Marseille, as I've said repeatedly, occured after we had dominated that tournament like maybe no other team before (winning all our games on the way to the final). Also Marseille famously were our bête noire, as they had already cost us the one year ban from Europe the season before (when we finisihed the serie A unbeaten with Van Basten at the peak of his talent : imagine if THAT team had played the CL that season).
But regardless, we still reached two CL finals (winning one) in the following two seasons, so at the end of the day Milan's European Empire lasted from 1989 to 1995.
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