Joel Richards

Winning at the home venue of a great rival is one thing, but winning a trophy there is something else altogether. 

Few teams can claim such bragging rights (see Arsenal in 1971 and 2004) but when it comes in the biggest game in European club football, imagine how Borussia Dortmund fans must feel when they reflect on events from 28 May 1997?

That night, BVB faced reigning UEFA Champions League winners Juventus in Bayern Munich’s Olympiastadion home with few giving Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side a chance against the Italian giants. After all, this was a side that contained future World Cup winners in Didier Deschamps and Zinedine Zidane, as well as a strike force of Christian Vieri and Alen Boksic. 

Dortmund, however, had World Cup winners of their own. Four of their starting XI were part of West Germany’s triumphant squad in 1990 – Jurgen Kohler, Stefan Reuter, Andreas Moller and Karl-Heinz Riedle – and their experience would prove to be crucial in the events that followed.

Juventus may have enjoyed large periods of possession in the game’s opening, but on 29 minutes their game plan had gone awry when a corner rebounded to Paul Lambert who knocked the ball to the back post for Riedle to put Dortmund in front.

Five minutes later, another corner through a swung-in cross from Moller found Riedle – again – who leapt above everyone else to win the ball and fire a bullet header past Angelo Peruzzi to double the black-and-yellows lead. The holders’ dream of consecutive European Cup wins was in tatters.

2-0 down at half-time, Juve coach Marcello Lippi changed his side’s shape and brought on Alessandro Del Piero in place of right-back Sergio Porrini. Although they still enjoyed plenty of possession, I Bianconeri continued to struggle in their attempts to break down the German resistance.

However, on 65 minutes they eventually found a breakthrough as a counter-attack resulted in Del Piero meeting a low cross from Boksic with an audacious backheel to reduce the arrears. Game on, or so it seemed. 

Less than six minutes later, any momentum the Old Lady had was halted by the fresh legs of substitute Lars Ricken. Within seconds of replacing Stephane Chapuisat, the midfielder latched on to a wonderful pass from Moller that exposed the Juve defence and having spotted Peruzzi off his line Ricken attempted an audacious 30-yard chip that sailed over the goalkeeper’s head and into the back of the net.

In one fell swoop, Ricken etched his name into Dortmund folklore and secured Dortmund’s first-ever Champions League crown in the process. Victory provoked scenes of unbridled joy in North Rhine-Westphalia and that night in Munich is arguably the greatest in the club’s history. 

After all, how can you top winning the biggest prize in club football behind enemy lines?