Juventus 1997

Coach: Marcello Lippi

Marcello Lippi's Juventus returned to the European Cup final in 1997 as reigning champions, having won the trophy the previous year against Ajax on penalties, but were beaten 3-1 by Borussia Dortmund in Munich in a final where the German side's directness and physicality proved a difficult puzzle for Juventus to solve. The squad remained one of the strongest in world football at the time, built around Alessandro Del Piero's emergence as one of Serie A's brightest young talents, alongside Zinedine Zidane in his first season at the club after arriving from Bordeaux, and a defence featuring Ciro Ferrara and goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi. Juventus would reach a third consecutive European Cup final the following year too, losing again, this time to Real Madrid — a remarkable run of three straight finals across 1996-98 that yielded only a single triumph, a frustration that came to define this otherwise golden generation of Juventus talent. Lippi's side dominated Serie A throughout this period regardless, and the squad's near-miss European legacy is often discussed alongside similarly star-studded sides that fell agonisingly short of matching their domestic dominance on the continental stage.