How to win a trophy without winning matches

Can you win a trophy without winning a single match? No, of course not. But can you win a trophy by winning only 33% of your matches? Actually you can. Or at least you could, back in 1988.

photo: Marca

The year was 1988, PSV Eindhoven, champions of the Dutch Eredivisie, have joined the European Cup (which later evolved into Champions League). PSV had a team full of talented players, like Hans van Breukelen in the goal, Eric Gerets and Ronald Koeman in the defence, Gerald Vanenburg, Berry van Aerle and Soren Lerby in the midfield, Wim Kieft and Hans Gilhaus upfront. Coach Guus Hiddink just took over the first team after few years spent in the role of the assistant in the club. Now, their hard work in Dutch top division was about to be put to the test when they entered the international competition.

Their rivals in the first round were Turkish champions, Galatasaray. Yes, back then, every club taking part in European Cup had to win their national league, but that is another story. In the first match home, PSV scored three goal (Hans Gilhaus, Ronald Koeman and Adick Koot), so the second leg seemed straightforward. But the second match was nothing but straightforward and on Ali Sami Yen Stadium, Galatasaray managed to score two goals and was close to equalling the score.

In the second round, Rapid Vienna seemed to be less of a threat to PSV, and in both matches the Dutch team managed to score, winning 2-1 away and 2-0 home. The European competition began to look promising for the team from Eindhoven, but in the quarter final they were drawn to face a real challenge - Bordeaux, a strong team lead by Jean Tigana, one of the best central midfielders of his era with over 50 caps for France.

The series begins

The first match, played in Bordeaux, ended with a 1-1 draw with both sides struggling to create advantage over the opponents. If the first match might have been tough, the second one was even bigger disappointment for the French side. With the draw 0-0 PSV Eindhoven advanced to the next round on away goals. Or rather a single away goal.

The semi-final rivals were even stronger than Bordeaux, it was Real Madrid with such legends as Emilio Butragueño, Hugo Sánchez, Francisco Buyo and Manolo Sanchís in the lineup. Even though the PSV team had talented players, Real was at the top of the form. It was their third semi-final of European Cup in a row and with such great players they were keen to finally win that trophy.

The first match at Santiago Bernabéu ended with 1-1 draw after early goals from Hugo Sánchez (penalty in 6th minute) and Report Linskens (in 19th minute). The second leg ended with 0-0 draw, which... again meant that PSV won on away goals. And again, a single away goal to be exact.

The final

But the European Cup final is something completely different - their rivals were Benfica Lisbon, which beat Albanian champions FK Partizani Tirana 4-0 and walkover in the first round, Danish AGF Aarhus in second round (1-0 and 0-0), Belgian Anderlecht in quarter-finals (2-0 and 0-1) and in semi-finals Steaua Bucuresti (0-0 and 2-0). A single match will decide which team will take home the European Cup.

The final match, although it had its drama, ended with rather disappointing 0-0 draw, so the penalty shoot-out was about to decide the result. At least that part of the final was exciting and in 6th round of penalties António Veloso failed to score, which meant that PSV Eindhoven was crowned in 1988 as the top team in Europe. But also it meant that it was (not counting penalty shoot-out) a trophy won based on 3 wins, 5 draws, a single defeat and a lot of luck. Or to put in a different way, PSV scored 2 goals in 5 last matches of the competition.

The 1988 European Cup and 1978 UEFA Cup (also with some confrontations won by a margin of a single goal) remain the only international trophies PSV Eindhoven has won in the club's long history. It would be unfair to say that they won the 1988 European Cup by chance, although the luck was definitely on their side. But, as they say, luck prefers the hard working.