The road to winning the Champions League in 1997 was not a magnificent, all-conquering journey. Rather, it was paved with adversity and resistance. There were also one or two parallels to today...
It was a star-studded team that Ottmar Hitzfeld had at his disposal, which the most gentlemanly of all German coaches had led to two championships with expert knowledge and a flair for man-management. And by winning the league titles in 1995 and 1996, Hitzfeld had satisfied the longing of an entire region. However, the availability of those stars in the team was increasingly becoming an issue. Top players such as Mathias Sammer, Julio Cesar, Paulo Sousa and Karl-Heinz Riedle were absent for more than half of the ten matches on the way to the final in Munich. He could only rely on Stefan Klos, Paul Lambert, Stéphane Chapuisat, Andreas Möller, Jörg Heinrich and Stefan Reuter – not forgetting the versatile René Tretschok and super-sub Lars Ricken!
"It was one of my tasks to unite the people," said Hitzfeld on the 25th anniversary of the 1997 Champions League victory in the Borussia members' magazine, and added with regard to the latently strained personnel situation: "Of course, you always have to plan for alternatives, but the most important thing is that you trust the team that had been successful before and don't want to over-think things as you try to surprise the opponents with your tactics. The key is playing to your own strengths."
However, his team had to bury their ambitions of achieving a treble early on in the season, as they were embarrassed in the first round of the cup, losing 4-3 in Wattenscheid. The 1996/97 Bundesliga season was going more or less according to plan until the end of the first half of the season. Borussia Dortmund went into the winter break in second place on with 36 points. Bayern Munich had collected just two points more than the previous year's champions from Dortmund. In the second half of the season, however, the criticism grew louder. Anger and dissatisfaction grew. The team lost six of their 17 matches after the restart, including a 2-1 defeat in Hamburg in the Bundesliga immediately before the final, which meant they could no longer snatch a place in Europe's premiere competition for the following season by finishing second in the Bundesliga – the first time the runners-up had also secured qualification for the Champions League.
In the semi-final, BVB faced the most star-studded team in Europe (although many experts considered defending champions Juventus the best at the time). Manchester United had top players from the front (Eric Cantona) to the back (Peter Schmeichel). And a certain David Beckham was whipping up a storm in midfield. In addition, the draw was not favourable to them, handing the opposition home advantage in the second leg – just like this year against the much-fancied stars of Paris Saint-Germain. Back in 1997, however, Borussia had to field a severely depleted side. Nevertheless, it was enough for a 1-0 victory thanks to René Tretschok's goal. The cushion was wafer-thin, and the problems were growing bigger and bigger.
Two days before the second leg in Manchester – which BVB would go on to win 1-0 – Jürgen Kohler's partner and future wife Silke suffered a miscarriage. Kohler did not fly to England with the team – officially due to an upset stomach – but traveled to England on the day of the match. "If Silke hadn't told me to play, I wouldn't have boarded the plane," the defender later revealed. In the "Theatre of Dreams", as Manchester's Old Trafford stadium is reverentially known, Kohler went on to play perhaps the game of his life, making several goal-line clearances. Superstar Eric Cantona became increasingly frustrated in his attempts to get the better of him. "My strength was that I was able to focus particularly well," said Kohler. "I always performed at my best in difficult periods."
When the plane took off from Dortmund-Wickede Airport on Monday 26 May 1997, with the exception of César, Steffen Freund and René Schneider, all the stars were on board. However, sitting in the front row, Ottmar Hitzfeld did not yet know whether he would be able to use them all. Andreas Möller had missed the game two days earlier in Hamburg due to a bruise in his thigh, as had Riedle, who had nevertheless boarded the plane in high spirits. Heiko Herrlich had suffered a painful blow to his Achilles tendon in the Volksparkstadion, while Matthias Sammer had commuted between Dortmund and Munich the days before to have his muscles repeatedly examined by orthopaedist Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt. Stefan Reuter and Jürgen Kohler were also battling muscle issues and were still recovering from muscle tears. In Paulo Sousa's case, it was the patellar tendon in his knee. Martin Kree's ligament injury in his wrist almost seemed like a "trifle".
Footballers are superstitious creatures. In 1989, a new kit had been issued for the cup final victory against Werder Bremen. Andreas Möller remembered this, and so he appealed to Dr. Niebaum, and so on 28 May 1997, Borussia did not play in the kits they had worn on the way to Munich, but in the one that would actually not make its official debut until three months later. And footballers also believe in special numbers. The clash with the highly favoured defending champions Juventus was the 100th European Cup match in Dortmund's history, making it the perfect time for the big coup.
Hitzfeld: "Before we went out, I always said three or four short sentences. The most important thing is to be positive and emphasise once again that we will only achieve the goal together. And no matter how the game goes, we must always believe in ourselves and be prepared to do everything we can to be successful."
Kalle Riedle had dreamed of his two goals the night before the game – and he scored them, making it both 1-0 and 2-0 to Dortmund. Then, just as Juve were on the verge of turning the game around, Lars Ricken scored an equally wonderful and important goal to make it 3-1 just a few seconds after coming on as a substitute. For Ottmar Hitzfeld, the victory still has a very special significance today, 27 years later: "Winning the Champions League with a club that has waited so long to win another international final is the greatest and most meaningful success of my career. I was 48 years old at the time. Borussia Dortmund's path to this final was gigantic. And then to beat Juventus, the best team at the time, with Zinedine Zidane, was like something out of a fairytale."
Next Saturday, BVB will once again be the underdogs. And this time it is the 300th European Cup match in the history of this glorious club...
Boris Rupert/Thomas Hennecke
