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Marseille's 1-0 win, the first by any club from the country which invented Continental competition, was greeted with understandable euphoria in France. Bernard Tapie, the club's millionaire president and one of a depleted band of Socialist MPs, would probably end up as Prime Minister if the general election were re-run today.
Whether it will have any long-term impact further afield must be doubtful. After all, the trophy which will now spend a year in Provence has been housed in Portugal, Romania and Yugoslavia in recent years, without any obvious effect on standards and styles. Marseille's triumph, secured by a set-piece goal against a manifestly superior team, owed more to rugged defending than to the Gallic flair epitomised by Platini, Cantona, Kopa and Fontaine.
Basile Boli, who headed the winner on the stroke of half-time, might not have been around to book his place in history had the Swiss referee spotted the off-the-ball foul which floored Marco van Basten. With 20/20 hindsight, it was a crucial moment; in the preceding 20 minutes Milan and, in particular, their centre-forward had run amok. Neither he nor his team were quite the same thereafter.
Raymond Goethals, the Marseille coach, was none the less entitled to praise the disciplined defending which frustrated Milan in the second half. He still intends to retire this summer at the age of 72, although some would argue that continuity will be unaffected. Tapie, no laissez-faire man when it comes to tactical matters, will still be there.
As for Milan's equally intrusive owner, Silvio Berlusconi, he may be tempted to break up what is an ageing team. Key players, notably Mauro Tassotti and Franco Baresi, are the wrong side of 30, while the strain of playing so many high-intensity matches has clearly affected the sharpness of others.
Our own FA Cup finalists might consider the 53 games Milan have played to be a light workload, but to Italian players it is a new experience. The weariness of the Milan players will have been all too familiar to the watching Alex Ferguson, who otherwise would have seen little to worry him as he plots Manchester United's return to Europe's premier tournament.
If it is left to Fabio Capello, their coach, the Italian champions-elect will make only 'minor changes'. As Capello argued, showing impressive dignity in the immediate aftermath of defeat: 'We don't really need a new team, just a fit one.' It should be remembered that before tiredness and injuries exposed their mortality, Milan had won all 10 matches in this season's competition, conceding only one goal.
For all that, there are undoubtedly problems. The role of the injury-prone Ruud Gullit is likely to come under renewed scrutiny, while there were clearly doubts among the Milanese masses in the Olympic Stadium about the contribution of the pounds 13m forward, Gianluigi Lentini. Meanwhile, Frank Rijkaard has announced via a Dutch newspaper that he wants to leave when his contract expires next month.
However, as if to underline that the real power still lies with the lira-happy Serie A clubs, the Marseille midfielder Franck Sauzee was finalising his transfer to Atalanta, of Bergamo, yesterday while the pastis was still flowing back in France.
----------------------------------------------------------------- FRANCE'S BEATEN FINALISTS ----------------------------------------------------------------- Year Cup Team Score Opponent 1956 EC Reims 3-4 Real Madrid 1959 EC Reims 0-2 Real Madrid 1976 EC St Etienne 0-1 Bayern Munich 1978 UC Bastia 0-0, 0-3 PSV Eindhoven 1991 EC Marseille 0-0 Red Star Belgrade (pens, 3-5) 1992 ECWC Monaco 0-2 Werder Bremen EC=European Cup; UC=UEFA Cup ECWC=European Cup-Winners' Cup -----------------------------------------------------------------
(Photograph omitted)
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