1985 Girondins de Bordeaux shirt by Malardeau

French champions in 1984 after a 34-year wait, Girondins de Bordeaux took on a challenge worthy of the world's greatest club: the European Cup. Especially since the Bordeaux armada of Giresse, Tigana, Tusseau, Battiston and Lacombe had also just led the French national team to the top of European football at Euro 1984.

In the first round, Girondins defeated Spanish champions Athletic Bilbao with a 3-2 victory at Lescure.  Next up was Dinamo Bucharest, a tense encounter in which the two teams cancelled each other out, with a goal in extra time from Bernard Lacombe qualifying the Girondins. They remained in the east for the quarter-final against Dniepropretovsk. In the first leg, Soviet goalkeeper Sergei Krakovsky decided to play the game of his life, while in the second leg, Bordeaux resisted as best they could. In short, it went to penalties, where everything was decided by one of those moments of grace that only football can offer: Portuguese player Fernando Chalana, recruited after his good Euro performance but terribly disappointing until then, took the last penalty of the series... with his right foot, even though he was left-footed. And he qualified the Girondins.

In the semi-finals, they faced Michel Platini's great Juve team, which also included Boniek, Rossi, Cabrini... Heavyweights, in other words. In Turin, things went so-so. Platoche was on fire, scoring one goal, as did Boniek, and the referee decided that Briaschi was allowed to knock down his opponent before scoring. 3-0. In the return leg, in a packed and overheated Lescure stadium, the Girondins inflicted an attack-defence on the Italians, opening the scoring in the 25th minute with a goal from Dieter Müller. The Turin side resisted Bordeaux's attacks until the 79th minute when, "Mamamia", Patrick Battiston sent a 30-metre shot that hit the post and went into Bodini's goal. Lescure was in a frenzy for the last 10 minutes, but unfortunately Tigana had the third goal at his feet but shot straight at the Italian goalkeeper. Bordeaux was defeated, but Bordeaux was great!