Girondins de Bordeaux 1985 Malardeau shirt

Having won the French league title in 1984 after a 34-year wait, Girondins de Bordeaux set their sights on a challenge worthy of the world’s finest club: the European Cup. Especially as 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 saw off the Spanish champions, Athletic Bilbao, thanks to a 3-2 victory at Lescure.  Next up was Dinamo Bucharest; it was a tense encounter, with the two sides cancelling each other out, and it was a goal in extra time by Bernard Lacombe that saw the Girondins through. They remained in the East for the quarter-final against Dnipropetrovsk. In the first leg, Soviet goalkeeper Sergei Krakovsky produced the performance of his life; in the return leg, Bordeaux held on as best they could. In short, it went to penalties, where everything was decided by one of those moments of magic that only football can offer: the Portuguese player Fernando Chalana, signed following his fine Euro performance but terribly disappointing up to that point, took the final penalty of the shootout… with his right foot, despite being left-footed. And he sent the Girondins through.

In the semi-finals, they faced Michel Platini’s mighty Juventus, alongside Boniek, Rossi, Cabrini… a formidable line-up. In Turin, things didn’t go too well; Platini was on fire, scoring a goal, as did Boniek, and the referee ruled that Briaschi was allowed to knock his opponent off balance before scoring. 3-0. The return leg, in a packed and electric Lescure stadium, saw the Girondins put the Italians under constant pressure, with Dieter Müller opening the scoring in the 25th minute. The Turin side held out against Bordeaux’s attacks until the 79th minute when, “Mamamia”, Patrick Battiston unleashed a thunderbolt from 30 metres that hit the post and flew into Bodini’s net. Lescure was in a frenzy for the final 10 minutes; alas, Tigana had the third goal at his feet but struck straight at the Italian goalkeeper. Bordeaux may have been defeated, but Bordeaux are great!