Glory Days: The 80s Champions League Finals

In the 80's there was no such thing as a "Champions League".
There was a European Cup 1 in which national champions fought for the big trophy.
European cup 2 was the ultimate price for national cupwinners. And there was the EUFA cup (or European Cup 3) for clubs who finished 2nd till 5 ot 6.

Nowadays, in modern football, the "Champions League" is not a league of champions.
The Europa League is considered a lower competition than the Champions League. And who the fuck knows what the Conference Cup is?

Yeah... the Glory Days of the Beautiful Game are waaaaaay past us. We had less football, but the quality and the passion were much greater.

That Juventus penalty in 1985 was miles outside the area.

Great secind goal from Gullit in '89.

Liverpool team was the best team in Europe dominated Europe

I wouldn't have shown footage from the 1985 final out of respect for those who died there. The football was irrelevant after that tragedy and the game should never have taken place.

No wonder the English always thought they would win every single World Cup. Their club teams were dominating from the mid 70s to mid 80s. And if they didn't win English hooligans would smash everything. But if they won they would just drink and sing.

Teams at that time were not seeded. It meant that after each round you had a new draw, which was exciting. Big name teams could knock each other out early.

Also, teams were still limited to three foreign players. That meant that teams had to largely rely on their own players and couldn't just buy everyone up they wanted. So smaller teams stood a much better chance of winning.

And the Champions League nowadays is a merger of the European Cup and the UEFA Cup. Mostly the UEFA Cup actually.

Nowadays all the best players play on very few teams that keep on getting richer bc most of their league can't possibly compete. And the money keeps on flowing in bc you don't even have to win the title anymore to make it to the Champions League in which they are seeded. Group games further eliminate the possibility of being knocked out early.