In this series, Finnish football journalist Juhavaltteri Salminen recalls occasions on which Nordic teams proved to be a match – and sometimes more than that – for some of the most famous clubs in Europe. In the mid-1990's, a Norwegian side finally introduced itself on the continent…
Champions League 1996/97: AC Milan 1–2 Rosenborg BK
Any series about Nordic teams' greatest European nights would be incomplete without the mention of Rosenborg BK, so remarkable was their ascension to European success in the 1990s. Yet it is difficult to know where to start, for this is a side that beat the likes of Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain and gave Juventus a run for their money around the turn of the millennium.
In the late 1980s, Norwegian football was hardly a force to be reckoned with. Football was a popular sport in the country and average attendances in the top flight had varied between 3,500 and 8,000 for the past couple of decades, which is respectable for a nation of Norway's size. It did not translate to on-pitch success though. The national team had only participated in a major tournament once, in the World Cup of 1938, where they were knocked out immediately by Italy.
Things were not much better for club sides. Norwegian teams almost never upset the odds in Europe. Their proudest moment had probably been when Fredrikstad had eliminated Ajax in the 1960/61 European Cup, or when Haugar overcame Swiss side Sion in the 1980/81 Cup Winners' Cup, only to be sent packing by Welsh Newport County of the English Third Division.
The change started in Trondheim. The central Norwegian city's footballing pride, Rosenborg BK, had had mixed successes for the previous couple of decades, winning four league titles between 1967 and 1985 but also falling to the second division in the late 1970's.
The 1985 title was something of a renaissance, but the path to glory started in earnest in 1988. The club was professionalised, a company was set up with the help of a local bank to run the show and new capital flowed in. But perhaps most importantly, they started embracing a different brand of football. Central to that was their new manager.
Nils Arne Eggen outside Lerkendal. The Rosenborg manager who beat Real Madrid, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. True legend! pic.twitter.com/Xd4Hvo3kZT
— Mikael Bue (@mopedbart) September 12, 2019
On the surface, there seems to have been nothing innovative about the hiring of Nils Arne Eggen as manager. A former Rosenborg player himself, Eggen was already an experienced coach. He even had three earlier spells at the helm of Rosenborg, one of which had culminated in a domestic title in 1971.
Eggen had also managed the Norwegian national and U23 sides. Most recently, he had spent two years at Moss, where he had led his side to top-flight promotion in 1986 and then straight to a spectacular title the very next year.
English football had been popular in Norway ever since the 1970s, and it showed in the Norwegian game. Many a coach had embraced traditional English ideals of an organised, defensive 4–4–2 system. People had most certainly also looked to the east, where Swedish clubs had enjoyed considerable European success with these principles.
But Eggen was from a very different mould. He was primarily influenced by Rinus Michels and the Dutch totaalvoetbal ideology. For Eggen, it was all about the attack. He installed a free-flowing 4–3–3 system and an offensive attitude while many others wanted to minimize risks.
Furthermore, Eggen and Rosenborg were very much into player development. They tied close bonds to smaller clubs in the Trondheim area, making them the pride of the entire county of Trøndelag. Not only did it make the club popular in the eyes of the public, it also helped them nurture young talent.
It all resulted in immediate and massive success. Rosenborg won the league in 1988 and 1990. Then in 1992, they retook the domestic crown and only relinquished it in 2005, a period of dominance few other clubs in all of European football can match.
It was a very opportune time financially for such a rise. In the early 1990s, football had reached a stage in its commercialisation and globalisation that was optimal for a Norwegian club. It was the dawn of the Champions League, with substantial prize money involved. And the scouting networks of clubs in major European leagues had widened, but not yet reached Africa, for example. Young Scandinavian talents were thus red hot in the market, and as a team consisting mainly of local talent, Rosenborg sold many players for hefty fees.
But in terms of the actual football, Europe seemed a tough nut to crack for Rosenborg. After some early Champions League and UEFA Cup exits in the early 1990s, RBK did make it to the Champions League group stage in 1995–96, a first for Norway, and even beat English champions Blackburn at home. But they missed the knockout rounds, and Eggen knew why.
A REMINDER:
Mike Newell scored a 9 minute hat-trick in the Champions League for Blackburn vs Rosenberg in 1995. The record stood until 2011 pic.twitter.com/1GRx2RO8wc
— Football Remind (@FootballRemind) August 24, 2017
"We had too much respect for the teams we faced. They were too good in our eyes", recalled Eggen in an interview with Norwegian state broadcaster NRK in 2016.
"We thought we should be cautious and that all of a sudden we should be doing something different than at (home stadium) Lerkendal. I decided that when we played away games in Europe, it would be us that would cause them problems. Exactly like we did to teams at home. We would attack them, not vice versa".
It was with this philosophy that Rosenborg began their 1996–97 Champions League campaign, booking another group stage spot by beating Panathinaikos in the qualifiers. And the group stage started with what could be seen as a symbolic result. Rosenborg beat IFK Göteborg 3–2 in Sweden, thus announcing themselves as the number one club in the Nordics, a position Göteborg had indisputably held for the best part of the last decade.
But the road then got rockier. Rosenborg suffered an expected 1–4 defeat to AC Milan at Lerkendal on Matchday 2, then lost twice to Porto. Another win over IFK Göteborg kept play-off hopes alive, but only just. Rosenborg went into the final matchday, an affair with AC Milan at the San Siro, needing a win.
It was a Milan side that was and is, in many observers' eyes, the best team of the era. They had only missed out on the Serie A title once in the last four years. They had won the Champions League in 1994 and played in the final in 1995. The side was packed with iconic names: Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta, Dejan Savicevic, Marcel Desailly…
4.12.96: Rosenborg leder 2-1 over AC Milan i det 90. minutt, og Gleditsch er klar for fest med medkommentator Knut Thorbjørn Eggen.
Gleditsch: Da skal jeg spandere på deg massevis av spaghetti. Men vi må ka karsk til!
Knut Thorbjørn Eggen: Javæl?https://t.co/risLLSNXJT— Torger Kielland (@Patentmann1) July 3, 2019
And the Rossoneri only needed a draw to secure a quarterfinal spot. Granted, they were having a bad season and had only rehired Arrigo Sacchi as manager three days before the game, but Rosenborg's hopes were thin.
"Because we needed to win and they only needed a point, many had probably given up their hopes of quarterfinals", admitted striker Harald Martin Brattbakk, Rosenborg's goal machine, to NRK in 2016.
But once again, the Norwegians leaned on what had gotten them there. Eggen had not travelled all the way to Italy see his side being overawed by more famous opponents. And, according to striker Steffen Iversen, it was Eggen's team talk that instilled that same confidence in the players.
The team talk was remarkable because it was hardly a team talk at all. Calm as ever, Eggen walked into the room, told the players to go out and have fun and went back to minding his own business.
"That is when I at least got the feeling that it might not be totally impossible after all", Iversen, another local boy who had come through the ranks, has said.
Those who were still in doubt probably started feeling the same when Brattbakk got hold of a lucky bounce and put Rosenborg 1–0 up on 29 minutes, somewhat against the balance of play.
4 dicembre 1996, il @RBKfotball ferma il ciclo dell'@acmilan ► https://t.co/tCus2I3X5t#Rosenborg #Milan #UCL pic.twitter.com/OmOWaCr45L
— Calcio Romantico (@CalcioRomantico) December 4, 2015
But just before half-time, Christophe Dugarry equalised. In the circumstances, many an underdog might have cracked. But not Eggen's Rosenborg.
"When we went out again (for the second half), the feeling was that we were going to go for 2–1", said Eggen in Hvit tornado (White tornado), a 2016 documentary about Rosenborg's European successes.
They got what they wanted after 70 minutes. Brattbakk intercepted a poor Milan pass in Rosenborg's half, carried the ball some 20 metres and found the onrushing Vegard Heggem with a long ball. Heggem beat goalkeeper Sebastiano Rossi to it and the rest is Norwegian football history.
Even the Milanese acknowledged it. Rosenborg were hesitant to leave San Siro after the game because crowds had gathered outside the bus entrance. But the home supporters opened a way for the visitors and applauded them as the bus rolled past. AC Milan were not as lucky. Their bus was showered with anything throwable that locals could get their hands on.
Rosenborg suffered a 1–3 aggregate defeat to eventual finalists Juventus in the quarter-finals, but they had raised the bar to unforeseen heights all the same. Norwegian club football could finally stop feeling sorry for itself.
"That is when we started feeling like we should do this more often", said Eggen.
Rosenborg certainly did. Their great European exploration had just begun.
Sources: NRK, Hvit tornado, Aftenposten, Dagsavisen, Addressavisen, BBC, These Football Times, RBKmedia.no, Rosenborg's official website
Nordic Glory 1: When Nottingham Forest spoiled Malmö's European Cup dream
Nordic Glory 2: Sven Goran Eriksson's IFK Göteborg shock "arrogant" German giants
Nordic Glory 3: All-conquering Liverpool suffer embarrassing defeat in freezing Helsinki
Nordic Glory 4: Swedish elation and Scottish disappointment in an unlikely European final
Nordic Glory 5: 'Miracle in Milan' as amateur Finnish side TPS shock Inter at the San Siro
Nordic Glory 6: One last hurrah for European greats IFK Göteborg at Manchester United's expense
Nordic Glory 7: Rosenborg humiliate AC Milan as Norwegian football emerges from darkness
Nordic Glory 8: "This is the f****** Champions League" – Stuart Baxter fumes as ref helps Barcelona beat AIK
Nordic Glory 9: Chelsea come undone on a "farcical" polar night in Norway as Ruud Gullit fumes
