Lothar Matthaus was a serial winner during his playing career, picking up 18 trophies including the 1990 World Cup, 1980 European Championship and plenty of league titles.
While he managed to lift the UEFA Cup trophy in 1991 for Inter Milan, though, the European Cup/Champions League eluded him throughout his playing days. He did manage to reach the final on two occasions over two spells at Bayern Munich, but both ultimately ended in heartbreak.
The first European Cup final came in 1987 against Porto, with Ludwig Kögl putting Bayern 1-0 up in the first-half. Porto managed to bag two goals in three minutes as the game entered the final 10 minutes, though, ensuring a 26-year-old Matthaus would have to wait a little while longer to get his hands of European football's most coveted club prize.
With the name changed to the Champions League, Matthaus' chance duly came 12 years later at Camp Nou against Manchester United. Of course, that final has been much-documented, with Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer both netting in stoppage time to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat for the English side.
The last full season for the German playing club football in Europe, that defeat consigned him to Champions League obscurity.
When asked by FourFourTwo which of his losses still weighs heaviest, there's no debate for Matthaus.
"Oh, 1999 – no contest," Matthaus told FFT. "That defeat hurt so much more because, whereas Porto were a thorn in our side for that entire evening, we were a lot better than Manchester United at the Camp Nou.
"We dominated from start to finish and should have put the match to bed even before half-time. They had some good chances, certainly, but ours were far more dangerous.
"They never gave up, though, and anything can happen in football, especially when you don’t kill off your opponent. It still pains me now to remember that defeat. We had one hand on the trophy."
Roy Keane and Peter Schmeichel ended up lifting the trophy, though. Matthaus, a World Cup and Ballon d'Or winner, would have to settle for second-best on two occasions in the Champions League.
