On 7 May 1986, at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium in Seville, Steaua Bucharest and Barcelona met in the European Cup final. On 7 May 2027 it will be 41 years since the night a goalkeeper won Europe almost single-handed. It was the first final of the competition to end 0-0, and the shoot-out that followed is like no other.

The road to Seville

Emerich Ienei's Steaua knocked out Denmark's Vejle, Hungary's Honvéd and Finland's Kuusysi. In the semi-finals they lost 1-0 to Anderlecht in Brussels but won 3-0 in Bucharest. No Romanian club had ever gone so far.

It was a different era for the competition, with no group stage and knockout ties from the first round. Only each country's champions took part, which is why the two finalists met teams from Denmark to Finland on the way.

Barcelona, coached by Englishman Terry Venables, had a harder time. They got past Sparta Prague and Porto on away goals and eliminated Juventus. In the semi-finals they lost 3-0 in Gothenburg, turned it round with a 3-0 win at the Camp Nou and went through on penalties.

A stadium full of Catalans

The final was played in Spain, and the crowd of about 70,000 was overwhelmingly made up of Barça fans. Ceaușescu's Romania allowed only around 1,000 supporters to travel, all carefully screened by the regime.

According to a feature in Champions magazine, 35 of them asked for asylum around the game. Duckadam later said the hostile atmosphere made him feel even stronger.

White for Steaua, light blue for Barça

Both teams had the same main colours, red and blue, so both changed kits. Steaua wore a white adidas shirt for the first time in their history, without even a crest on the chest.

Barcelona came out in light blue shirts, the same ones they had worn in Prague in the first round. Duckadam played in an all-green goalkeeper kit.

Even the shorts had their own detail, with pockets at the back for Steaua and at the front for Barcelona. The Romanians' white shirt was based on an adidas template of the time and was never worn in a final again.

120 minutes without a goal

The game was tight and nervous, with no flow. Steaua, captained by Ștefan Iovan in place of the suspended Tudorel Stoica, played with discipline and waited.

Barcelona found no way through, and Venables took off Bernd Schuster and Steve Archibald, an admission that the plan was not working. Extra time changed nothing and the final went to penalties.

Behind Steaua's composure was Ienei, a player for the club from 1957 to 1969, who had returned to the bench in 1983. He avoided long pre-match meetings and named his starting XI three days in advance.

Four penalties, four saves

The start was bad for the Romanians, as Urruti saved from Majearu and Bölöni. But Helmut Duckadam replied by stopping Alexanko and Pedraza.

Lăcătuș scored, Duckadam also stopped Pichi Alonso, and Balint made it 2-0. With Barça's fourth kick Marcos Alonso found the goalkeeper too, and Steaua were champions of Europe.

Barça's fans quickly emptied the stands. Guinness World Records later listed the four saves in one game as a record.

Duckadam himself recalled that until then Romanian teams had almost always lost shoot-outs in Europe. That, he said, was what made this win unique.

Why it went down in history

Steaua became the first Eastern European club to lift the European Cup, and they remain the only Romanian one. In February 1987 they also won the Super Cup, 1-0 against Dynamo Kyiv with a Hagi goal. Three years after Seville they reached the final again but lost 4-0 to Milan.

The "Hero of Seville" never got to live the career that lay ahead of him. That same summer a blood clot was found in his right arm, he had surgery and never played at the top level again. He died in December 2024, aged 65.

For Barcelona, Seville remained an open wound until 1992 and Wembley. And the crestless white shirt is one of the most unusual kits ever seen in a final.

See our Champions League club jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium in Seville (2024) – CarlosVdeHabsburgo, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.