There are some teams that are printed emphatically into the minds of those associated with the beautiful game, sides who remain revered even as decades pass and generations change.
Barcelona’s legendary team of the late eighties and early nineties are one such side, a wonderful footballing outfit masterminded by the legendary Johan Cruyff and forever referenced to as the ‘Dream Team’.
Cruyff was arguably the finest football mind the game has seen and he structured a side in his own image, placing an emphasis on playing the game simply and bringing his ‘Total Football’ principles to Catalonia.
Barcelona had won just one title in the previous 14 years before the appointment of the club’s former favourites in 1988, the Dutchman overseeing a period of glittering success as trophy after trophy arrived at the Camp Nou.
International superstars including Romario, Hristo Stoichkov, Michael Laudrup and Ronald Koeman starred, alongside a collection of fine Spanish talents in Pep Guardiola and Andoni Zubizarreta.
Cruyff guided the side to four consecutive league titles between 1991 and 1994, whilst a first-ever European Cup was won in the midst of that success, Barcelona crowned as champions of Europe after beating Sampdoria in 1992.
Cruyff won 11 trophies in just eight seasons to become the most successful manager in the club’s history, a record that would be broken by one of his many protégés in Guardiola two decades later.
The impact of his reign is ingrained into the ethos of Barcelona and to mark the anniversary of the late great’s death five years ago, here are some of the greatest goals scored by Cruyff’s Barcelona.
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