Since we didn’t have many significant domestic league matches this week, and I have time to kill on a train from Amsterdam to Brussels, here is the next edition of our Annual Rankings. This time, we are up to 1989.
1989 was one of those seasons in which the European Cup winner did not manage to finish atop the World Club Rankings for the year. In the European Cup final, AC Milan trounced Steaua Bucuresti 4-0, on braces by Ruud Gullit and Macro Van Basten, but still finished second to Steaua in the rankings because it finished in third-place in Serie A, behind both Inter Milan and Napoli. Speaking of Napoli, Diego Maradona’s club was able to claim some silverware of its own by defeating VfB Stuttgart 5-4 in aggregate in the final of the 1988-89 UEFA Cup. Yet another Italian club made it to the final of the Cup Winners Cup, held in Berne, Switzerland, but Barcelona defeated Sampdoria 2-0 to take the cup.
Unlike the European Cup, the 1989 Copa Libertadores had plenty of excitement in the final as both Colombia’s Atletico Nacional and Paraguay’s Olimpia scored 2-0 victories in the final’s two legs. Atletico Nacional took the title, however, after defeating Olimpia in a 5-4 penalty kick shootout. Further north, Mexico’s UNAM Pumas defeated Cuba’s Pinar del Rio 4-2 in aggregate to take the final of the Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones.
Elsewhere in the world, the trophies were spread around. In the African Champions Cup, Raja Casablanca took the cup home to Morocco after defeating Algeria’s Oran 4-2 on penalty kicks following 1-0 home victories by both clubs. Al-Merreikh from Sudan took the African Cup Winners Cup, defeating Nigeria’s Bendel United 1-0 in the two-leg final. Finally, the Asian Champions Cup went to Qatar after Al Saad defeated Iraq’s Al Rasheed on away goals after the two clubs split six goals in their two matches.
That’s it for 1989. We’ll try to be back with 1990’s rankings in a few days.
World Club Rankings – Top 25 Clubs in the World – 1989
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