Skip to content

My Greatest Game: Alan McInally picks the 1990 European Cup Semi-final

Alan McInally: Discusses his Greatest Game

Alan McInally explains why the 1990 European Cup semi-final between AC Milan and Bayern Munich was the greatest game of his career.

The former Scotland striker, who is now a Sky Sports pundit, scored the winning goal for Bayern in a 2-1 second-leg home win, but his side went out of the competition on away goals after losing the first leg 1-0.

And even though McInally says he was gutted by the defeat he insists it was the most memorable game of his career.

"At the time I was absolutely gutted because I went to Bayern to win things," he told Sky Sports.

"I’d gone to one of the biggest teams in Europe, I was relied on to get goals – to be part of the team which I did to the best of my ability but to not get to the final was killing me.

"I remember Jupp Heynckes saying to me at the time when I signed that we would hopefully win the league every year, he said we wanted to win the European Cup and I felt as though I let them down a little bit by not getting another goal to put us into the final.

To play in such a game like that it was probably one of the biggest disappointments I will ever experience in football.
Alan McInally

"We were by far the better team. They were probably just favourites only because they were the holders and had a 1-0 advantage.

More from Champions League Semi-finals

"They got another goal (Stefano Borgonovo in extra time) which incidentally was offside, a mile offside. It was hugely frustrating. You can talk about conspiracy theories and Italian football being as good as it was at the time etc - but it was offside.

"To work that hard, and to go to Milan and lose 1-0 and then were put out so cheaply really stuck in the throat at the time.

"To play in such a game like that it was probably one of the biggest disappointments I will ever experience in football."

To watch Alan's memories in full, watch the video at the top of the page.