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Dazzling dozen: Where does Real Madrid rank among Europe's best?

Reuters / John Sibley

For the third time in four years, Real Madrid is the toast of Europe.

Saturday's result in Cardiff saw the club win a record 12th European title and a third continental conquest in four attempts, placing this Los Blancos side among football's best.

Fifteen years removed from the revered Galacticos era, this current crop of Madristas is being mentioned in association with Europe's most dominant clubs - and rightly so - but where does this side rank when compared to fellow preeminent outfits on the continent, like Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, Ajax's Total Football, or Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan?

1. Barcelona (2008-12)

Pep Guardiola knows what it takes to lift the Champions League trophy with Barcelona. The midfielder started the 1991-92 final in which the Johan Cruyff-led Catalans topped Sampdoria 1-0 at Wembley courtesy of Ronald Koeman's extra-time winner.

Seventeen years later, and Guardiola paced the touchline as Barcelona topped Manchester United 2-0 in Rome, only to mirror that two-goal result against the Red Devils two years later at Wembley. The England national football ground has been good to the current Manchester City boss.

Apologies to Frank Rijkaard's Champions League-winning Barcelona side from 2005-06, but it was Guardiola who took a brilliant side and turned it into a mythical one. In four years at the helm of La Blaugrana, Guardiola's lot won 14 of 19 competitions, including a sextuplet in his debut campaign.

The peak of both tiki-taka football and the powers of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, Guardiola perfected the attack-minded 4-3-3 that turned Lionel Messi from a prodigious talent into a stupefying footballing freak. As fluid as the sport can be played, perhaps the greatest testament of the virtues of this era of Barcelona is that it was made to look so easy.

When Guardiola took the gig in June 2008, he told his players, "I will not let you down. If I didn't feel I was ready, I wouldn't be here." If there ever was an understatement, it's that.

2. Real Madrid (2013-present)

Some sides, like Guardiola's Barcelona and Ajax under Rinus Michels, have left a lasting impression because of how they changed football for the better. Others, like the current Real Madrid side, leave a permanent memory as a result of how dominant it was.

After Saturday's victory in Cardiff, which came courtesy of as one-sided a second half as a European final can provide, Los Blancos have won three Champions League finals in four years against two sides that, in theory, should have been a thorn in Real's side.

Instead, Juventus wilted under the attacks of Cristiano Ronaldo and the midfield sovereignty of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, conceding four times after only allowing three goals in the entire tournament.

Like Juventus, Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid sides were supposed to be the antithesis of Real football. Instead, thanks to finals defeats in 2014 and 2016, they were the little sister who wore hand-me-downs while the lavish eldest sibling lived in luxury.

The first side to retain the Champions League in its contemporary format, Real's exploits may be tethered down the road to Ronaldo's record-smashing run, though it is so much more than that. It's Marcelo, who is the consensus world's best full-back. It's Sergio Ramos, who is as unnerving as he is likely to bag a back-breaking extra-time winner. It's understated midfield tandem Kroos and Modric, and it's a squad whose depth has relegated players like James Rodriguez and Mateo Kovacic - who would start for most clubs - to fringe roles.

3. Ajax (1970-73)

If a club's influence on the sport is a benchmark for its greatness, then early '70s Ajax deserves its place on this list even without three successive European cups.

In five seasons after his appointment in 1965, manager Rinus Michels mutated Ajax from a relegation threatener to the best side in Europe, employing "Total Football" - a tactical theory which emphasises that any outfield player can take any role on the pitch - to brilliant results.

It also made stars of Johan Neeskens, Sjaak Swart, Barry Hulshoff, Piet Keizer, Johan Cruyff, and so many more. "We played a kind of football that was not normal at that time in Europe," Cruyff said before his death in 2016. "We played our own style - something you did not see in other countries, and that drew attention in Europe."

Attention indeed, as European Cup finals victories over Panathinaikos, Inter, and Juventus shined the spotlight on Michels' lot, popularising the approach that was similarly used by the Dutch national team at the time, and forever changing modern football.

"I am especially happy that I have been able to help make the Dutch way of playing famous all over the world," Michels said years later. "If I had a tail, I would wag it." Not to worry, Michels; years later, and European football is wagging it for you.

4. AC Milan (1988-90)

Amid a relatively dire stretch since a 10th Scudetto in 1979, AC Milan took a turn for the better courtesy of Silvio Berlusconi's arrival in 1986 and Arrigo Sacchi's appointment a year later.

What ensued was arguably the most dominant era of club football on the continent, as I Rossoneri won the European Cup in 1988-89 and again in 1989-90 to become the eighth side to repeat the feat, and the last to do so until Real Madrid's achievement in Cardiff.

Much of Milan's success was due to Sacchi, who emphasised the importance of a cohesive unit, saying, "You can't achieve anything on your own, and if you do, it doesn't last long. I often quote what Michelangelo said: 'The spirit guides the hand.'"

With Sacchi playing puppet master, Milan thrived with defensive-minded Italians Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni, and a budding Paolo Maldini, while Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, and Marco van Basten provided the creativity and attacking impetus.

Perhaps more worthy of celebration than a spell of dominance on the continent was Sacchi's influence on Italian football. Current Bayern Munich boss and former Milan midfielder Carlo Ancelotti said it best, offering: "Arrigo completely changed Italian football - the philosophy, the training methods, the intensity, the tactics. Italian teams used to focus on defending - we defended by attacking and pressing."

5. Real Madrid (1955-60)

As Zinedine Zidane's charges lift a record 12th European title in the crisp Cardiff air, it would be wise to spare a thought for the legendary side that gave them a five-title head start.

Before Ajax fitted the sport with a new pair of Total Football boots, and decades ahead of Barcelona's aqueous attack, a star-studded Real Madrid side ruled the continent by capturing the first five European Cups.

After coming from behind twice in the tournament's debut final against Reims in 1956, Real would go on to top Fiorentina, Milan, Reims again, and Eintracht Frankfurt in the subsequent championships.

Led by the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Francisco Gento, Raymond Kopa, and Marquitos, Los Blancos were Europe's first footballing rock stars, and, unlike some of the other sides on this list characterised by a manager's methods, Real had three gaffers over this spell.

Played on pitches that often resembled a bog, and with boots comparable to modern dress shoes, Real Madrid changed modern football for the better with an unrelenting attack led by Di Stefano, Puskas, and Kopa, as the side won all 17 of its European home games during this commanding stretch.

6. Real Madrid (1997-2002)

Maybe former Real midfielder Luis Figo said it best.

"We were like The Beatles. We were like kids playing out on the pitch," the elegant Portuguese legend offered. And he was right, as the Galacticos era thrived courtesy of football's version of the Scouse quartet, featuring the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul, David Beckham, and Roberto Carlos.

With three European titles in a five-year span coming against Juventus, Valencia, and Bayer Leverkusen, Real enjoyed a Golden Age that ended a 32-year wait for continental glory prompted by president Florentino Perez's demand that the world's best play at the Santiago Bernabeu.

If the squad was a world-class collection of massive players with gargantuan egos, Vicente Del Bosque was the calm source of continuity, and his dismissal on the heels of the 2002-03 La Liga win would mark the end of the Galacticos era.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

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