#3 Real Madrid in the 1998 and 2016 Champions League finals
Real Madrid are the most successful club in European history, winners of a record 11 European Cup/Champions League titles. But it could be argued that two of those wins were illegitimate.
Firstly, the 1998 final against Juventus. Real came into the match as underdogs – they hadn’t won the tournament in 32 years and the Italian giants were appearing in their third successive final.
The game was deadlocked heading towards 70 minutes and extra-time beckoned, but when a long cross was cleared by the Juve defenders, Roberto Carlos fired the ball back into the box and Predrag Mijatovic pounced, rounding the keeper to poke the ball into the net. Replays would show, however, that he was clearly offside, a fact missed by the German officials. It turned out to be the winning goal.
In 2016, history repeated itself; this time Real were playing local rivals Atletico Madrid, and took the lead in the 15th minute when a goalmouth scramble following a Toni Kroos free-kick saw a clearly offside Sergio Ramos poke the ball home. Atletico did manage to equalise, but lost in a penalty shoot-out.
Would Real only have 9 European cups rather than 11 had video technology been used? Quite possibly.
