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The 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup final was a football match on 4 May 1994 contested between Arsenal of England and title holders Parma of Italy. It was the final match of the 1993–94 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 34th European Cup Winners' Cup final. The final was held at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, and Arsenal won 1–0 with the goal coming from Alan Smith. It is widely considered as the peak of Arsenal's famous defence. Arsenal became the fourth London club to win the trophy after Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and West Ham United.[1]
Having beaten Antwerp in the same competition in the previous year, Parma were aiming to become the first side to win consecutive finals; five sides had previously failed to do so after reaching the final for a consecutive year. The final was the first time that Parma had come up against English opposition. On the other hand, Arsenal had three times played out two-legged affairs with Italian clubs. The first meeting was in the 1970–71 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, when they overcame Lazio 4–2 on aggregate, drawing the first leg in Rome and winning the second leg 2–0 at Highbury. Arsenal had also faced Italians in the 1979–80 European Cup Winners' Cup at the semi-final stage; Arsenal won 2–1 on aggregate. The most recent meeting was in the quarter-finals of this year's competition, where they overcame Torino 1–0 over two legs.[2]
It was the first time Parken Stadium had hosted the major European competition's final and the first time any European competition's final had been held in Denmark. The stadium had opened only recently – in 1992 – and was the home of Copenhagen and the Denmark national team, taking two years to construct at the cost of 640 million Danish kroner. It was built on the site of the national team's previous home, Idrætsparken.[3]
33,765人の観衆が戦術的な試合を目撃した。パルマのトマス・ブロリンは序盤にポストを叩いたが、20分にロレンツォ・ミノッティがオーバーヘッドクリアをミスし、アラン・スミスが左足ボレーでルカ・ブッチを破って先制した。その後アーセナルはパルマのプレッシャーを受けたが、ジャンフランコ・ゾラとファウスティーノ・アスプリージャを抑え、リードを守り、ロンドンのクラブとして4番目にトロフィーを獲得した。[ 1 ]決勝戦は、アーセナルファンが試合中ずっと「アーセナルに1対0」と歌っていたことで有名だった。[ 4 ]
アーセナルは、得点王のイアン・ライトが出場停止で決勝を欠場したほか、負傷したジョン・ジェンセン、マーティン・キーオン、デイビッド・ヒリアーも欠いていた。[ 5 ]アーセナルは、イアン・セリー、スティーブ・モロー、ポール・デイビスを先発ミッドフィールダーとして起用した。シーマン、ディクソン、アダムス、ボールド、ウィンターバーンの有名な5バックは健在だったが、ライトが出場停止だったため、アラン・スミスが最前線で単独の役割を与えられ、マーソンとケビン・キャンベルは4-5-1のサイドでプレーするように指示された。