‘The night before the 1998 Champions League final, the Real Madrid squad stayed up until 4am in the hotel lobby, telling stories – none of us could sleep’: Roberto Carlos reveals secrets from facing Juventus

Real Madrid celebrate winning the Champions League
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Roberto Carlos has selected the 1998 Champions League final as his favourite memory of the 11 years he spent at Real Madrid, revealing secrets from before the game against Juventus.

The Brazilian full-back enjoyed great success in the Spanish captial, winning four La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues. He played with stars such as Ronaldo, Luis Figo, David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane during his time at the Bernabeu, though the best moment he selects didn’t actually involve any of the Galacticos.

Instead, Carlos focuses on playing Juventus in the 1998 Champions League final in Amsterdam, which would prove to be the first continental triumph of his time at the club.

Roberto Carlos reveals Real Madrid secrets from 1998 Champions League final

The Real Madrid starting XI (Image credit: Getty Images)Heading into the game, though, the Italians were heavily-fancied – their side contained Zidane, Edgar Davids and Alessandro Del Piero, and were appearing in their third consecutive final. Real Madrid, meanwhile, were struggling to get to sleep.

“If I had to single out a moment from my Real Madrid career, this would be it,” Carlos exclusively tells FourFourTwo. “The funny thing is that none of us could sleep the night before the final at the Amsterdam ArenA – we stayed up until about 4am in the hotel lobby, chatting and telling stories about our past.

Mijatovic scored the winning goal (Image credit: Getty Images)”Real Madrid had not won the Champions League or European Cup for quite some time (the club last won the trophy in 1966) and Juventus were thought to be favourites to win.

“Yet despite being a fairly inexperienced side, we still managed to leave these things out of our dressing room and guide Real Madrid back to Europe’s summit, thanks to Predrag Mijatovic’s second-half goal after my shot from the edge of the box was blocked. I’ll always remember that night.”

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Real Madrid stood resolutely in defence and battled hard, with the game fairly even throughout with barely any real chances to speak of.

Mijatovic’s finish in the 66th minute of the game, though, proved the difference, and while Los Blancos’ stars failed to get an early night, the late kick-off fortunately afforded them some time during the day to rest their eyes.

Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture’s websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.