Dejan Lu flew to Spain with his teammates.
Zaragoza was a club from the Aragón region.
The team that had gifted them the Cup Winners' Cup last year was Arsenal.
Although the Professor had taken over Graham's team early, he had made no signings and had not had a full season. It was perfectly normal that they could not beat Zaragoza.
Zaragoza's squad had been quite strong at the time. Their backup fullback was Cafu, and they also had several Spain regulars in midfield, such as Ignacio and Aragón.
Yet this season, Zaragoza's strength had declined somewhat.
That was the fate of small teams that won championships.
Especially after Bosman won his case in December, marking the arrival of another era in European football.
From then on, life would only get harder for small clubs, and even for dominant teams from smaller nations. Ajax, once the kings of Europe, would also become a star factory.
Under such circumstances, for a small La Liga club to win a European trophy, its opponent would have to be Amorim's Manchester United.
Several key players had been bought away in the summer, but Zaragoza still retained a certain level of competitiveness.
What Dejan Lu had not expected was that they had actually let Cafu go.
Although Cafu's league performances had been average, he had been outstanding for the national team. He clearly had potential, but tactical and other reasons had kept him from showing it.
The name Cafu was a nickname, mainly because his style resembled that of the Brazilian star Calinga from the seventies.
If you did not know the exact story behind a Brazilian player's name on the back of his shirt, it was difficult to guess how it related to his full name. Outside South America, nobody would print someone else's