Champions League

With Barca and Man United set to go to battle, JOE is reeling in the years with a full history of Champions League finals.

By Darragh Harkin

1993: The inaugural Champions League final was won by Marseille as they defeated AC Milan 1-0 in Munich. They are the first and only French team to have won the competition.

Memorable moment

The club and its officials would end up being relegated to the French second division and banned from European football due to match fixing allegations.

Goal Scorer

Basile Boli (43), no... I don’t remember him much either.

1994: Milan would return to the Champions league final and this time come out with a win. Barcelona went into the game as favourites but Milan proved too strong and wiped the floor with the Catalans, winning 4-0.

Memorable moment

Marcel Desailly winning the trophy back-to-back with different teams and wrapping up the game with the fourth goal.

Goal Scorers

Daniele Massaro (22) (45+3), Dejan Savicevic (47), Marcel Desailly (59)

1995: AC Milan reached the Final for the third year in a row only to lose out to a youthful Ajax team that featured the likes of Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, the De Boer brothers and Marc Overmars.

Memorable Moment

Newcastle fans will not remember Patrick Kluivert in too favourable a light, but as an 18-year-old coming off the bench he managed to score the only goal of this game with five minutes remaining. Also notable was the assist as it came from former Milan star Frank “You can’t work as hard as” Rijkaard.

Goal Scorer

Patrick Kluivert (85)

1996 Proved to be the first Champions League final to be determined by a penalty shoot out. Ajax made it to the final for the second year in a row and again faced Italian opposition, but this time it was Juventus.

Memorable Moment

Goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi took all the plaudits as he saved weak penalties from Davids and Silooy(who???)

Goal Scorers (Two stellar Premier League players here, who seemed to live off the memory of these goals for quite a long time)

Juventus, Fabrizio Ravanelli (12); Ajax, Jari Litmanen (41)

1997: Juventus returned for the second consecutive year but this time the Old Lady of Turin lost out to Borussia Dortmund. The match ended 3-1 to the Germans and was quite the upset.

Memorable Moment

Dortmund’s third goal was scored by substitute Lars Ricken. Ricken was only 16 seconds on the pitch when he lobbed the ball over Peruzzi with his very first touch of the ball.

Goal Scorers

Dortmund, Karl-Heinz Riedle (29) (34), Lars Ricken (71); Juventus, Allesandro Del Piero (64)

1998: Juventus again returned and again lost in the final, as they suffered defeat at the hands of Real Madrid and Predrag Mijatovic.

Memorable Moment

This 1-0 win for Real Madrid meant they had finally won their 7th trophy. With 32 years between the 6th and 7th.

Goal Scorer

Predrag “Slick Hair” Mijatovic (67)

1999: A famous final for a few reasons but mainly the late comeback from Manchester United as they cruelly stole the title away from Bayern Munich. The Germans lead the match from the 6th minute all the way to the end of normal time only to concede two goals in the three minutes of extra time.

Memorable Moment

The two late goals from two substitutes, Sammy Kuffour pounding the ground in disgust, the look on Lothar Matheus’s face and David May celebrating like he won the game all by himself when, in reality, he wasn’t even playing.

Goal Scorers

Bayern, Super Mario Basler (6); Man Utd, Teddy Sheringham (90+1), Ole Solskjaer (90+3)

2000: An all-Spanish affair as the Giants of Real Madrid took on the surprise package of Valencia. Madrid proved to be far too much for Valencia as they brushed them aside easily in a 3-0 win.

Memorable Moment

Robbie Fowlers best mate, better know as Steve McManaman, scoring a great volley from the edge of the box.

Goal Scorers

Fernando Morientes (39), McManaman (67), Raul (75)