Including the 2025 final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter, GOAL rates every decider of Europe's elite competition so far…
The Champions League final. It's the biggest match on the club calendar in football, always featuring historic clubs and so often the best players on the planet at that moment. Sometimes, it lives up to expectation in the most extraordinary fashion. Sometimes, sadly, it just doesn't.
On Saturday, Paris Saint-Germain overwhelmed Inter to win their first, and long-awaited, European Cup, racing into an early two-goal lead before eventually putting five past the Italians giants. It wasn't a classic final in the competitive sense but it was certainly an impressive performance from the victors.
Where does it rank among the greatest showpiece events the Champions League has seen, though? GOAL runs through every single one of the competition's finals since its 1992 rebrand…
Getty332003: Juventus 0-0 AC Milan (2-3 pens)
It seems too obvious to list the competition's only goalless final first, but with both of these teams very familiar with each other and bringing ageing teams to the table, 2003's Champions League final certainly wasn’t spectacular.
Things got off to a lively start as Andriy Shevchenko had a goal disallowed – wrongly, many would argue – while both Antonio Conte and Andrea Pirlo hit the woodwork, but this was all before both started to sit back.
Defensively, it was a masterclass – with Alessandro Nesta particularly formidable as Carlo Ancelotti reigned supreme against the club who had sacked him two years earlier.
And if Shevchenko’s goal in fact should have stood, it didn’t matter in the end, as he scored the winning penalty for Milan after an unsurprisingly goalless period of extra time.
AdvertisementGetty322021: Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea
The 2021 final was the third meeting in six weeks between Manchester City and Chelsea and, once again, that familiarity between opponents made for a rather uneventful encounter in Porto.
It was a night of half chances and body-on-the-line defending, with a lack of individual brilliance underlined by Kevin De Bruyne’s relative anonymity in a false nine role before he was forced off with a severe facial injury with less than an hour on the clock.
Kai Havertz’s strike just before half-time decided the destination of the trophy, but that his foul-mouthed post-match interview was probably the highlight for the neutral summed up this affair.
Getty311993: Marseille 1-0 AC Milan
Four-time European champions Milan fielded a star-studded XI in the first Champions League final, but it was rising stars such as Alen Boksic, Fabien Barthez and Marcel Desailly who reigned supreme – the latter’s display earning him a move to Milan later that year.
After Frank Riijkaard and Daniele Massaro failed to test young Barthez – whose erratic but stand-out display was crucial in victory – in great early chances, Basile Boli rose highest from a corner to score a beautifully deft header just before half time.
Jean-Pierre Papin had a great second-half chance but Barthez, playing like a man-possessed, threw himself at everything and anything that came his way to ensure victory in an end-to-end encounter.
Getty301996: Ajax 1-1 Juventus (2-4 pens)
Holders Ajax faced some task in retaining their European crown in 1996, having lost Frank Riijkaard to retirement, Clarance Seedorf to Sampdoria, Marc Overmars to injury and Michael Reiziger to suspension.
The latter’s absence forced a defensive reshuffle that meant the Dutch side looked more uncertain than usual, something not helped by Fabrizio Ravanelli’s 13th-minute opener.
Jari Litmanen equalised before the break but that was the end of the goals in an affair that went all the way to penalties.
Juventus put on a tremendous tactical display, but Gianluca Vialli was guilty of missing big chances in a game that lacked real star quality, with both goals coming from goalkeeping mistakes.
