TOP 5 BEST UCL FINALS EVER: OUR LIST, TELL US YOURS

     
         It is upon us...the final of the Champions League tomorrow between two hungry clubs from the same league should be another classic final. 
       When looking through the greatest finals of all time, I find that recent times have not only given us the best finals, they've delivered on every level, even the worse matches still had controversy or drama (2003 went to a shootout where Buffon and Dida put on a goalkeeping clinic, 2001 had another stalemate save-fest from Oliver Kahn and Santiago Canizares, with the Valencia man finally spoiling the 2nd final in a row for the club).
        I mean for hells sake, there were eight consecutive 1-0 finals from the mid 70s to the early 80s, mostly dominated by English clubs (Liverpool, Villa and Nottingham Forest)....
        We've been spoiled in recent times: even the 2017 final between Juve and Real Madrid was a fantastic match full of exhilarating play and otherworldly goals from both sides (the first half was one of the most entertaining halves in final history).
          You have to go back to 2012 to find a final that was poor, and even that match had some stellar drama and late goals giving way to a penalty shootout of the highest order.
           As history has shown us, often times players are exposed in finals and are haunted by horrific mistakes, errors, injuries, coaches who won't start or play them or red cards.
           Yet history also has stunned us when we see the redemption factor called upon.
            Arjen Robben was brutally close to scoring multiple goals in the 2010 final, only to miss each chance and see Bayern usurped by Mourinho's Inter Milan 2-0. Then it happened again when in the aforementioned 2012 final, Robben had many chances again and missed all of them, culminating in a penalty shootout defeat in front of their home crowd at the Allianz Arena.
           The next year's final was the moment for redemption when he scored the stoppage time winner vs Klopp's Dortmund, banishing the memories of defeat slightly.
            Or Didier Drogba! Red carded for a slight slap of Nemanja Vidic and the Ivorian watched on in the dressing room as John Terry took a penalty (Drogba would've taken) and witnessed the captain slip on the wet Moscow surface as his penalty hit the post and surrendered the title winning chance to United, who made no mistake.          To come back from this, Drogba not only heroically scored the last second stoppage time equalizer vs Bayern in that 2012 final, he then scored the winning penalty in the shootout, coming full circle in his search for redemption. 
           We saw most of the same Milan team that surrendered a 3-0 lead to Liverpool (in defeat during the 2005 final) rebound only two seasons later to take on Liverpool again and finish the job, cold and ugly.
           But the game we love is also extremely 
cruel...we've seen such wonderful players and managers as Jurgen Klopp himself, Sir Alex Ferguson, Gigi Buffon, Andriy Shevchenko, Jens Lehmann, Oliver Kahn, Andrea Pirlo and the aforementioned John Terry all being roasted on the grandest stage, with successes in the middle buoying their egos, yet the finals they lost sink deeper than mere flesh wounds.
           Sir Alex Ferguson remembers the 2009 and 2011 finals against Barcelona more than the 1999 last second wham-bam-thank-you-m'am victory vs Bayern, simply because of what went wrong, how badly it went awry and how the Scot was powerless to change the direction of those matches. He cut a figure akin to the elephant man when he looked aghast at the inability of his players to possess the ball against the Catalan club.
           John Terry won't remember the 2012 final he was suspended for, regardless of the winner's medal he received, but he will always remember his slip that directly cost Chelsea the title...neither will Wayne Bridge's wife.
           Will Jurgen Klopp be enshrouded by the ghosts of 2013 and 2018? Will his face go flush and sour if he sees Loris Karius stalking the sidelines?
            Mo Salah has the biggest psychological barrier, having started the 2018 final in frenetic, fantastic form only to be dumped to the ground with a destroyed shoulder and arm thanks to a dirty cheap shot by Sergio Ramos after only 25 minutes (Ramos's disgusting disgrace was excused and justified by millions of ridiculous social media posts).
            Against Newcastle and Real Madrid, Liverpool fans were left with images of Salah in tears, being ushered (or stretchered) from the pitch with their chances at victory greatly muddied and the soul of the team taking a punch in the groin thanks to Salah's emotion. 
            This can't be a recurring theme, can it?
            No matter how unfair it may be, Salah knows damn well that if he goes down in this match (regardless of the circumstances) he'll be vilified as someone who "can't bring it" on the biggest stage. That mental barrier must not even begin to enter the Egyptian's mind and having only heard these overtures from my own mind and not the media at large, Salah has a chance to forget about last year, forget about the scandalous / injury-hampered World Cup (where he was still very good) and go full force at Spurs as if he were playing the last match he'll ever play.

Karius pretends to care, though his tears are tears of joy thanks to winning his gambling bet 

            The whole atmosphere of a final can get to players: Loris Karius's double-error last final was so ghastly there were open concerns about the young German's mental, physical and emotional well-being to the point he was watched constantly in fear of self-harm and the head injury he sustained (thanks to yet another display of the dark night of the soulless by Sergio Ramos).
            Though Paolo Maldini won 5 titles with AC Milan from 1989 to 2007 (think about that for a second...), he claimed he will always be haunted by losing to Liverpool in 2005, but also Marseille in 1993 (1-0) and also suffering another 1-0 loss to Ajax's ruthless stars & grizzled veterans, a young Patrick Kluivert coming off the bench in the 70th minute and scoring fifteen minutes later to bury the highly favored Milan, losing three finals as heavy favorites.
            Juventus lost two consecutive finals, reaching three in a row from 1996-1998, losing to Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in tight circumstances and winning on penalties in 1996 over the aforementioned defending champions Ajax. 

         That was a Juventus squad with the legendary Ciro Ferrara in defense, Didier Deschamps in midfield, the enigmatic genius of Alessandro Del Piero, the otherworldly Zinedine Zidane, a future footballing genius and an underrated midfielder by the name of Antonio Conte, and they were all led by the World Cup winning mastermind Marcelo Lippi as their manager.
            Sir Alex Ferguson's United with Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs playing like he was 22, Scholes, Tevez etc were certain they were going to be the first defending champion in Champions League history (since 1992, first since AC Milan 1989-1990), only to run into the brick wall of Barca possession.
            There have been many great....no....legendary teams who have failed to bring home the title...shit, Barcelona played the football dreams were made of and have only won 4 Champions League titles since 2006, with Lionel Messi...talent, ability, chemistry culminating in sustained greatness doesn't always translate into success on the pitch in this messed-up mindf*%k of a game we love so much...but it does make it fun, huh?

           

5.
(2006)
FC BARCELONA v ARSENAL
(2-1)


              What was already an unbelievably entertaining and high class final would've been even better had referee Terje Hague not sent Jens Lehmann off for a last man foul outside of the penalty box on Samuel Eto'o, a mere 18 minutes into the match.
           This forced Arsene Wenger to substitute Robert Pires (a huge part of the Arsenal cog) out for Almunia, the Spanish backup keeper. 
           But what made this soooo good was the uncontainable artistry of Thierry Henry (developing attacks against the dominion of Rijkaard's Barcelona over the ball). He did it all nearly by himself, rocketing shots for Valdez to save and delivering the assist to Sol Campbell's header, taking a shocking 1-0 lead.
          Despite the outrageous defending of ten man Arsenal and a coming-of-age performance by Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta blitzed Arsenal and fed Henrik Larsson who dished two assists from the fantastic position he found himself in from Iniesta's brilliance, feeding right back Juliano Belletti to smash home the winner in the 85th to break Gooner hearts everywhere after Samuel Eto'o opened the scoring late in the 76th minute to take them through.


4.
(1960)
REAL MADRID v FRANKFURT 
(7-3)


         This had to make the list: not only does this match hold the record for goals in a final, its place in European cup history is checkered and bizarre.
          Hungarian superstar Ferenc Puskas had accused the West German national team of doping in 1954, with West German clubs assuming an all-out ban of any match taking on a team containing Puskas.
           Needless to say, it took pulling many teeth to make the final of 1960 actually take place. 
           Puskas had to begrudgingly issue a public apology just to get the contest off of the ground. There were many other logistical nightmares that followed, common-place with finals and international tournaments back in the day, though it went down and we're all the better for it.
          The match finally took place and was a resounding celebration of football at its most primal attacking core: Puskas and (stolen from Barca by General Franco) Alfredo de Stefano both scored hat tricks, a European record that will never be broken.
          Madrid midfielder Paco Gento created 3 goals to go along with the crazy affair, which somehow started off with Frankfurt taking the lead, followed by 6 straight from Madrid, capping off a record five straight Champions League titles (European cups).          

3.
(2013)
BAYERN MUNICH v DORTMUND 
(2-1)


           Not only did both German clubs take down the Spanish giants of Barcelona and Real Madrid (ruining the potential Messi v Ronaldo El Clasico final that should've happened but never did),  but we saw the pride of the Bundesliga battle each other in quite the display of the two teams' burgeoning talent.
            Dortmund had Klopp, Gotze, Hummels, Lewandowksi and Reus at the peak of their powers, while Bayern Munich had the Robbery wingers out wide and were hungry to avenge the two finals they'd lost.
             Bayern succumbed to a poor performance and a late equalizer from Chelsea in the 2012 final (hosted by Bayern's own Allianz Arena) and let it slip away as they lost on penalties to a far inferior opponent.
            For this final, Bayern made no mistake, though it wasn't always on the cards.
            Neuer and Weidenfeller made a plethora of unreal saves as their goals were peppered with a litany of shots on target, but with an injured Mario Gotze, Dortmund were slightly hampered going forward and only found a second half equalizer after Reus was smashed in the groin by Dante in the box. Current City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan then buried a stone cold penalty and the riveting match seemed destined for extra time. 
           That was until nearly-man Robben met a deflected back heel from Ribery on a fast break and slipped a pass into the net beyond Weidenfeller in stoppage time, giving Dortmund no time to respond.
             Things would never be the same for both clubs, with Lewandowski, Gotze and Hummels heading to the red enemy and Gundogan and Klopp taking off for the Premier League.


2.
(2011)
FC BARCELONA v MAN UNITED
(3-1)



             Sometimes the other team is just better, but as Sir Alex Ferguson found out, some teams are legendary.
            The greatest team ever assembled took on an overmatched United team under the gun from the first second, Xavi and Iniesta continuously probing  (148 and 111 passes respectively) and Pedro scored the opener after a riotous assist from the outside of Xavi's boot. 
            What makes this the 2nd greatest final ever wasn't just Barcelona's Harlem Globetrotter play, it was also United's response: Rooney scored after a sick combination with Ryan Giggs, delicately setting the ball up for Wayne Rooney to grab his moment and tie the match going into halftime at Wembley.
             But it could only be a stem of the Barca tide as Messi, Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi and David Villa took the match over despite 4 last man tackles needing to be attempted across both teams (Barca with 2, United with 2) though United narrowly escaped with two goal line clearances.
             Of course, just as in the 2006, 2009 and 2015 finals, it had to be Iniesta to supply Messi, ripping his second Champions League final goal.
            A litany of chances followed until Busquets teed Villa up with a moment of magic bent around Van der Saar, playing in his final United match.
            Sure, we all know the ridiculously filthy match Guardiola's Barca provided,  yet it was United pulling out all the stops as a worthwhile competitor, however it was the images of Alex Ferguson pacing nervously from his chair, whisking through the gate and out to the pitch, all of us knowing he was powerless to stop what was about to happen.
            Another celebration of football.
STATS:
-Passes: Barca 787, United 385
(Messi 100, Xavi 148, Iniesta 115)
-Chances: Barca 21, United 4
-All 3 midfielders registered assists to all 3 forwards for Barcelona 
(Xavi with 2 UCL final assists, Iniesta with 3 in 3 finals and had 2 uncredited direct goal contributions vs Arsenal in 2006)
-This was Ryan Giggs' 2nd assist in 3 finals



1.
(2005) 
LIVERPOOL v AC MILAN 
(3-3, on penalties)



            Really??? 
         What else could it be???
            We hope that tomorrow's final can top it, just so we can forget all about Ernesto Valverde's existence and the demise of rock and roll and all that is sacred in the name of WEIRD in 2019...but how can you top it?
            Even if Tottenham or Liverpool surrendered a 3-0 lead and lost, neither team has the esteemed pedigree or is an exceptional favorite as that Milan team was when facing that slightly piecemeal Liverpool side. 
            If Vladimir Smicer's shot goes safely into Dida's hands, Liverpool fans don't know his name.
            But for the Milan team of Crespo, Kaka, Shevchenko, Pirlo, Gattuso, Maldini, Dida and Nesta to surrender those goals in a second half comeback of epic proportions is really....surreal...even today.
           It's like we're watching the Battle of Liverpool's soul as a club, the rise of Jamie Carragher's spittle and John Arne Riise's buttchin, and defending that made Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini look like they were dancing with the Marx Brothers.
          It was pure brilliance from Steven Gerrard to finally storm the castle in the 2nd half, sealing his legendary status in the club with his comeback arousing header (The header is a piece of magic and a perversion of physics in and of itself).
          Thus began the wildest 10 minute period in Champions League final history, a Xabi Alonso penalty being saved in the corner and the rebound only just put through the sprawling Dida's body and limbs by the Spaniard diving with a toe poke into the roof of the net to really get the blood flowing.
           And when Vladimir Smicer's deflected effort went into the net minutes later to tie it at 3-3 before 70 minutes had past, we all knew we were witnessing magic. 
           Usually in a final, things get cagey in extra time or with a late match still unresolved, but in Istanbul 2005, the 3-3 final only got crazier later on as Jerzey Dudek and Milan's Dida made some ridiculous saves to keep it on level terms, while Milan also missed various chances with woeful finishing, Carlo Ancelotti's management anonymous as his team struggled to find anything cohesive to get the job over the line...shellshocked would be the perfect word..
            The pressure ratcheted up a few notches until it burst into flames for Milan in an infamous shootout where Pirlo and Shevchenko pissed the final away with tepid efforts and Rafa Benitez's men delivered, completing the greatest final ever and the comeback to end all comebacks (that is until they rivaled it with this year's semifinal resurrection).
             

             Istanbul 2005 was the last time Liverpool lifted the trophy, will they do it AGAIN tomorrow?
             Check out our preview, prediction and analysis piece https://uninterruptedsportsodyssey.blogspot.com/2019/05/ucl-brexit-battle-for-soul-of-england.html 
to get you hyped and more amp'd than Michael Jackson at BabyGAP.
              Thank you for reading!!!


By 
Lonn Phillips Sullivan