UEFA Champions League Final in May
Travelling to Athens? European Cup Competition History & Facts
Porto vs Monaco in 2004, Liverpool vs AC Milan in 2005, Barcelona vs Arsenal in 2006... get your tickets to see who will lift club football's greatest trophy in 2007.
Every May, the greatest prize in European club football (or soccer, if you really must) is contested between two teams who have fought off others from across the continent to take part in the UEFA Champions’ League (formerly the European Cup) final. Tickets for the match can be used as mementos for years to come.
The biggest match of the season in Europe is battled out between two sides that have emerged victorious from a lengthy league and knock-out competition that started way back in August the previous year.
The Champions’ League began in 1992, but Europe’s elite trophy dates back to 1955 when it was known as the European Champions’ Cup (or European Cup for short). In this time the structure of the competition has changed somewhat, and so have the qualification criteria. In the original format it was just the winners of each member federation’s league that was eligible to take part, plus the winners of the Cup from the previous year. In 1997 this was changed in order to strengthen the quality of teams in the competition, and more than one entrant from the stronger countries could take part.
These days the top three federations in UEFA – England, Italy and Spain – have four competitors apiece, whilst other countries get fewer, the amount depending on performance during the last five years.
Since 1992, the competition has been remarkably open, with many different teams winning the tournament. Only AC Milan of Italy (twice) and Real Madrid of Spain (three times) have been winners more than once.
The 2007 Champions’ League final will be held in the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece on Wednesday May 23rd.
Notable Champions’ League finals
2004 final, Gelsenkirchen, Germany – Porto vs Monaco
2004 was the year of the underdog, with Porto (Portugal) and Monaco (France) being the surprise finalist. Both were managed by highly-rated young managers and had knocked out bigger fish on the way. In the end, Jose Mourinho’s Porto ran out easy 3-0 winners over Didier Deschamps’ Monaco. The win helped Mourinho earn a move to moneyed-up English club Chelsea.
2005 final, Istanbul, Turkey – Liverpool vs AC Milan
This was arguably the greatest final of them all as Liverpool (England) found themselves 3-0 down to Italian giants AC Milan at half time. Astonishingly, Liverpool pulled it back to 3-3 with goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xavi Alonso, while goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek made an incredible double save in the dying minutes to send the game to a penalty shoot out. Liverpool won the shoot-out 3-2 to cap an amazing comeback.
2006 final, Stade de France, Paris – Barcelona vs Arsenal
Barcelona (Spain) won 2-1, but the game became better known for the first red card in a Champions’ League final. Arsenal (England) had their keeper Jens Lehmann sent off.
