It’s the most anticipated game of the year.
I look forward to the Champions League final with a childlike glee every year. It is the pinnacle of football, where the best players in the best teams compete for the ultimate prize, and it always delivers.
Or does it? They are always enjoyable experiences for neutrals but how good are the actual games? Are they as good as we remember or is the occasion itself enough to make the most cagey of encounters feel enjoyable? The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, and a matter of opinion.
Some finals can certainly be quite boring. Take last year’s final for example. I was there (brag) and loved it, but the actual football played during the 90 minutes was not of the standard we had come to expect from the previous rounds. That of course wasn’t helped by the first minute penalty meaning the underdogs were chasing the game from the off.
Here is every Champions League final from this decade ranked from worst to best.
10. 2019 – Spurs vs Liverpool
As previously mentioned, Liverpool were ahead before the clock reached three minutes in this game thanks to a dubious handball, as Sadio Mané smashed the ball into Moussa Sissoko’s outstretched arm and Mo Salah lashed the penalty home.
Spurs had ridden their luck to get to the final and all their hopes came crashing down in that moment. Realistically, with a half-fit Harry Kane up top, they stood very little chance of overturning this deficit, despite having more of the ball. Celebrations in the red half of the ground were jubilant and rightly so, but this game was not a great spectacle.
9. 2010 – Inter Milan vs Bayern Munich
Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan team were undoubtedly the best team in the world at the time, which is probably why nothing about this game stands out as particularly memorable. Inter’s first goal came from the most pure, clean example of route one football ever seen and the second was a piece of individual brilliance from Diego Milito, who was really good that year.
This Bayern side were obviously good but they had Hamit Altintop on the left wing because Franck Ribery was injured, effectively surrendering one half of their attacking threat and allowing Inter to triple mark Robben.
This was an extremely average final, all things considered. But that should be expected, I guess, from a battle between Mourinho and Louis van Gaal.
8. 2018 – Real Madrid vs Liverpool
This game had its unforgettable moments – Karius’ two mistakes, Bale’s overhead kick, Ramos injuring Mohamed Salah – but it is the latter of those moments that took something away from the game. From the moment Salah went off, you knew Madrid would win, even if Liverpool equalised without him on the pitch.
It felt inevitable, even if it took two ridiculous strikes from Gareth Bale to secure. Real Madrid winning it again felt very boring too. We get it lads, you love winning the Champions League, let someone else have a go.
Still, the bicycle kick was pretty good, wasn’t it? Let’s watch it again.
7. 2016 – Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid, the sequel
Oh, Real Madrid winning another one, whoopty doo. Thinking about this game makes me sad. I often think about how different things would have been had Griezmann scored that penalty in normal time. Or what might have happened if Ramos hadn’t hacked Carrasco down in the 93rd minute to prevent a 3 vs 1 counter attack.
Atletico had come so close, again, only to lose to Real Madrid, again. For ‘neutrals’, it was not the fairytale ending we wanted. It also wasn’t that great a game, but an attritional battle that ended with Ronaldo taking his shirt off. And nobody wants that.
6. 2011 – Manchester United vs Barcelona
Possibly the biggest mismatch in a final since 2005, but at least that year saw one of the greatest comebacks of all time. In 2011, there was no such story. Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona confirmed their status as the best team in the world and one of the best ever with a performance so dominant it made you almost feel sorry for Manchester United.
Even Sir Alex Ferguson’s big game tactic of getting Park Ji-sung to man mark the opposition’s best player couldn’t cause a dent in the relentless Barça machine. Pulled apart torturously by the greatest passing team the world has ever seen, United were taught a humbling lesson that night. So, while it was a one-sided affair with only one outcome, it was a showcase of scintillating football, which puts it sixth in this list.
5. 2017 – Real Madrid vs Juventus
Another Real Madrid win, the greedy bastards. This one was more fun than most, though. The highlight of the game came on 27 minutes, when Juventus equalised with a stunning overhead kick from Mario Mandzukić, rounding off a move in which the ball did not touch the ground from the moment Leonardo Bonucci launched the ball upfield.
Madrid then regained the lead through a deflected Casemiro shot and did not let up, making if 4-1 before full-time. The scoreline flattered them, really, and Juan Cuadrado was cruelly sent off as a result of more Ramos shithousery. But shit happens. And it happens a lot to Juventus in this competition.
Side note: that purple Madrid shirt is gorgeous. More kits should be purple.
4. 2014 – Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid
Much like the 2016 final between these teams, I often wonder how differently it might have ended if Diego Simeone had not started a very obviously injured Diego Costa. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but starting a player who busted their hamstring just seven days prior to this final seemed inadvisable, even at the time. He was taken off after nine minutes once it became clear he could not play and on came Adrian Lopez.
Madrid emerged 4-1 winners but Atléti were within seconds of winning the game in 90 minutes. An emphatic last gasp header from Sergio Ramos took the game to extra time and ultimately it became a contest of fitness. Atlético defending their lead for the majority of normal time made for compelling viewing, but it knackered them. And having had to use a substitute after nine minutes, Simeone’s side were at an even greater disadvantage.
This game had a very similar plot to subsequent finals involving Madrid, but this one felt more special. Maybe it was because it was the first time Madrid had won the trophy in so long, how close Atlético came to winning an unprecedented double, or the fact that Fabio Coentrao started a Champions League final.
3. 2013 – Bayern Munich vs Borussia Dortmund
The first and only all-German Champions League final, and a wonderful game of football. Jupp Heynckes’ Bayern had already dethroned Dortmund on both domestic fronts, and would wrap up a historic treble at Wembley. Arjen Robben’s uncontainable joy after his winning goal is a stark reminder that for all of Bayern’s glory since this game, they went into this side having lost two of the previous three finals. Robben felt that pain more than most, having squandered the chance to win the previous final on home turf, missing a penalty in extra time. More on that game shortly.
This was one of the most evenly contested finals of the decade, as demonstrated by the stats: Dortmund had 12 shots to Bayern’s 14, eight on target to Bayern’s nine. And ultimately it would come down to such fine margins, a matter of Robben getting to a loose ball a millisecond quicker than Mats Hummels and rolling the ball past Roman Weidenfeller at a snail’s pace.
2. 2015 – Barcelona vs Juventus
Don’t cancel me for this opinion but Luis Enrique’s 2014/15 Barcelona side were even more fun to watch than Pep’s 2010/11 side. Pep laid the foundations for the teams that followed to succeed, but you’d do well to find a front three more ruthless and entertaining than the MSN trio.
The Juventus side they came up against in this final were also a lot of fun. Max Allegri had replaced Antonio Conte and made them a force in European competition again, with the most beautifully balanced midfield diamond of Pirlo, Machisio, Pogba and Vidal behind the tenacious strike partnership of Morata and Tevez. The whole team was a delicate mix of experience and youth, of wisdom and exuberance. And it made for a great contest.
Barcelona emerged deserved 3-1 winners, with Juve chasing the game and caught on the break in the 97th minute, but it was an enthralling, open game that could have gone either way.
1. 2012 – Chelsea vs Bayern Munich
Chelsea had no right to win this final. They were without their suspended captain John Terry, they had a back four of Jose Bosingwa, David Luiz, Gary Cahill and Ashley Cole. Ryan Bertrand started on the left wing. Salomon Kalou also started. The game was being played at Bayern’s home ground. Chelsea had come sixth in the league. And yet, despite all of these factors and despite going a goal down in the 83rd minute, they managed to defy the odds to win the competition for first time in the club’s history.
There are some incredible stats from this game: Bayern Munich had 35 shots; 20 corners and scored one goal.
Chelsea had three shots on target, one corner and scored one goal, which came from that corner. And what a header, by the way.
It was an upset almost on the level of the famous Istanbul final of 2005 and a fittingly dramatic way for Didier Drogba, the king of the big occasion, to wrap up his first spell at the club.
