2012 UEFA Champions League Final

2012 UEFA Champions League Final

Event	2011–12 UEFA Champions League
Bayern Munich Chelsea 1 1
Chelsea won 4–3 on penalties
Date	19 May 2012 (2012-05-19)
Venue	Allianz Arena, Munich
UEFA Man of the Match	Didier Drogba (Chelsea)[1]
Fans' Man of the Match	Petr Čech (Chelsea)[2]
Referee	Pedro Proença (Portugal)[3]
Attendance	62,500[4]
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The 2012 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match between Bayern Munich of Germany and Chelsea of England, played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, to decide the winner of the 2011–12 season of the UEFA Champions League, Europe's premier club football tournament. The match ended 1–1 and Chelsea won the resulting penalty shootout to clinch their first Champions League title. In doing so, they also became the first London club to win the tournament, the fifth English club and 22nd overall.

It was the first Champions League Final to be held in the Allianz Arena (known as "Fußball Arena München" for the final) which opened in 2005. With Bayern being one of two tenants of the Arena, it was the first time since 1984 that a finalist had home stadium advantage.

Bayern entered the competition as four-time winners from eight final appearances, most recently losing in 2010, while Chelsea had reached the final once before, losing on penalties in 2008. Defending champions Barcelona were eliminated by Chelsea in the semi-finals. Neither team reached the final as champions of their 2011–12 domestic leagues (the Bundesliga and Premier League, respectively). As winners, Chelsea will play the 2011–12 Europa League winners Atlético Madrid of Spain in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup, and also enter the semi-finals of the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup as the UEFA representative.

Venue

The Allianz Arena in Champions League final livery

The Allianz Arena was announced by UEFA as the venue of the 2012 final on 30 January 2010, although the stadium was referred to as "Fußball Arena München" for the match, as UEFA does not recognise sponsorship by companies that are not among its partner organisations.^[5] The stadium, which opened in 2005, is the home stadium of both Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich, and was used for six matches at the 2006 FIFA World Cup including the opening match.

The stadium was hosting its first major European final. The Olympiastadion in Munich, the previous home of Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich, hosted three European Cup Finals in 1979, 1993 and 1997.^[6]

During the match, the stadium was illuminated in green and turquoise to represent the official UEFA emblem of the Munich final, as the outer shell of the Allianz Arena can change colour.^[7]

Background

To reach the final, in the knockout phase Bayern defeated Basel, Marseille, and Real Madrid (3–1 on penalties after a 3–3 aggregate score),^[8] while Chelsea overcame Napoli, Benfica, and the defending champions Barcelona (3–2 on aggregate).^[9]

Both teams reached the final having already lost out in their domestic leagues (the Bundesliga and Premier League respectively), but having also reached the final of their domestic cup competitions (the DFB-Pokal and FA Cup respectively), to be played prior to the Champions League Final. Chelsea won the FA Cup by defeating Liverpool 2–1,^[10] while Bayern lost the Final of the DFB-Pokal 2–5 to Borussia Dortmund.^[11]

Both clubs lost their most recent Champions League final, Bayern in 2010 to Internazionale 0–2, Chelsea in 2008 to Manchester United on penalties after a 1–1 draw. While that was Chelsea's only Champions League final, Bayern have played in eight Champions League/European Cup finals, winning four (1974, 1975, 1976, 2001) and losing four (1982, 1987, 1999 and 2010). They have only met each other once in Europe before, with Chelsea winning 6–5 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League.^[12]

The match marked the first time that a team had played at their home ground in the UEFA Champions League Final, and the fourth time in the history of the European Cup, after 1957, 1965 and 1984. For this reason, the fans of Bayern Munich call this match "Finale dahoam" (Bavarian for "final at home"). The final also marks the first time since 2007 where neither of the participants were champions of their domestic league.

Road to final

Bayern Munich				Round	Chelsea
Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg	Qualifying phase	Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg
Zürich	3–0	2–0 (H)	1–0 (A)	Play-off round	Bye
Opponent	Result			Group stage	Opponent	Result
Villarreal	2–0 (A)			Matchday 1	Bayer Leverkusen	2–0 (H)
Manchester City	2–0 (H)			Matchday 2	Valencia	1–1 (A)
Napoli	1–1 (A)			Matchday 3	Genk	5–0 (H)
Napoli	3–2 (H)			Matchday 4	Genk	1–1 (A)
Villarreal	3–1 (H)			Matchday 5	Bayer Leverkusen	1–2 (A)
Manchester City	0–2 (A)			Matchday 6	Valencia	3–0 (H)
Group A winner Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Bayern Munich 6 4 1 1 11 6 +5 13 Napoli 6 3 2 1 10 6 +4 11 Manchester City 6 3 1 2 9 6 +3 10 Villarreal 6 0 0 6 2 14 −12 0				Final standings	Group E winner Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Chelsea 6 3 2 1 13 4 +9 11 Bayer Leverkusen 6 3 1 2 8 8 0 10 Valencia 6 2 2 2 12 7 +5 8 Genk 6 0 3 3 2 16 −14 3
Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg	Knockout phase	Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg
Basel	7–1	0–1 (A)	7–0 (H)	Round of 16	Napoli	5–4	1–3 (A)	4–1 (aet) (H)
Marseille	4–0	2–0 (A)	2–0 (H)	Quarter-finals	Benfica	3–1	1–0 (A)	2–1 (H)
Real Madrid	3–3 (3–1 p)	2–1 (H)	1–2 (aet) (A)	Semi-finals	Barcelona	3–2	1–0 (H)	2–2 (A)

Pre-match

Ticketing

The two teams each received 17,500 tickets to distribute to their supporters. A further 7,000 tickets were available for sale to fans worldwide via UEFA.com, with prices between €70 and €370. The remaining tickets were allocated to the local organising committee, UEFA's 53 national football associations, and commercial and broadcast partners.^[13]

Ambassador

Former German player Paul Breitner was named as the ambassador for the final.^[14]

Festival and live screenings

The UEFA Champions Festival was held at Munich's Olympiapark from 16–19 May.^[15] An official public screening of the final took place at the Olympiastadion during the match,^[16] with capacity for 65,000 fans including a section for Chelsea supporters.^[17] A second public screening was planned on the Theresienwiese, where the famous Oktoberfest takes place.^[18]

Match

Team selection

Fernando Torres came on as a substitute in the 84th minute.

Both clubs had players missing due to suspensions. Bayern were missing David Alaba, Holger Badstuber and Luiz Gustavo, while Chelsea were without Branislav Ivanović, Raul Meireles, Ramires and John Terry.^[19][20] John Terry was suspended after being red-carded in the semi-final, which automatically excludes a player from the final. The other six all received yellow cards in the semi-finals, which took them over the limit of a third yellow card of the competition, which triggers an automatic suspension from the next match. Players union FIFPro appealed to UEFA to allow the players with yellow cards to play, seeing the punishment of "missing the match of your life" as too harsh; UEFA rejected the appeal and stated the rule would not be reviewed for at least three years.^[21] Ivanović stated how he "had no idea [he] was one booking away from missing the Champions League final."^[22] UEFA confirmed that Chelsea captain Terry would be allowed to lift the trophy should Chelsea win, in spite of his suspension.^[23]

Only two of the 36 players had previously been in a winning squad in a Champions League Final: Chelsea's Paulo Ferreira and José Bosingwa were in the Porto squad in 2004. Ten of the Bayern 18 had earlier been in their squad that lost the 2010 final, although only four started both games: Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller. Eight of the Chelsea squad had been in their losing 2008 squad, including four who started both games: Petr Čech, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.

Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole would join Carlos Mozer as the only players to score in penalty shootouts in two European Cup/Champions League finals. Mozer had scored for Benfica in 1988 and for Marseille in 1991, losing both times.

Match summary

This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (May 2012)

Bayern Munich had control for most of the match, with Robben having the best chance, which Čech deflected onto the frame of the goal with his legs. Chelsea, however, also had chances, with Kalou nearly finishing at the near post. Bayern kept pushing Chelsea to the limit but missed sitters from Gómez, who sent his shot over the bar; and Robben, who was blocked at the last second by Gary Cahill. Bayern took the lead in the 83rd minute, when Toni Kroos crossed in to Müller, who headed the ball down into the ground, causing it to bounce over Čech and in off the crossbar. The side from Munich took Müller off in an attempt to shore up their defence, but on 88 minutes a Juan Mata corner came in to Didier Drogba, who headed in past Neuer. Chelsea won a free kick just outside the area in the 93rd minute, but Drogba smashed it over. The game went to extra time . The first good chance of extra time was when Olić inside the box passed to Gómez but his shot was wide. Later, Drogba fouled Ribery in the box, injuring him and earning Bayern a penalty. Robben's shot was weak and kept out by Cech

A penalty shoot-out decided the game. Lahm went first and scored despite fingertips from Čech. Mata took Chelsea's first penalty and it was saved by Neuer. Next was Gómez, who beat Čech narrowly at the bottom corner. David Luiz took Chelsea's second penalty and buried it in the top corner. Goalkeeper Neuer took Bayern's third penalty and again narrowly beat Čech at the bottom corner. Lampard was next and he smashed it up the middle. Olić was next, but Čech saved it. Ashley Cole next scored his penalty at the bottom right corner, with Neuer nearly saving it. Schweinsteiger took Bayern's final penalty, but his kick hit the post. Didier Drogba sent Neuer the wrong way, winning it for Chelsea.

Details

19 May 2012 20:45 CEST	Bayern Munich	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Chelsea	Allianz Arena, Munich Attendance: 62,500[4] Referee: Pedro Proença (Portugal)
	Müller  83'	Report	Drogba  88'
		Penalties
	Lahm Gómez Neuer Olić Schweinsteiger	3–4	Mata David Luiz Lampard Cole Drogba

Bayern Munich

Chelsea

GK 1 Manuel Neuer RB 21 Philipp Lahm (c) CB 17 Jérôme Boateng CB 44 Anatoliy Tymoshchuk LB 26 Diego Contento DM 31 Bastian Schweinsteiger 2' DM 39 Toni Kroos RW 10 Arjen Robben AM 25 Thomas Müller 87' LW 7 Franck Ribéry 97' CF 33 Mario Gómez Substitutes: GK 22 Hans-Jörg Butt DF 5 Daniel Van Buyten 87' DF 13 Rafinha MF 14 Takashi Usami MF 23 Danijel Pranjić FW 9 Nils Petersen FW 11 Ivica Olić 97' Manager: Jupp Heynckes

GK 1 Petr Čech RB 17 José Bosingwa CB 4 David Luiz 86' CB 24 Gary Cahill LB 3 Ashley Cole 81' DM 12 Mikel John Obi CM 8 Frank Lampard (c) RW 21 Salomon Kalou 84' AM 10 Juan Mata LW 34 Ryan Bertrand 73' CF 11 Didier Drogba 93' Substitutes: GK 22 Ross Turnbull DF 19 Paulo Ferreira MF 5 Michael Essien MF 6 Oriol Romeu MF 15 Florent Malouda 73' FW 23 Daniel Sturridge FW 9 Fernando Torres 120' 84' Manager: Roberto Di Matteo

Statistics

See also

• 2012 UEFA Women's Champions League Final (Olympiastadion, 17 May)
• 2012 UEFA Europa League Final

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: UEFA Champions League Final 2012

• UEFA Champions League (official website)
• 2012 final: Fußball Arena München, UEFA.com