Venue: Allianz Arena München Date: 19 May 2012 Kick-off time: 20:45 11 times in the history of the Champions League/European Cup dating back to 1955 has the final game been played in the home country of one of the two teams. Only 3 times during that span has the final match of the tournament been played at the home stadium of one of the two final teams.
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Munich will host the 4th Champions League final to be played at the home stadium of one of the two teams on Saturday May 19th when Chelsea play Bayern Munich for European glory. Müncheners will be hoping for history to be on their side; as 2 out of the 3 previous occurrences of the host stadium being home to one of the clubs have indeed favoured the home side, with the 1 exception being the 1983 final, Liverpool v Roma at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
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That match ended in a 1-1 draw after 90 mins + extra time and it took a shootout for visitors Liverpool to take home glory. Road to the Final - Bayern Munich It’s hard to remember a time when two unlikelier contenders made it all the way to the final game, but that is the case this year. A seemingly inconceivable pair of semi-final match-ups resulted in two underdogs going through for a chance to take home the biggest silverware in Europe and possibly the world. Munich did not automatically qualify for the Champions League from the Bundesliga, therefore they played a play-off series against FC Zurich to enter the group stage (Bayern won both contests 2-0, 0-1). Bayern made it through the group stages of this year’s tournament almost unblemished other than a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
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They came out of Group A to face FC Basel in the Round of 16; Bayern lost the first leg 1-0 in Basel, but came back to win the second leg 7-0 at Allianz Arena. Bayern then won both legs of the quarter-final match-up with Marseille (0-2,2-0); which brought on the semi-final match-up with Real Madrid. Bayern won at home in the first leg 2-1, goals by Franck Ribery and Mario Gomez for Munich and Mesut Ozil for Madrid. Bayern took a significant amount of confidence into the second leg at the Bernabeu, but it was quickly diminished when Madrid took an early commanding 2-0 lead, with both goals by Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Arjen Robben tied it on aggregate with a penalty in the 27th minute and Bayern went on to stun the home side winning 3-1 on penalty kicks; with a cool, confident Bastian Schweinsteiger sending home the final penalty to seal a place in the finals. Road to the Final - Chelsea Chelsea on the other hand, were an automatic-qualifier after finishing 2nd in the Premier League last year.
The Blues also had only 1 loss coming out of the group stages to Bayern Leverkusen 2-1 at the Bay Arena. Chelsea then played Napoli losing 3-1 in the first leg to the Azzurri in Napoli, before putting on a mammoth performance at Stamford Bridge to win 4-1 (5-4 Agg). They played a dominating series against Benfica (3-1 Agg) before meeting tournament favourites Barcelona in the semi-finals. During the first meeting at Stamford Bridge, Didier Drogba scored the emotional winner to take a 1-0 lead into the second round. At Camp Nou, Barcelona quickly took a 2-0 lead in the first half very much like the Madrid-Bayern match. Chelsea also went down to 10-men after John Terry was sent off for kneeing Alexis Sanchez in the back. But like the other semi-final, a late-1st half goal changed the tide. Ramires netted for Chelsea in the 45th minute to draw even on aggregate, with Chelsea ahead on away goals.
An exciting and dramatic second half saw Fernando Torres score a late goal to put it all away for Barcelona. Disqualified Players A factor that is sure to affect the outcome of the Champions League final is that both teams will be without starting players due to accumulated yellow cards from each teams’ respective semi-final series. For Bayern, it will be Luiz Gustavo, David Alaba and Holger Badstuber ineligible to dress for the home side. Chelsea will be without John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Ramires and Raul Meireles for the final. UEFA has turned down all appeals handed to them by these disqualified players from both clubs. Team News Bayern Munich are without further injury concerns to complicate their squad selection with the already complicated disqualifications. Long term injuries to defenders Breno and Daniel Van-Buyten could stretch the club’s depth unusually thin, Jerome Boateng will start in central defence. However, Van-Buyten has said that he is highly-motivated to return for the final to help the club.
Chelsea are very concerned about the health of recently signed centre-back Gary Cahill who went off early in the second leg semi-final at Camp Nou with a hamstring injury. This would be a serious blow to the Blues already playing without team captain and consummate defensive force John Terry due to banning and other central option David Luiz (also due to a hamstring issue). There is some optimism that David Luiz will make his return for the final, but if fears are valid and Chelsea are without any central defenders with first-team experience, it will be a significant worry going into the match.
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