The 2002 UEFA Champions League final was the final match of the 2001–02 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition. The show-piece event was contested between Bayer Leverkusen of Germany and

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

of Spain at

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland, on 15 May 2002 to decide the winner of the Champions League. Leverkusen appeared in the final for the first time, whereas Real Madrid appeared in their 12th final. Each club needed to progress through two group stages, and two knockout rounds to reach the final. Real Madrid won their group and moved into the second group stage, which they also won, before facing the defending champions Bayern Munich and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in the knockout stage. Bayer Leverkusen finished second in their group behind Barcelona and progressed to the second group stage. There, they won their group, before beating the likes of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

to progress to the final. Before the match, a minute of silence was held in honour of Ukrainian manager Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who died two days earlier. Real Madrid were regarded as favourites before the match and took the lead in the eighth minute through Raúl. Lúcio equalised five minutes later, before

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; ; ''Zineddin Lyazid Zidan''; ; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as an attacking midfi ...

scored the winning goal on the stroke of half-time, a left-footed volley into the top corner that has since gone down as one of the greatest goals in the history of the competition, to secure Real Madrid's ninth European Cup.

Teams

''In the following table, finals until 1992 were in the European Cup era, since 1993 were in the UEFA Champions League era.''

Route to the final

Match

Details

Statistics

Post-match

In the 2001–02 season, Bayer Leverkusen finished second in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

and lost in the 2002 DFB-Pokal Final. After the match, Leverkusen manager Klaus Toppmöller expressed his disappointment on finishing this strong season without a title, stating: "the disappointment is huge – you don't always get the rewards you deserve in football, and no-one knows that better than us after what we have been through. We must seek consolation. Doing what we have done means we have had a very good season – but what has happened to us is difficult and makes us feel bitter." Five Leverkusen players, Michael Ballack, Hans-Jörg Butt, Oliver Neuville, Carsten Ramelow, and Bernd Schneider went on to add a fourth silver medal at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. However, the gold medal-winning Brazil squad also included a Leverkusen player in Lúcio.

References

External links

2001–02 UEFA Champions League season
at UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2002 Uefa Champions League final Final UEFA Champions League finals International club association football competitions hosted by Scotland European Cup Final 2002 European Cup Final 2002 U Champions Cham International sports competitions in Glasgow 2000s in Glasgow May 2002 sports events in the United Kingdom Football competitions in Glasgow Association football matches in Scotland