The 1997 UEFA Champions League Final was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

match played at the Olympiastadion in Munich on 28 May 1997 to determine the winner of the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League. The match was contested by

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

of Germany and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

of Italy. Borussia Dortmund won 3–1 with goals from

Karl-Heinz Riedle Karl-Heinz Riedle (; born 16 September 1965) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker. Despite not being particularly tall, he was nicknamed "Air" throughout his career, due to his notable heading accuracy, jumping an ...

and Lars Ricken; Juventus' goal was scored by

Alessandro Del Piero Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit fo ...

Route to the final

In their first semi-final in Europe's premier tournament since

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

, Dortmund defeated

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, who themselves had not reached that stage since

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

. In the other half of the draw, Juventus easily overcame

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

, the same team they had beaten on penalties in the previous year's final.

Previous meetings

The match featured the same teams that competed in the

1993 UEFA Cup Final The 1993 UEFA Cup Final was played on 5 May 1993 and 19 May 1993 between Juventus of Italy and Borussia Dortmund of Germany. Juventus won 3–1 and 3–0 to record a 6–1 aggregate victory, a record aggregate score for a UEFA Cup final. ...

, in which Juventus prevailed 6–1 over two legs. Their two German players in that final,

Jürgen Kohler Jürgen Kohler (born 6 October 1965) is a World Cup-winning German footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back. Since 2018, he has been in charge of the youth team of Viktoria Köln. Playing career Kohler enjoyed a lengthy career at the ...

and

Andreas Möller Andreas Möller (born 2 September 1967) is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is the head of the youth department at Eintracht Frankfurt. Club career At club level, Möller played for Eintrach ...

, had since moved to Dortmund along with the Brazilian Júlio César (who did not feature in the 1997 final), while another two Dortmund players who did play in Munich –

Stefan Reuter Stefan Reuter (born 16 October 1966) is a German football executive and former player who played as a defender or midfielder. He is the general manager of Bundesliga club FC Augsburg. During his playing career, he was included in the West Germ ...

and

Paulo Sousa Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa, CavIH (; born 30 August 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. Starting his career at Benfica, he also represented Sporting CP in his countr ...

– were also former Juventus players, and

Matthias Sammer Matthias Sammer (; born 5 September 1967) is a German football official and former player and coach. He played as a defensive midfielder and later in his career as a sweeper. With Borussia Dortmund as a player, Sammer won the Bundesliga and DF ...

and

had previously played in Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

(the latter's replacement at

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was

Alen Bokšić Alen Bokšić (; born 21 January 1970) is a former Croatian professional footballer. A forward who spent most of his career in France and Italy, he was renowned for his technique and power, and is regarded as one of the greatest players in the ...

, who by 1997 had moved to Juventus). Goalkeepers

Angelo Peruzzi Angelo Peruzzi (; born 16 February 1970) is an Italian football coach and former goalkeeper, and a three-time winner of the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year award. Peruzzi is regarded by pundits as one of the greatest Italian goalkeepers of all ...

and his understudy Michelangelo Rampulla were the only Juventus players from 1993 in the squad for the 1997 final (

Moreno Torricelli Moreno Torricelli (; born 23 January 1970) is an Italian football manager and former defender, who usually played as a full-back on the right flank. Torricelli played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, but achieved prominence dur ...

and

Antonio Conte Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later ...

were still at the club but were not involved), with the aforementioned Kohler and Möller having switched sides. In the Dortmund squad their goalkeeper

Stefan Klos Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...

, striker

Stéphane Chapuisat Stéphane Chapuisat (born 28 June 1969) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer for both club and country (for which he appeared more than 100 times), he spent most of his career with Bundesliga ...

and midfielders René Tretschok, Reuter and club captain

Michael Zorc Michael Zorc (born 25 August 1962) is a German former footballer who played as a central midfielder. Nicknamed "Susi" in his early days because of his long hair, he spent his entire career with Borussia Dortmund, appearing in 572 competitive matc ...

remained from four years earlier. Besides the 1993 showpiece, the clubs had also met in the semi-finals of the

1994–95 UEFA Cup The 1994–95 UEFA Cup was won by Parma on aggregate over Juventus. Internazionale were the defending champions with a wild card, but were knocked out in the first round by Aston Villa. New format Twenty-two national champions were demoted to ...

with Juventus progressing to the final which they lost to

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...

, and in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

of the

1995–96 UEFA Champions League The 1995–96 UEFA Champions League was the 41st season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the fourth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League. The tournament was won by Juventus, who beat defending champions Ajax on ...

, with each club winning away from home, however Juventus topped the group and went on to win the trophy. In the years to follow, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund would not meet again until 2014–15 Champions League round of 16 – the Italian club went through, meaning they won all four fixtures (1993, 1995 UEFA Cup, 1995 and 2015 Champions League) at Dortmund's

Westfalenstadion Westfalenstadion (, ) is a football stadium in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which is the home of Borussia Dortmund. Officially called Signal Iduna Park for sponsorship reasons and BVB Stadion Dortmund in UEFA competitions, the ...

, with their only defeat on German soil was in this final. Juventus reached that season's final; coincidentally that match was again held at an Olympiastadion in Germany, but this time in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, and the outcome was another 3–1 loss, to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern 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 ...

Match

Summary

put Dortmund ahead finishing from inside the six yard box after

Paul Lambert Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town. Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-ol ...

's cross. Riedle then made it two with a header from a corner kick from the right. In the second half, Juventus forward

, who had come on as a substitute, scored via a back-heel from a cross by

to make the score 2–1. 20-year-old substitute and Dortmund local boy Lars Ricken latched on to a through-pass by

only 16 seconds after coming onto the pitch. Ricken chipped

in the Juve goal from over 20 yards with his first touch of the ball, to make it 3–1 for Dortmund. Ricken's goal was the fastest ever by a substitute in said event. With

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the mos ...

unable to make an impression for Juve against the close marking of Lambert, the 3–1 victory gave Dortmund their only Champions League title to date.

Details

References

External links

1996–97 UEFA Champions League
at UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Champions League Final 1997 1996–97 in German football

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

European Cup Final 1997 European Cup Final 1997 European Cup Final 1997

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

1990s in Munich May 1997 sports events in Europe Football in Munich Sports competitions in Munich