In the finals of the European Cups, Greek Olympiakos will be the only representative of the championships that is not in the Top-5.
Idman.biz reports that they will play against Italian Fiorentina in the decisive match of the Conference League.
But it is interesting that the final will take place in the land of Hellas, although it will be in the home arena of AEK and the Greek national team in Athens.
Thus, for the 16th time in history, the finalist of the European Cup will play the decisive game in their country.
Let's remember how these encounters went.
The first final of the then Champions Cup was already held in France, and the local Reims advanced to this stage. They lost to Real Madrid with a score of 3:4, and the very next year, the Spaniards hosted and won the Italian Fiorentina at Santiago Bernabeu.
This home win started a whole streak of similar games. First, Inter won the tournament at San Siro, then Manchester United and Liverpool lifted the cup on their heads at Wembley, and in the meantime, Ajax won the title at the stadium of Feyenoord.
However, in 1984, Roma lost to Liverpool in the penalty shootout in the final held at their Stadio Olimpico. A season later, the decisive match took place in Seville, Spain, where the nominal hosts were Romanian Steaua and the actual host was Barcelona. That final also ended with the defeat of the hosts and the series of penalties went down in history - only two of the eight penalties were scored!
After the creation of the Champions League in the 1990s, two more home finals took place. First, Juventus defeated Ajax in a penalty shootout in Rome, and the following year, the representative of Turin lost to local Borussia Dortmund in Munich, Germany.
All home finals of the European Champions Cup and Champions League in the 20th century:
1956 - Reims in France lost to Real (Madrid) with a score of 3:4;
1957 - Real (Madrid) won 2:0 against Fiorentina in Spain;
1965 – Inter won 1:0 against Benfica in Italy;
1968 - Manchester United defeated Benfica with a score of 4:1 (in extra time) in England;
1972 - Ajax was stronger than Inter in the Netherlands - 2:0;
1978 - Liverpool won 1:0 against Brugge in England;
1984 - In Italy, Roma lost to Liverpool in a penalty shoot-out with a score of 1:1 (2:4);
1986 - Barcelona lost to Steaua in a penalty shootout with a score of 0:0 (0:2) in Spain;
1996 - Juventus defeated Ajax in a penalty shootout 1:1 (4:2) in Italy;
1997 - Borussia defeated Juventus in Germany with a score of 3:1.
UEFA Cup finals were held in two-legged format until 1997. Therefore, the first home final in this tournament took place only in 2002. Although both Feyenoord and Borussia Dortmund started that season in the Champions League, they later fell to the UEFA Cup and reached the final there. Moreover, this final took place in the stadium De Kuip, home to the Dutch. 45,000 spectators watched young Robin van Persie help the already experienced Jon-Dal Thomasson and Pierre van Hooydonk to score against the opponent. For now, this match is the last European Cup final won by the team playing in the home country.
After EURO-2004, it is natural that the European Cup final will be held in Portugal. The chosen stadium was the Jose Alvalade stadium of Sporting. It was Sporting that reached the final with Moscow MOIK. It started very well for the Portuguese, scoring midway through the first half and going into the break in a dominant position. However, after the break, the "lions" conceded three goals in 20 minutes and eventually lost.
Borussia Dortmund will not be the first team to play in the European cup final at Wembley for the second time. Previously, Benfica lost two finals in this stadium, Barcelona won both games, and Manchester United lost in 2011 after winning in 1968. Lionel Messi and his teammates did not allow Alex Ferguson's team to win. The home stadium did not help the British.
We saw the disappointment in Bayern's players' eyes after losing in the Champions League semi-finals, but imagine how the German players must have felt in 2012 when they lost the final on home soil. Holding the final match against Chelsea at Allianz Arena made the Munich favorites and when they opened the scoring in the 83rd minute, there was no doubt that they would win. However, the English first restored the status quo, and then won the penalty shootout.
In 2018, in the final of the Europa League at the home arena of Lyon, Olympic Marseille met with Atletico Madrid, who played in the final of the Champions League just two years ago. Even before the game, it was clear who was the favorite here, even the French fans did not help: the Spaniards defeated their opponent with a score of 3:0 and took home the trophy.
The statistics also show that the difference is still minimal, but more home teams win home finals. Although, in the last 20 years, this statistic has worsened significantly, and for a very long time, the host country has not welcomed the winners of European Cups after the final whistle (isport.ua).
Will Olympiakos be able to break the losing streak? Or will Fiorentina win and equalize the statistics of home finals? If the location of the decisive meeting does not change...
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