The biggest Champions League final upsets ever 😱 | OneFootball

Huge favourites are not the most common thing when it comes to Champions League finals and it’s easy to understand why, with Europe’s elite clashing all season long until they are whittled down to just two teams.

The last three finals have ended 1-0 and just one of the last 18 finals have been won by more than a two-goal margin after 90 minutes.

But this year could be different. Manchester City are massively favoured to win their first Champions League title and complete a historic treble by seeing off Inter in Istanbul on Saturday.

But what if they didn’t? Delving through the Champions League era (i.e since 1993), here are the three biggest Champions League final upsets.

2012: Chelsea beat Bayern in Munich

It was upset after upset that took Chelsea to the final. Or shock after shock, at least. Look, it was a high-wire act all the way. They entered the final matchday of the group stage in third and needed a win, so they won.

They lost 3-1 in Naples in the round of 16 and sacked manager André Villas-Boas before clinching an extra-time victory at Stamford Bridge in the return leg. They narrowly beat Benfica away, then at home, before stunning the world as they knocked out Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in the semi-finals.

All this in a Premier League season that saw them finish sixth in the league.

And when the Blues did reach the final, they had to travel to Munich. To face Bayern Munich. At their Allianz Arena stadium. The odds could not have been more stacked against the west London club, who lost two of their final three Premier League games (and, for balance, won the FA Cup) ahead of the final.

But there was more. Not only were they playing against Bayern in Munich, but they had to do so without John Terry, Branislav Ivanović and Ramires, who were all suspended. The trio were amongst the six Chelsea players with the most Premier League minutes played in the 2011/12 season.

Ryan Bertrand made his full debut for the Blues, incredibly, on the biggest stage of all and they survived an onslaught. Chelsea were outshot 35 to nine across 120 minutes, with extra-time forced by an 88th-minute Didier Drogba equaliser from Chelsea’s only corner of the entire game. Bayern had 20.

But survive those 120 minutes and the playing field is levelled from the penalty spot and misses from Ivica Olić and Bastian Schweinsteiger helped Chelsea secure their first Champions League title from 12 yards.

2005: Liverpool’s comeback stuns Milan

Liverpool had only managed to finish fifth in the Premier League and had lost 14 league games in the season they travelled to Istanbul to face Milan.

By half-time they were three goals down.

“I almost began to regret reaching the final,” Jamie Carragher later said, such was the shame of letting down the Liverpool faithful who had travelled to Turkey in huge numbers.

That faint feeling of regret subsided, no doubt, as Liverpool pulled off perhaps the most famous comeback in the history of the world’s most popular game. And did so in no less than the biggest club fixture on the planet.

Heading into the second half at the Olympic Stadium in Turkey, where Man City and Inter meet this weekend, Milan had conceded once in six-and-a-half Champions League knockout matches. They conceded just twice in the six group stages before that.

Yet Liverpool pulled off the unthinkable, scoring in the 54th, 56th and 61st minutes before taking Milan all the way to penalties and beating them from 12 yards.

A performance, and a shock, that will never be forgotten.

1997: Dortmund defy the odds against the Old Lady

Unlike Chelsea and Liverpool, you could have been forgiven for backing Dortmund just a few months before they faced Juventus in the 1997 final. Having won the Bundesliga in 1995 and 1996, Ottmar Hizfeld’s side clearly had the quality to compete at the very top.

Yet, compared to Juve, they really didn’t.

The holders at the time, having beaten 1995 winners Ajax in the 1996 final, Juventus boasted a true all-star side.

Zinedine Zidane and Christian Vieiri had been added to the team that won the trophy in 1996, adding quality to the already absurd quality of Alen Bokšić and Alessandro Del Piero up top and Didier Deschamps screening a defence containing the legendary Ciro Ferrera.

For their part, Dortmund had a midfield containing Paulo Sousa — a Juve player in 1996 who said he “felt Juve wanted to move forward without (him)” that summer — and Paul Lambert, a relatively unknown Scottish midfielder signed on a free from Motherwell.

Together, they kept Zidane quiet all game.

Karl-Heinz Riedle netted twice for the unfancied Germans, who sealed the game through local youngster Lars Ricken, with his first touch after coming off the bench, to kill Juve’s hopes of a comeback after Del Piero had made it 2-1.

Not exactly David versus Goliath but certainly a result nobody really saw coming.