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Six nervy UEFA Champions League final involving Ghanaians

In the heat of the Kwadwo Asamoah's Juventus encounter against Real Madrid in the final of the UEFA Champions League on Saturday 3rd June,2017, Pulse Sports has compiled six nervy finals that Ghanaian were involved

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1991

Abedi Pele's Marseille staged the final of the 1990-91 European Cup final against Red Star Belgrade and after they game had ended goalless, follwing extra-time play the Yugoslavs defeated the French giants on penalties

The final, played in the vast bowl of a stadium in Bari which had built for the Italian World Cup in 1990, was keenly anticipated with two exciting teams with players such as Prosinecki, Abedi Pele, Mihajlovic, Waddle, Savicevic and Papin on show. As the game began, it looked as though it might live up to its billing as both teams showed flashes of the entertaining football that they had played en route to the final, but the game soon settled down into a war of attrition with Red Star packing their defence and Marseille stopping all breakaways with their ruthlessly efficient offside trap. Throughout the 90 minutes and an extra 30 minutes of extra-time, there were few chances - a Prosinecki free kick went close and a Waddle header across the goal was only just wide, but overall the game was a huge disappointment for the 60,000 paying spectators and the millions watching on television around the world.

From an early stage, a penalty shootout had seemed inevitable, in fact Red Star coach Ljubomir Petrovic later admitted that his team had set out to play for penalties, and after 120 minutes of goalless football, that was what happened. The first penalty was converted for Red Star by Prosinecki, but Marseille’s first penalty by Amoros was saved by Stojanovic. After that all the penalties were successfully converted and it was left to Pancev to score the penalty that brought the European Cup to Yugoslavia for the first time as Red Star Belgrade won the shootout 5-3.

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1992-93

Abedi Pele

Marseille 1-0 AC Milan

Abedi Pele was involved in 1993 and this time around his side Olympique Marseille were crowned as champions of Europe after they piped fancied AC Milan by a goal to nil. Pele orchestrated the goal only goal of the game

The two finalists would be meeting for the first time since Milan’s infamous walk off following the floodlight failure in Marseille just two years earlier. Since then, Marseille had made big changes in playing staff while Milan were now managed by former Italian international Fabio Capello. Both Gullit and Van Basten had been so badly hit by injury that the former did not even make the substitutes bench while the latter was being rushed back from the treatment table to make a rare starting appearance. The final, played in Munich’s Olympic Stadium, started off with Milan making the better chances and twice in the first half, Barthez had to save well to stop Van Basten from opening the scoring, while Massaro missed two good chances. As half time approached, however, Marseille took the lead as a Pele corner was headed powerfully home by Basile Boli. Soon after the interval Capello threw Papin on to replace Donadoni, and the Frenchman came close on a couple of occasions against his former team, but gradually Milan’s efforts petered out and when, on 86 minutes, Van Basten was taken off, the game was up.

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1999

Manchester United fought back from a goal down to beat Mayern Munich in the late minutes to stage a remarkable comeback. Samuel Osei Kuffour before Manchester United got their mojo back in the late minutes had marked out Yorke and Andy Cole

In front of a packed Nou Camp crowd, Bayern took a sixth minute lead through a Basler free kick and proceeded to dominate the rest of the match. They were unable, however, to convert any more of their numerous chances and so the score remained 1-0 in the 90th minute as United won a corner. Amazingly, substitute Sheringham scored to equalise with time running out, but there was more drama still to come. Almost immediately United forced another corner, and the other substitute Solsjaer was on hand to score to the disbelief of the thousands of German supporters. Having already won their domestic league and cup, United thus completed an unbelievable treble as they won one of the most thrilling finals in European Cup history.

2001

Osei Kuffour's Bayern Munich after missing out on the final in 1999 through late minute goals managed to make amends by beating Valencia on penalties in two years later and the Ghanaian was once again in the thick of events.

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The 2001 Champions League Final was the 'Penalty Final.' First Mendieta gave Valencia the lead from the penalty spot. then Scholl missed a penalty for Bayern. When Bayern were awarded another penalty Effenberg made no mistake and the game finished 1-1 which meant that there had to be a penalty shootout. Both teams missed two of their first five spot kicks, but when Pellegrino's penalty was saved by Kahn, Bayern won the shootout 5-4 to erase the memory of their 1999 defeat. Valencia, meanwhile, had suffered final defeat for the second year in a row.

2007/08

Michael Essien played in the final against Manchester United but his Chelsea side lost 6-5 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw following extra time. Chelsea would have been champions hadn't been John Terry's slip when he went to take what was supposed to be Chelsea's winning penalty kick.

Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring for Manchester United in the 26th minute with a header from a cross by Wes Brown, but Frank Lampard equalised shortly before half-time. The second half and most of extra time passed without incident until Chelsea's Didier Drogba was sent off for slapping Nemanja Vidić four minutes from the end. In the penalty shoot-out, Ronaldo missed Manchester United's third kick, giving John Terry the chance to win the game for Chelsea, only for him to slip and hit the post. Edwin van der Sar then saved Nicolas Anelka's effort from Chelsea's seventh kick to give Manchester United their third European Cup title.

More than 67,000 people watched the game in the stadium, along with more than 17.5 million television viewers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In addition to prize money received from earlier in the competition, Manchester United received €7 million for winning the final, while Chelsea received €4 million. As winners, Manchester United went on to play in the 2008 UEFA Super Cup, losing 2–1 to 2007–08 UEFA Cup winners Zenit Saint Petersburg, and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup, which they won after beating 2008 Copa Libertadores winners LDU Quito 1–0 in the final.

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2015/16

Thomas Partey came on as a late minute substitute when his side lost Atletico Madrid lost 5-3 on a penalty shoot-out after a 1–1 draw at the end of extra time, securing a record-extending 11th title in the competition for the Los Blancos.

The 2016 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League, the 61st season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 24th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. It was played at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, on 28 May 2016, between Spanish teams Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, in a repeat of the 2014 final. It was the second time in the tournament's history that both finalists were from the same city. Real Madrid won 5–3 on a penalty shoot-out after a 1–1 draw at the end of extra time, securing a record-extending 11th title in the competition.

Real Madrid earned the right to play against the winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League, Sevilla, in the 2016 UEFA Super Cup. They also qualified to enter the semi-finals of the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup as the UEFA representative.

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