Every UEFA Champions League Final Ranked From Worst To Best
23. Marseille 1-0 AC Milan (1993)
The inaugural season of the newly-branded Champions League proved a memorable one for good and bad reasons, with Marseille making history as the first French side to win the European Cup.
In doing so they defeated an AC Milan with an impressive pedigree in this competition and one that went into the final as overwhelming favourites after winning all six of their group stage matches.
Reputations counted for little at the Olympiastadion in Munich, however, with Milan missing a hatful of chances before the French underdogs took the lead in the 43rd minute through a header from defender Basile Boli that had l’OM on their way to a first ever European title.
Though Milan peppered the French side’s goal with shots in the second half, the likes of Marcel Desailly in defence and Fabien Barthez in goal helped keep the score at 1-0.
Had the story of Marseille’s famous win ended there, then it might be more celebrated today. But it didn’t. In the months that followed both the club and its president, Bernard Tapie, were found to have been involved in a match-fixing scandal in which fellow Ligue 1 club Valenciennes were paid to lose a game.
Relegated to Ligue 2 and banned from the Champions League, the match-fixing only affected domestic fixtures meaning Marseille’s status as European champions stayed intact – but it was undoubtedly tainted.