Every UEFA Champions League Final Ranked From Worst To Best
21. Real Madrid 3-0 Valencia (2000)
Real Madrid ended up winning their eighth European Cup at a canter in 2000 but they didn’t have it all their own way at the Stade de France.
Valencia had demolished two very good Lazio and Barcelona teams on their way to the final and looked the more likely to score in the early period of the game with Gaizka Mendieta and Claudio Lopez both lively.
The game ultimately turned in Los Galacticos’ favour seven minutes before the break when neat work from Nicolas Anelka and Michel Salgado set Fernando Morientes up for a well taken header.
Despite starting the second half with similar gusto, Valencia then had the wind well and truly knocked out of their sails by a sublime volley from Steve McManaman that ranks among the very best and left the underdogs with a mountain to climb.
Pushing forward in search of a way back into the game, Valencia were then caught cold on the counter by Raul who burst clear before rolling the ball underneath the approaching goalkeeper Santiago Canizares to seal victory.
A final that had promised so much ended in something of a procession, with Real afforded enough breathing space to bring on club legend Manuel Sanchis to lift the trophy, which was Vicente del Bosque’s first as a manager.