Champions!!!

Champions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




And this makes it 7...
Seven times on top of Europe...

11 finals, 7 victories... 64% success rate...

1958 Real Madrid-Milan 3-2
1963 Milan-Benfica 2-1
1969 Milan-Ajax 4-1
1989 Milan-Steaua 4-0
1990 Milan-Benfica 1-0
1993 Marseille-Milan 1-0
1994 Milan-Barcelona 4-0
1995 Ajax-Milan 1-0
2003 Milan-Juventus 3-2 (pen)
2005 Liverpool-Milan 3-2 (pen)
2007 Milan-Liverpool 2-1

In the past 19 years, 8 finals... in the finals, 22 goals scored, 11 against...

Overall, Real Madrid won 9 Champions Leagues in 12 finals but 5 of them coming in the first 5 years of the competition... so Milan is second with 7, Liverpool is third with 5 cups in 7 finals, Ajax and Bayern Munich 4 each (respectively in 6 and 7 finals)...

Overall, these 5 teams won a combined 29 times of a possible 52... 55% of the total...

The rest of Europe is left with peanuts... ManU, Inter, Juventus, Benfica, N.Forest, Barcelona and Porto each won twice... PSV, R.S.Belgrade, Celtic, Steaua, Dortmund, Marseille, A.Villa, Hamburg and Feyenoord won once... Reims and Valencia reached the finals twice with no luck, Fiorentina, Frankfurt, P.Belgrade, Panathinaikos, A.Madrid, Leeds, St.Etienne, B.Moenchengladbach, Brugge, Malmo, Roma, Sampdoria, B.Leverkusen, Monaco and Arsenal once each, also coming away empty handed...

The final was reached 25 times by an Italian team, 20 times by a Spanish, 14 by an English and 13 by a German... all other nations are in one figure territory...

The final was won by an Italian and Spanish team 11 times, by an English team 10 times, Germany and Holland 6 times... the rest is far behind...

France is definitely the one who flares the worst sporting a finals record of 1 victory in 6 finals, a 16.6% victory rate...

Portugal's Benfica and Italy's Juventus are the two teams to reach the finals 7 times and win only twice, a lousy 29% success rate...

AC Milan is also the team to win the most cups in European history, totalling 16... 7 Champions Leagues, 2 Cup Winner's Cups, 3 Intercontinental Cups and 4 Supercups... now Real Madrid is second with 15, but Milan as the Champions League winner, has the chance to play again for the Intercontinental and Supercup...

So what a year... after winning Italy's 4th World Cup last July, here I am celebrating yet another Milan fabulous victory... let me remind you, Italy won the World Cup 4 times (trailing only Brazil with 5) as follows:

1934 Italy-Czechoslovakia 2-1

1938 Italy-Hungary 4-2

1970 Brazil-Italy 4-1

1982 Italy-West Germany 3-1

1994 Brazil-Italy 3-2 (pen)

2006 Italy-France 5-3 (pen)

So, I have been lucky enough to witness in my life 8 Champions League finals with 5 victories for my team, and 3 World Cup finals with 2 victories for my nation... not too bad, for a basketball fan!!!