2022 UEFA Champions League final


The 2022 UEFA Champions League final was the final match of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. It was played at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, on 28 May 2022, between English club Liverpool and Spanish club Real Madrid. It was the third time the two sides have met in the European Cup final, after 1981 and 2018, the third final held at the Stade de France, after the 2000 and 2006 finals, and the first time the same two teams have met in three finals. Real Madrid won the match 1–0 via a 59th-minute goal from Vinícius Júnior, assisted by Federico Valverde, for a record-extending 14th title, and their fifth in nine years.
This was the first final to be played in front of a full attendance since the 2019 final, as the previous two finals were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The final was originally scheduled to be played at the Allianz Arena in Munich. After the postponement and relocation of the 2020 final, the final hosts were shifted back a year, so the 2022 final was given to the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, however, UEFA called an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee a day later, and the final was relocated to the Stade de France. Before the match, chaos descended following issues with crowd control, which led to kickoff being delayed by 36 minutes.
As winners, Real Madrid earned the right to play against the winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, Eintracht Frankfurt, in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup, and also qualified for the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup, in which they both won. The team also qualified for the 2025 expanded FIFA Club World Cup using UEFA's champions pathway, with Liverpool increasing their chances of qualifying using the UEFA coefficient pathway.

Background

played in their 10th European Cup/UEFA Champions League final. They had previously won six finals and lost three. This was the fourth UEFA Champions League final for manager Jürgen Klopp, after his loss with Borussia Dortmund in 2013 and the Liverpool finals in 2018 and 2019 the latter of which he won. In addition to their six European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles, Liverpool also played in one European Cup Winners' Cup final, losing in 1966 against Borussia Dortmund, and in four UEFA Cup/Europa League finals, winning in 1973, 1976 and 2001 and losing in 2016. Their manager Jürgen Klopp was seeking to become the fourth consecutive German to manage a Champions League-winning club.
Real Madrid played in a record 17th European Cup/UEFA Champions League final, and the first since their win in 2018 against Liverpool. They previously won 13 finals and lost three. Their manager Carlo Ancelotti reached a record fifth UEFA Champions League final as manager, winning in 2003 and 2007 and losing in 2005 while in charge of Milan, and winning the 2014 final with Real Madrid, and was seeking to become the first manager in history to win four UEFA Champions League titles and eight European trophies. Real Madrid also played in two European Cup Winners' Cup finals and two UEFA Cup finals.
This was a record-third time that the two teams meet in the final, after the 1981 final, which was held in the Parc des Princes in Paris and in which Liverpool prevailed 1–0, and the 2018 final held at the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex in Kyiv, which was won 3–1 by Real Madrid. This was also the third final for Carlo Ancelotti as manager against Liverpool, after the 2005 and 2007 finals; he also lost the 1984 final as a player for Roma. This was the sixth time a Spanish side met an English team in the final of the competition, after the 1981, 2006, the 2009 and 2011 finals, and the 2018 final.
Besides the 1981 and 2018 finals, the two clubs had met each other six times. Liverpool won both matches in the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League round of 16. The two clubs were drawn in the same group in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League group stage, with Real Madrid winning 3–0 away and 1–0 at home. In the 2020–21 quarter-finals, the Spanish side won 3–1 at home and held a 0–0 draw at Anfield to ensure progression to the semi-finals.

Previous finals

In the following table, finals until 1992 were in the European Cup era, since 1993 were in the UEFA Champions League era.
TeamPrevious final appearances
Liverpool9
Real Madrid16

Venue

The final was originally awarded to the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020 final to be relocated from the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul to the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, the Allianz Arena was reawarded with the 2023 final and the 2022 final was given to the original host of the 2021 final, the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, UEFA organised an emergency meeting of its executive committee on 25 February, at which it decided to move the final to the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Other cities proposed as replacement hosts were Amsterdam, Barcelona, Munich and Rome. This was the first UEFA Champions League final to take place in France since 2006, where Barcelona secured their second title by defeating Arsenal 2–1.

Host selection

An open bidding process was launched on 28 September 2018 by UEFA to select the venues of the finals of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Women's Champions League in 2021. Associations had until 26 October 2018 to express interest, and bid dossiers must be submitted by 15 February 2019. UEFA announced on 1 November 2018 that two associations had expressed interest in hosting the 2021 UEFA Champions League final, and on 22 February 2019 that both associations submitted their dossiers by the deadline.
AssociationStadiumCityCapacity
Allianz ArenaMunich70,000
Krestovsky StadiumSaint Petersburg67,800

The Krestovsky Stadium was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24 September 2019, where the hosts for the 2021 and 2023 UEFA Champions League finals were also appointed.
On 17 June 2020, the UEFA Executive Committee announced that due to the postponement and relocation of the 2020 final caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, Saint Petersburg would instead host the 2022 final.

Route to the final

''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first.''

Pre-match

Identity

The original logo of the 2022 UEFA Champions League final at Saint Petersburg was unveiled at the group stage draw on 26 August 2021 in Istanbul. Originally, former Russian forward Andrey Arshavin was chosen to be the ambassador for the final. However, he was removed after the final's relocation to Saint-Denis.

Officials

On 11 May 2022, UEFA named Frenchman Clément Turpin as the referee for the final. Turpin had been a FIFA referee since 2010, and was previously the fourth official in the 2018 UEFA Champions League final, also between Real Madrid and Liverpool. In the previous season he was the referee for the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final between Villarreal and Manchester United. He officiated eight prior matches in the 2021–22 Champions League season, with two matches in qualification, four in the group stage and two knockout fixtures. He served as a referee at the UEFA European Championship in 2016 and 2020, as well as at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Turpin also was a video assistant referee at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France
Turpin was joined by five of his fellow countrymen, including assistant referees Nicolas Danos and Cyril Gringore. Benoît Bastien served as the fourth official. Jérôme Brisard acted as the video assistant referee, with Willy Delajod appointed as one of the assistant VAR officials, along with Italian referees Massimiliano Irrati and Filippo Meli.

Opening ceremony

Cuban-born American singer Camila Cabello performed for the opening ceremony before the start of the match. Cabello performed her songs "Señorita", "La Buena Vida", "Havana", "Bam Bam" and "Don't Go Yet".

Issues entering stadium and match delay

Crowd control descended into chaos at the entrances to the Stade de France prior to the beginning of the match. By 21:00 local time, the originally scheduled kick-off time, thousands of seats remained empty in the Liverpool end. Ostensibly for security reasons, the kick-off was initially delayed by 15 minutes to 21:15. This was further delayed by 15 minutes to 21:30, before being pushed back another six minutes to 21:36. The match eventually started at 21:37.
Fance's Interior Minister at the time, Gérald Darmanin, later admitted that security arrangements for the final were wrong, and that his first public remarks – blaming Livepool fans – were a mistake. "It was a failure because I had not foreseen. That was a mistake on my part. I was led astray by my preconceptions," he said, admitting that "The scapegoat was easy to find, and I apologise now to Liverpool supporters. They were quite right to be hurt. It was a mistake and a failure."

Match

Summary

First half

The match kicked off at the delayed time of 21:36 in front of a crowd of 75,000. In the 16th minute, Trent Alexander-Arnold played the ball across the Real Madrid penalty area which ended up being hit towards goal by Mohamed Salah before being saved by Thibaut Courtois for the first effort of the match. Five minutes later, Thiago Alcântara played a ball through to Sadio Mané who managed to make space for himself and take a shot which was saved on to the left post by Courtois. In the 34th minute, Alexander-Arnold played another cross into the Madrid penalty area towards Salah, who managed to direct a header towards goal but straight at Courtois.
Two minutes before half-time, Karim Benzema made a clear run towards the Liverpool penalty area on the right and managed to take the ball under control before attempting to pass the ball across before being cut out by Ibrahima Konaté. However, a mix up between the Liverpool defender as well as goalkeeper Alisson allowed Federico Valverde to try and step in to intercept, with Liverpool midfielder Fabinho also forced to intervene. Amongthe attempts to win the ball, it ended up falling to Benzema again who then passed the ball into the net. However, the goal was disallowed initially by the assistant referee and then also by the VAR after a check of three minutes and 20 seconds. Benzema was shown to be in an offside position when the ball came to him, however there was controversy as to whether the last touch off of Fabinho was intentional or not. There were three minutes of stoppage time.