Borussia Dortmund Profile

Formed: 1909
Nickname: Die Schwarzgelben (The Black-Yellows)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1997
• UEFA Cup: (1993, 2002)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1966
• UEFA Super Cup: (1998)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 7 (2011)
• DFB-Pokal: 2 (1989)

History
• While many German teams were founded as gymnastics clubs, Dortmund were created solely as a football entity in 1909. They enjoyed some good results in the 1930s and 1940s but were unable to escape the shadow cast by arch-rivals FC Schalke 04. In 1947, a memorable 3-2 win in the Westphalia Championship final marked the first time the Black-Yellows had overcome the Royal Blues.

• In 1956, a crowd of 75,000 watched Dortmund win their first German title with a 4-2 defeat of Karlsruher SC in Berlin’s Olympiastadion. BVB defended their crown the following year with a 4-1 defeat of Hamburger SV with exactly the same team as the previous year, a feat never accomplished before or since. Dortmund had to wait for continental success, however, having been knocked out of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup by Manchester United FC in 1956 and AC Milan the following year.

• Dortmund started the inaugural Bundesliga season as German champions after winning their third title in 1963. The club lifted the domestic Cup in 1965 and went on to win their first European silverware the next season when they defeated Liverpool FC 2-1 after extra time to clinch the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. However, a steady decline ensued which included a four-year spell in the 2. Bundesliga from 1972.

• Revived by a 1989 DFB-Pokal Cup victory, Dortmund became a leading force in German football in the mid-1990s. Under the guidance of Ottmar Hitzfeld, BVB won successive titles in 1995 and 1996 having reached the 1993 UEFA Cup final where they lost to Juventus. Hitzfeld’s side sealed a sweet revenge against the Italian giants in the 1997 UEFA Champions League final, triumphing 3-1 in Munich. They followed it up with victory in the European/South American Cup and Dortmund were again Bundesliga champions in 2002, but then endured another fall from grace.

• The club turned to their traditionally strong youth department in the years that followed and coach Jürgen Klopp almost took his side into the European places in his first season, 2008/09. In the following campaign, the Black-Yellows finished fifth and consolidated their position back among Germany’s elite, but it was in the 2010/11 campaign that Dortmund lifted their seventh domestic title. Klopp’s young and exciting side featured stars such as Mats Hummels, Kevin Grosskreutz, Shinji Kagawa and the highly-rated Mario Götze.

Club records
Most appearances: Michael Zorc (463)
Most goals: Alfred Preissler (168)
Record victory: Borussia Dortmund 11-1 DSC Arminia Bielefeld (Bundesliga, 6 November 1982)
Record defeat: VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 12-0 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga, 29 April 1978)

 From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52758/profile/index.html

Olympiacos FC Profile

Formed: 1925
Nickname: Erythrolefki (Red and Whites)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• None

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
League title: 38 (2011)
Greek Cup: 24 (2009)

History
• With a name inspired by the noted aviator Notis Kamperos, Olympiacos were formed by the five-man Andrianopoulos brothers in the small port of Piraeus in Athens on 10 March 1925, and those same siblings went on to form the potent forward line which dominated the fledgling Greek championship in the 1930s.

• The club secured six league titles before the Second World War and enjoyed even better times afterwards, taking seven championship crowns and seven Greek Cups in the 1950s, including three consecutive domestic doubles between 1957 and 1959.

• A comparatively lean period in the 1960s was reversed by ambitious club president Nikos Goulandris, who brought in star names to knock Panathinaikos FC off their perch in 1973, with the first of three straight titles. The second of those crowns was attained thanks to a stunning 102 goals in 34 league outings.

• The success continued into the 1980s until the club faced financial problems. However, the situation was resolved when Socrates Kokkalis, owner of the Olympiacos basketball section, took over in 1992.

• The appointment of Dušan Bajevic as coach in 1996 then helped return Olympiacos to the forefront on the pitch, with a ten-year championship drought ended in 1996/97. That proved to be the first of seven consecutive league titles, eclipsing the club’s Greek record of six successes between 1954 and 1959. Olympiacos’ dominance on the domestic scene has continued throughout the decade, securing 13 championships between 1997 and 2011.

Club records
Most league appearances: Kyiakos Karataidis (363)
Most league goals: Giorgos Sideris (224)
Record victory: Olympiacos 11-0 Fostiras FC (Alpha Katigoria, 1973/74)
Record defeat: Juventus 7-0 Olympiacos (UEFA Champions League, 10 December 2003)

 From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=2610/profile/index.html

Olympique de Marseille Profile

Formed: 1899
Nicknames: Les Olympiens (The Olympians), Les Phocéens (The Phocians), OM

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1993; (1991)
• UEFA Cup: (1999), (2004)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 9 (2010)
• French Cup: 10 (1989)
• League Cup: 2 (2011)

History
• The only French side to have won the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, Marseille were slow burners. Formed in 1899, OM began to make their mark with three French Cup triumphs in four years (1924, 1926, 1927). They turned professional in 1932 and, after winning the cup again in 1935, claimed a first championship title in 1937.

• Another French Cup triumph followed in 1943 and a second title five years later, but the club’s fortunes were in decline despite the presence of all-time leading scorer Gunnar Andersson. Marseille were relegated in 1958/59 and only in 1965, when Marcel Leclerc became club president, did things improve.

• OM returned to the top flight in 1966 and, with Yugoslavia striker Josip Skoblar setting the Stade Vélodrome alight, took French football by storm. They won successive titles in 1970/71 and 1971/72, the latter half of a domestic double, yet by the end of the decade Marseille had lost their lustre and they were relegated in 1980.

• Les Phocéens bounced back under new owner Bernard Tapie and secured another double in 1988/89, embarking on a run of four straight titles between 1989 and 1992. The disappointment of losing in the 1991 European Cup final was forgotten when a side captained by Didier Deschamps beat AC Milan to lift the trophy in 1993, Basile Boli’s goal proving the difference in Munich.

• Celebrations were short-lived. Found guilty of match-fixing, Marseille were demoted to the second tier and stripped of the 1992/93 French title. Though they soon bounced back, major silverware proved elusive. OM reached two UEFA Cup finals but lost both, to Parma FC (1999) and Valencia CF (2004), and it was a similar story in the French Cup finals of 2006 and 2007. The curse was finally lifted in 2009/10 as they followed up their maiden League Cup success with a first title since 1992.

Club Records
Most appearances: Roger Scotti (451)
Most goals: Gunnar Andersson (187)
Record victory: Marseille 19-0 Stade Raphaëlois (French Cup, 29 October 1933)
Record defeat: Olympique Lyonnais 8-0 Marseille (Première Division, 24 May 1997)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52748/profile/index.html

Arsenal FC profile

Formed: 1886
Nickname: The Gunners

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2006)
• UEFA Cup: (2000)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1994; (1980), (1995)
• UEFA Super Cup: (1994)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 13 (2004)
• FA Cup: 10 (2005)
• League Cup: 2 (1993)

History
• Arsenal began life as a team of munitions workers from the Royal Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich, south-east London – hence their nickname, the Gunners. In 1913 the club’s owner, entrepreneur Henry Norris, took the club across the Thames to Highbury and a wider supporter catchment area. There the team adopted its current name having previously been called Dial Square FC, Royal Arsenal FC and Woolwich Arsenal FC.

• Their pedigree was established in the 1920s under the great moderniser Herbert Chapman, and although he died suddenly in 1934, Arsenal continued to enjoy success. Between 1930 and 1938, the Gunners claimed five league titles and two FA Cups.

• Consistent success deserted them until the late 1960s, when former club physiotherapist Bertie Mee built a team capable of winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970 and the domestic league and cup double a year later.

• George Graham, a stalwart in that double-winning lineup, returned Arsenal to the forefront of the English game in the late 1980s. His defensively stout team won the league in 1988/89 and 1990/91, before lifting the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1993/94.

• Arsenal’s reputation as dour but effective changed radically with the arrival of little-known French manager Arsène Wenger in October 1996. Putting the accent on fluid, attacking football, ‘Le Professeur’ led the Gunners to three Premier League crowns and four FA Cup wins, not least guiding the so-called ‘Invincibles’ through an unbeaten Premier League campaign in 2003/04. Wenger also took the club to their first UEFA Champions League final in 2005/06, and masterminded the move from Highbury to their current stadium.

Club records
Most appearances: David O’Leary (722)
Most goals: Thierry Henry (214)
Record victory: 12-0 on two occasions, most recently at home against Loughborough AFC (Second Division, 12 March 1900)
Record defeat: Loughborough AFC 8-0 Arsenal (Second Division, 12 December 1896)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52280/profile/index.html