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

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Profile

Formed: 1904
Nickname: Werkself (Factory XI)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2002)
• UEFA Cup: 1988

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• German Cup: 1 (1993)

History
• In 1903, 170 workers at the Bayer chemical plant signed a petition requesting the foundation of a company sports club; the management acceded to their request the following year and the football division opened in 1907, though they achieved little of note in its early decades.

• Leverkusen were still playing in the second tier of the Regionalliga West when the Bundesliga was founded in 1963 and while they remained an unremarkable side for the next 15 years, they made a siginificant breakthrough when they won promotion to the top division for the 1979/80 season; they have not been relegated since.

• Leverkusen’s first Bundesliga seasons were a struggle, but coach Erich Ribbeck’s arrival in the mid-1980s led to improved results; they competed in the UEFA Cup for the first time in 1986/87 and won the competition the following season, recovering from a 3-0 first-leg deficit against RCD Espanyol to win the trophy on penalties at home.

• Following reunification Leverkusen had great success in nurturing talent from the former East Germany, the likes of Andreas Thom, Jens Melzig and Ulf Kirsten combining with Brazilian stars Jorginho and Paulo Sérgio to establish Leverkusen among Germany’s top sides; they won the 1993 German Cup, beating Hertha BSC Berlin’s reserves 1-0 in the final.

• Leverkusen’s stock rose even higher in the 1990s and early 2000s as they finished second in the Bundesliga three times and under Klaus Toppmöller lost out to Zinédine Zidane’s wonder-goal in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League final; they also reached the German Cup final in the same campaign.

Club records
Most league appearances: Rüdiger Vollborn (401)
Most league goals: Ulf Kirsten (182)
Record victory: FC Stahl Brandenburg 0-11 Leverkusen (German Cup, 13 March 1994)
Record defeat: Hannover 96 6-1 Leverkusen (Bundesliga, 26 March 1988)

 

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=50109/profile/index.html

FC Bayern München Profile

Formed: 1900
Nickname: Die Bayern (The Bavarians)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1974, 1975, 1976, 2001; (1982), (1987), (1999), (2010)
• UEFA Cup: 1996
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1967
• UEFA Super Cup: (2001)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• Domestic title: 22 (2010)
• German Cup: 15 (2010)

History
• Strange as it may seem to those more accustomed to the slick, successful Bayern of today, when the club was founded in 1900, it consisted of eleven students, shopkeepers and office workers from the bohemian Munich neighbourhood of Schwabing. Under ambitious long-term president Kurt Landauer, the club nonetheless clinched a surprise first national title in 1932.

• After the Second World War, Bayern slid into relative obscurity and were not even admitted to the inaugural Bundesliga of 1963/64. The club’s fortunes improved with the emergence of gifted youngsters Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller, however, and German Cup wins were followed by an unexpected UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup triumph in 1966/67.

• Domestic dominance was soon established and continued into the 1970s, when a side bolstered by the likes of Uli Hoeness and Paul Breitner stepped up another notch and claimed three consecutive European Champion Clubs’ Cups between 1974 and 1976. Bayern overcame Club Atlético de Madrid (4-0 in a replay after 1-1 draw), Leeds United AFC (2-0) and AS Saint-Etienne (1-0) in the finals.

• Slowly the stars left or faded, but a new generation headed by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge picked up more domestic silverware, as did a talented lineup led by Lothar Matthäus. With Jürgen Klinsmann scoring the goals and Beckenbauer in the dugout, Bayern claimed ten Bundesliga titles during the 1980s and 1990s, and lifted the UEFA Cup in 1995/96.

• The end of the decade brought more renewal by another crop of gifted players, not least goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and playmaker Mehmet Scholl. Though UEFA Champions League glory painfully escaped their grasp against Manchester United FC in the 1998/99 final, Ottmar Hitzfeld’s men bounced back against Valencia CF two years later to return Bayern to the pinnacle of the European game. However, they were denied a famous treble under Louis van Gaal in 2009/10, winning their 22nd domestic title and 15th cup but losing 2-0 to FC Internazionale Milano in the UEFA Champions League final.

Club Records
Most appearances: Sepp Maier (623)
Most goals: Gerd Müller (525)
Record victory: Bayern 11-1 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga, 27 November 1971)
Record defeat: Bayern 0-7 FC Schalke 04 (Bundesliga, 9 October 1976)

 

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=50037/profile/index.html