#2 AC Milan vs Juventus (2002-03)
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In the first-all Italian final, AC Milan and Juventus met at Old Trafford in the 2003 Champions League final. At the end it was Milan who came out winners at the Theatre of Dreams to record their sixth European title and first in nine seasons.
Juventus were soaring high going into this final, having been crowned as champions of Italy for the 27th time while Milan finished 16 points below them in the fourth position. The sides had met twice in the league; the encounters finishing 1-1 and 1-0 in favour of Juventus. They also met in the semi-finals of Coppa Italia and Juventus still got the better of Carlo Ancelotti’s men by knocking them out following a 3-2 aggregate win.
The match stirred up quite a few controversies from both sides. Milan had an Andriy Shevchenko goal ruled out after Rui Costa was deemed to have blocked Gianluigi Buffon’s vision standing in an offside position with replays clearly suggesting otherwise. Both the sides also hit the woodwork, with Andrea Pirlo hitting the framework for Milan few minutes after Antonio Conte’s header had glanced off the post for Juve.
Ninety minutes did not prove enough to separate the two sides and the game went into a penalty-shootout. Both Dida and Buffon caused further controversy by allegedly being off the goal line while making the penalty saves. Juventus missed three of their penalties, and Milan eventually prevailed 3-2 with Shevchenko scoring the winner.
