Barcelona completed a historic treble when they beat Juventus 3-1 in the UEFA Champions League final. The La Liga champions took the lead early through Ivan Rakitic, but Alvaro Morata ensured it would be a tight contest with an equalizer in the second half. Eventually, Luis Suarez and Neymar scored against the run of play to give the Catalan club their fifth European crown while the Old Lady succumbed to yet another European final defeat.
We take a look at all the records set and milestones reached in the 2014/15 season finale.
– Both Barcelona and Juventus have now reached 5 finals in the Champions League era (since 1992/93). They are tied with Bayern Munich. Only AC Milan have appeared in more finals (6).
– This is the first time two teams from the same country have won the Champions League in back-to-back seasons (Real Madrid in 2014 and Barcelona in 2015). The last time it happened, it was AC Milan who won in both 1989 and 1990.
Juventus
1) This is Juventus’ sixth loss in the Champions League final. No other club has lost so many finals. They had previously lost in 1973, 1983, 1997, 1998 and 2003. They have won the competition twice. Juventus have now lost their last four Champions League finals.
2) Alvaro Morata is the second player to score in both legs of the Champions League semi-final (against Real Madrid) and final (against Barcelona). The last player to do so was Arjen Robben in 2012/13 when he scored against Barcelona in the semi-final legs and Borussia Dortmund in the final. Neymar did one better though (read on).
Morata also became only the fourth player to score against Real Madrid and Barcelona in the same season in the Champions League.
3) The average age of the Juventus starting XI was 30 years and 153 days. It is the second oldest XI to play a Champions League final. The oldest squad was AC Milan’s XI in 2007 when they beat Liverpool.
Juventus’ starting XI in the final also saw them field the 8 oldest starting XI's in the competition this season.
5) This was Patrice Evra’s fifth Champions League final and he equaled Clarence Seedorf and Edwin Van der Sar. The only player to appear in more finals is Paolo Maldini (6). Evra has also won just one final in the Champions League and has lost with three different clubs – Monaco (2004), Manchester United (2009 & 2011) and Juventus (2015).
6) At 37 years and 129 days, Gianluigi Buffon was the seventh oldest player to play in a Champions League final behind Doino Zoff, Edwin Van der Sar, Paolo Maldini, Lothar Matthaus, Alfredo Di Stefano and Ryan Giggs.
7) Andrea Pirlo has now won two and lost two Champions League finals. He won twice with AC Milan (against Juventus in 2003 and Liverpool in 2007) and lost once with Milan (against Liverpool in 2005) and with Juventus (against Barcelona in 2015).
Barcelona records on Page 2
Barcelona
1) Barcelona are the only team to win the treble twice (2009 and 2015). They have also won their last four Champions League finals.
2) Andres Iniesta became the first Barcelona player to play in 4 Champions League finals. He also played a part when they reached the final in 2006 (beat Arsenal), 2009 and 2011 (beat Manchester United on both occasions).
Iniesta is also the first player to assist a goal in three different Champions League finals. With the assist for Rakitic’s goal, he is also the topped the assists chart with 5 this season. Although Hector Herrera (Porto) and Lionel Messi (Barcelona) also got 5 assists, Iniesta has played lesser minutes.
3) Ivan Rakitic’s goal in the third minute was the third fastest in a Champions League final. The fastest goal was scored by Paolo Maldini (1st minute – AC Milan vs Liverpool in 2005) and second-fastest by Gaizka Mendieta (penalty in 3rd minute – Valencia vs Bayern Munich in 2001).
Rakitic's goal was also the first Barcelona goal from open play since 28 February without the front trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez or Neymar getting a goal or assist.
4) Barcelona beat 6 different league champions on their way to their fifth Champions League crown. They beat Paris Saint-Germain (France), APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus), Ajax (Netherlands) in the group stages, Manchester City (England) in the Round of 16, PSG again in the quarter-final, Bayern Munich (Germany) in the semi-final and Juventus (Italy) in the final. They played only league champions in every round.
Juventus had accomplished the same in 1996.
5) Xavi, Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Iniesta have now won four Champions League titles - the same as Clarence Seedorf.
6) Messi became the first player to top the goalscoring charts in the Champions League five times. This season, he was joint top scorer with Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar (10 goals).
7) This is also the first time two players from the same team have scored 10 goals in a season (Messi and Neymar).
8) This was Xavi's 151st and final Champions League appearance – no other player has played more games than the Catalan captain. It was his 767th match for Barca.
9) Neymar is the first player to score in both legs of the quarter-final (PSG), both legs of the semi-final (Bayern Munich) and final (Juventus) of a single Champions League season.
He also became only the second player to score in the Copa Libertadores (for Santos) and Champions League final after Hernan Crespo (for River Plate in 1996 and for AC Milan in 2005)
10) The trio of Messi-Suarez-Neymar finished with 122 goals and 66 assists for the 2014/15 season in all competitions – Messi (58 goals and 31 assists), Neymar (39 goals and 11 assists) and Suarez (25 goals and 24 assists).
All stats via WhoScored, Opta and Infostrada
