Sometimes reputations don’t match reality. And this is the case with German football and in particular the German club sides, who might have won a lot, but have also lost many decisive games. Lineker’s well-known quip about football being a “simple game” where “22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end the Germans always win” isn’t necessarily true, especially when it comes to finals.

Not only has Germany lost more World Cup finals than it has won, but Bayern has also notched up more defeats (five) in European Cup finals than it has victories (four).

And the Bavarian outfit even won the first three finals it played in, in consecutive years, against Atlético (73-74), Leeds (74-75) and Saint-Etienne (75-76). From then on it has only won one out of six, against Valencia in 2001.

Some defeats have been tough to take, such as the 1999 final against Manchester United. Bayern managed to get to 90 minutes with a lead, but from that position somehow conspired to lose the game, giving away two injury time goals. The images of the broken players after that dramatic final showdown now form part of Champions League history.

Last year’s final against Chelsea was also a cruel blow. In front of the side’s own fans, in a game where Bayern was the stronger team, the game somehow managed to slip away on penalties, after having initially gone ahead in the game and having a penalty in injury time that Robben wasted.

If the side were to lose at Wembley, the team from Munich would be the third team to lose two consecutive Champions League finals, with Juventus (1997 and 1998) and Valencia (2000 and 2001) being the other two.

According to Marca