2012 UEFA Champions League Final

The two teams each received 17,500 tickets to distribute to their supporters. A further 7,000 tickets were available for sale to fans worldwide via UEFA.com, with prices between €70 and €370. The remaining tickets were allocated to the local organising committee, UEFA's 53 national football associations, and commercial and broadcast partners.[19]

Former German player Paul Breitner was named as the ambassador for the final.[20]

In May 2012, Pedro Proença, the Portuguese referee was selected to oversee the final. Joining him, was fellow Portuguese officials Bertino Miranda and Ricardo Santos as assistant referees, Jorge Sousa and Duarte Gomes as additional assistant referees, Tiago Trigo as reserve assistant referee, and Spaniard Carlos Velasco Carballo as fourth official.[3]

The UEFA Champions League Anthem was performed by German tenor Jonas Kaufmann and violinist David Garrett.[21]

The UEFA Champions Festival was held at Munich's Olympiapark from 16 to 19 May.[22] An official public screening of the final took place at the Olympiastadion during the match,[23] with capacity for 65,000 fans, including a section for Chelsea supporters.[24] A second public screening was planned on the Theresienwiese, where the famous Oktoberfest takes place.[25]

Didier Drogba scored the equalising goal and the winning penalty.

Both clubs had players missing due to suspensions; Bayern were missing David Alaba, Holger Badstuber and Luiz Gustavo, while Chelsea were without Branislav Ivanović, Raul Meireles, Ramires and John Terry.[26][27] Terry was suspended after being sent off in the semi-final, which automatically excludes a player from the final. The other six all received yellow cards in the semi-finals, which took them over the limit of a third yellow card of the competition, which triggers an automatic suspension from the next match. Players union FIFPro appealed to UEFA to allow the players with yellow cards to play, seeing the punishment of "missing the match of your life" as too harsh; UEFA rejected the appeal and stated the rule would not be reviewed for at least three years.[28] Ivanović stated how he "had no idea [he] was one booking away from missing the Champions League final."[29] UEFA confirmed that Chelsea captain Terry would be allowed to lift the trophy should Chelsea win, in spite of his suspension.[30] Ryan Bertrand also got his initial first-team start as a left winger ahead of his regular left back position.

Only two of the 36 players had previously been in a winning squad in a Champions League final: Chelsea's Paulo Ferreira and José Bosingwa were in the Porto squad in 2004. Ten of the Bayern 18 had earlier been in their squad that lost the 2010 final, although only four started both games: Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller. Eight of the Chelsea squad had been in their losing 2008 squad, including four who started both games: Petr Čech, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel watching the penalty shoot-out with US President Barack Obama, French President François Hollande, Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Barroso and others during the G8 summit.

Bayern had control for most of the match, with Robben having the best chance, which Čech deflected onto the frame of the goal with his legs. Chelsea, however, also had chances, with Salomon Kalou nearly finishing at the near post. Bayern kept pushing Chelsea to the limit but missed sitters from Mario Gómez, who sent his shot over the bar; and Robben, who was blocked at the last second by Gary Cahill. Bayern took the lead in the 83rd minute, when Toni Kroos crossed in to Müller, who headed the ball down into the ground, causing it to bounce over Čech and in off the crossbar.[7] Bayern took Müller off and replaced him with Daniel Van Buyten in an attempt to shore up the defence, but on 88 minutes, Drogba was first to a Juan Mata corner and powered a header past Manuel Neuer for the equaliser. Chelsea won a free kick just outside the area in the 93rd minute, but Drogba smashed it over. The game went to extra time. The first good chance of extra time was when Ivica Olić inside the box passed to Gómez but his shot was wide. Later, Drogba fouled Franck Ribéry in the penalty area, injuring him and earning Bayern a penalty; Robben took it, but his shot was saved by Čech.[7] In the second half of extra time, Olić attempted to set up Van Buyten instead of taking a shot and the ball rolled wide of Čech's far post.

Chelsea received the trophy from UEFA President Michel Platini.

For the first time since 2008, when Chelsea had lost to Manchester United, the European Cup would be decided by penalties. Lahm went first and scored to Čech's left, as Čech got his fingertips to the ball but was unable to keep it out. Mata took Chelsea's first penalty and his weak shot was saved by Neuer. Next was Gómez, who drilled his shot into the bottom-right corner. David Luiz took Chelsea's second penalty and scored with a powerful shot into the top corner after a long run up. Goalkeeper Neuer took Bayern's third penalty, and Čech went the right way again but was unable to keep his opposite number's low shot from creeping past him into the bottom-left corner. Lampard was next and he hit a hard shot down the middle. Olić was next, but Čech, who had guessed the correct direction for every Bayern penalty up to that point, saved to his left - Olic's final competitive kick for Bayern. With a chance to tie the shoot-out, Cole slotted his kick into the bottom-right corner, just out of Neuer's reach, leveling the scores at 3–3 and hastening sudden death. Schweinsteiger, who had scored Bayern's decisive fifth penalty against Real Madrid's Iker Casillas in the semi-finals, was their fifth penalty taker again, but Čech tipped his effort onto the post to leave Chelsea one kick away from winning the trophy. In 2008, after Drogba had been sent off in extra time, captain Terry stood in as Chelsea's fifth penalty taker with a chance to win but hit the outside of the post with his kick. Now in the same position, Drogba sent Neuer the wrong way and put his kick into the bottom-left corner to win it for Chelsea. It proved to be his final kick as a Chelsea player until his return in 2014.[7]

The victory marked not only Chelsea's first ever European Cup, but also the first time a London team had won the competition – previously, aside from Chelsea's 2008 defeat to United, which was the last time an English club had won the competition, Arsenal had also lost the 2006 final in Paris against Barcelona.[7]