The 2002-03 champions league was very interesting, three English clubs, Newcastle United, Arsenal and Manchester united all qualified from the first group stage whereas all four Italian clubs qualified, including both Inter and AC Milan.
The second group stages consisted of four groups. Group A proved to be too tough for Newcastle and Bayer Leverkusen as the mighty Barcelona and Inter Milan easily qualified at their expense.
Group B consisted of Valencia, Ajax, Arsenal and Roma. In what proved to be a very tight section, Valencia and Ajax went through, despite their only being a four point gap between group winners, Valencia and bottom team, A.S Roma.
Group C also contained heavy weights, including the mighty Real Madrid of Spain, a team featuring, Zidane, Roanldo, Figo, Raul and Roberto Carlos. Italian champions, Inter Milan were also in the same group. Both sides qualified for the last eight at the expense of Borussia Dortmund.
Like many other occasions in champions league history, Manchester united and Juventus were paired together along with Basel of Switzerland and Deportivo. It was fitting to see both United and Juventus occupying the top two positions, despite Juventus ending level on points with third and fourth.
The tie of the quarter finals had to be Real Madrid against Manchester United. On aggregate, the score line finished 6-5 to Real Madrid and at Old Trafford Ronaldo inspired his team as he scored a stunning hat trick.
Barcelona were not as fortunate as their Spanish counterpart as they lost 3-2 to Juventus. The semis produced a Milan derby as Inter and AC Milan battled it out. At Inter Milan’s stadium the tie ended 1-1; however the return leg was a dire 0-0 affair which in turn meant AC Milan reached the final on the away goals rule.
Real Madrid met Juventus in the other semi final match. Madrid took a 2-1 advantage away from the first leg; however they were dismantled in the second leg as they crashed out losing 3-1.
The final was an all Italian affair between, Juventus and AC Milan. The match was hardly a classic as nothing could separate either team in the 90 minutes and the further extra 30 minutes. The tie was decided on penalties and Milan won the shoot out 3-2.