The final, which followed the second-ever UEFA Champions League group stage, saw Ivorian-born Marseille defender Basile Boli score the only goal of the match in the 43rd minute with a header to give l'OM their first European Cup title.

Marseille and their club president Bernard Tapie would later be found to have been involved in a match-fixing scandal during the 1992–93 season (in which Marseille allegedly paid Valenciennes to lose a match), which saw them relegated to Division 2 and banned from participation in European football for the following season.

The first Champions League final turned out to be the last game of Milan's highly accomplished but injury-prone Dutch forward Marco van Basten, who was 28 at the time; having been subbed off in the 86th minute due to fatigue and yet another ankle injury, he would spend the next two years in recovery before announcing his retirement in August 1995.

Desailly and Cascarino claimed that club president Bernard Tapie distributed pills and injections himself.

In an interview with French magazine Le Point, Jean-Pierre de Mondenard said Marseille had a blackboard in their team locker room that read "injections for everyone".