Borussia Dortmund were also boosted before kick-off by the news that Stefan Reuter had passed a late fitness test on his injured back.

Dortmund started off their campaign in the third qualifying of the Champions League round defeating Shakhtar Donetsk 5–1 over two legs.

[10][11] Dortmund were drawn against Copenhagen of Denmark in the third round and won the first leg 1–0 away from home with Heiko Herrlich scoring in injury time.

[12] The second leg produced the same result, this time, Jan-Derek Sørensen scored in the 89th minute to secure Dortmund a place in the fourth round.

[13] In the fourth round, Dortmund were drawn against Lille of France, who had also joined the UEFA Cup, after finishing third in their Champions League group.

In a rain-soaked second leg at the Westfalenstadion, the match finished in a 0–0 draw, meaning Borussia went through to the quarter-finals on the away goals rule.

However, Milan did not get their third goal until injury time when Serginho scored a penalty after Inzaghi was adjudged to have been pulled back by Christoph Metzelder.

[32] The second leg was again drawn 1–1, with PSV taking the lead on 75 minutes, when Mark van Bommel scored from outside the penalty area.

[33] That looked to have sent PSV into the semi-finals, but with seconds remaining, Van Hooijdonk scored from Johan Elmander's cross to send the tie into extra-time.

On 15 minutes, they came even closer to breaking the deadlock, when Amoroso picked out Tomáš Rosický; however, he shot straight at Edwin Zoetebier.

Feyenoord's Tomasz Rząsa was then booked for dissent on 23 minutes, and following the resulting free kick, Evanílson came close to scoring, though his shot went over the crossbar after Ewerthon's pass had sent him through.

[7] The deadlock was broken on 31 minutes when Jürgen Kohler, who was playing his last game for Dortmund, pulled back Jon Dahl Tomasson in the Dortmund penalty area; Kohler was shown a straight red card, and Van Hooijdonk converted the subsequent penalty, dispatching it to Jens Lehmann's right hand side.

[7] Feyenoord made it 2–0 seven minutes later when Van Hooijdonk, scored a free kick from the edge of the area, his eighth goal over the course of the season's competition.

Dortmund once again found a way back into the match when Jan Koller volleyed home his shot from 25 metres on 58 minutes, after capitalizing on a weak defensive header.

A huge party erupted both inside and outside De Kuip not only because of the title, but also because the final was held two days after Rotterdam's politician Pim Fortuyn was murdered.