Every French Side to Play in the Champions League Final
France have won two World Cups, two European Championships and boast perhaps the most prolific and accomplished academies on the continent - if not the entire globe. Yet, in more than six decades of participation, the nation's club sides can point to just two European titles between them.
This paltry tally can be bettered by clubs from both Belgium and Ukraine.
On Sunday night, Paris Saint-Germain have the chance to make it three against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final and add to their 1996 Cup Winners' Cup triumph.
This star-studded PSG side are just the fifth from France to reach the final of Europe's premier competition and given the historic precedent of their compatriots - coupled with the scintillating form of the juggernaut that is Hansi Flick's Bayern Munich - the omens are not good for Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and co.
Here's how the other French finalists fared...
1. 1956 - Real Madrid 4-3 Reims
In the first-ever European Cup final, Reims came close to ending Real Madrid's storied history in the competition before it had even begun.
Madrid would claim the first five editions of the European Cup and remain the record holders with 13 titles in total. Yet, on that June evening in 1956, Los Blancos were 2-0 down after ten minutes.
The Spanish giants hauled themselves level by half-time before Michel Hidalgo - who would go on to manager Les Bleus to success in the 1984 Euros - restored Reims' lead just after the hour-mark. But Madrid's resolve barely wavered and within 20 minutes they were ahead for the first time in the match.
In response to this rousing turnaround, Madrid's president at the time - the rarely satisfied Santiago Bernabéu - declared: "We have simply done our duty."
2. 1959 - Real Madrid 2-0 Reims
Raymond Kopa may not have found the scoresheet back in 1956, but the wicked dribbler was at the heart of every Reims attack. After the inaugural final, Real Madrid swooped in to nab the French star who lined up against his former side three years later.
With Kopa - dubbed the 'Little Napoleon' by the Spanish press - in their side, Madrid denied Reims for a second time in a much more straightforward re-match.
3. 1976 - Bayern Munich 1-0 Saint-Étienne
While the great Bayern Munich side of that era were in decline by 1976, Saint-Étienne's own stellar vintage (featuring Jacques Santini and Jean-Michel Larque) were at their zenith ahead of the showpiece.
Of the previous six domestic trophies on offer, Saint-Étienne had won five and were knocked out in the semi-finals of the previous season's European Cup by the same German opponents.
In what has become known as the 'Square Posts Final' back in France, Saint-Étienne were denied on numerous occasions by the unique construction of Hampden Park's woodwork, ultimately losing a match they had dominated 1-0.
In 2013, Saint-Étienne purchased those very goalposts for display in the club's museum to serve as a reminder of that defeat and the great team which reached those heights.
4. 1991 - Crvena Zvezda 0-0 Marseille
The Marseille side under the presidency of the notorious Bernard Tapie were hugely successful - with a squad that could boast the talents of 'magique Chris' Waddle and Jean-Pierre Papin to name but two - and controversial.
One of the many legends concerning Tapie and this period points to the darker arts which hung over Marseille's success. The story goes that in the first leg of the 1991 European Cup semi-final, Tapie sauntered up to the Spartak Moscow press box and slipped a folded piece of paper into the hand of a French journalist along with the instruction to open it at the final whistle.
After a convincing 3-1 victory for Marseille to take into the home leg, the journalist tentatively unfurled the scrap of paper to reveal a simple, scrawled message: '3-1'.
OM progressed to the final that year but were foiled via penalties by a resolute Crvena Zvezda side which was bristling with plenty of talent itself.
5. 1993 - Marseille 1-0 AC Milan
In the 40th minute of the final against Fabio Capello's all-conquering Milan side, Marseille's sweeper Basile Boli came over to the touchline, pleading with his coach Raymond Goethals to take him off as he was desperately struggling with injury. The message came back that Tapie wanted him to stay on and so that's what happened.
Three minutes later Boli somehow rose to thump a towering header past Sebastiano Rossi for the only goal of an otherwise dull affair as France finally won their first European title.
A flood of match-fixing allegations spilled out in the aftermath of the final and even though Marseille were relegated to the second tier in 1994, the club still appear in the honours list of Europe's premier competition (much to Milan's indignation).
6. 2004 - Monaco 0-3 Porto
In the same year that Greece won the Euros, the 2004 Champions League final pitted two similarly surprising participants against one another.
Didier Deschamps' Monaco were ultimately undone by a Porto side led by José Mourinho in the final billed as a playoff to decide the next manager of the newly monied Chelsea.
On the way to the showpiece, Monaco actually defeated the Blues and recorded a memorable win against Real Madrid but Deschamps side became the latest Gallic failure in Europe's top tier tournament.