And so 11 years on, the Champions League final will be at Wembley again; 11 years on, Borussia Dortmund will be one of the teams contesting for the trophy again.
The mirror image could yet be completed, should Bayern Munich go on to defeat Real Madrid and make it an all-German affair in London once more.
Amid a semi-final draw three-quarters filled with star names, nine-figure spending power and enormous marketing brands, it’s the rather more down-to-earth and understated collective who have punched their ticket first.
It isn’t just the squad list which sets BVB apart in this quartet either, but it has been the most identifiable part: instead of Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane or Vinícius Júnior as their key centre-forward, they have Niklas Füllkrug.
But beyond the lineups, the benches and the budgets, there was also a marked difference in the tactical approach of Dortmund compared to that of Bayern, Real, and PSG.
Whereas the Spanish serial winners have their own unique aura which lends them an ability to cede the ball and still be a relentless threat, PSG have tended to be far more about ongoing possession, territorial dominance and moments of magic to top it off.
Bayern, then, have been less-high-functioning this year than previously, but are still about power, big chance volume, individual talent within in a cohesive base and, of course, a single unstoppable goal source.
Which leaves Dortmund – certainly around this competition from the last eight onwards – as the outliers: the team of less tactical sophistication, but more flexibility.
Less possession, but also less ego. And it works for them. If they are the underdog and it suits them to be so, why be snobbish about the way they need to play? And so Edin Terzić made his bed in direct diagonals, an effective target man to lead the line, set-piece prowess, and third-man runners.
Opportunity knocked when they were drawn with PSV in the last 16, and they deserved progression.
Atlético Madrid in the last eight was tougher, but they again played in the manner which suited themselves, particularly in the home leg, when they won an effective shootout in a crazy, back-and-forth encounter thanks to perseverance, team structure and having a collection of potential finishers, more than just one or two who are relied upon.
And so to PSG, beaten 1-0 home and away, the French team out-thought, out-fought, out-performed with the roles given to each player in turn.
More than once, PSG should have scored across the two legs, of course. Aside from anything else, they hit the crossbar or post on six separate occasions.
Inches in it, but while some were misfortune and almost worldies, other occasions simply lacked a clinical edge. Over 180 minutes, PSG didn’t score – that’s why they are out.
Mats Hummels’ header gave Dortmund a famous win in the Parc des Princes, but they ultimately didn’t need it.
And while Dortmund spent large spells in their own defensive third to protect and preserve a hard-earned lead, the suspicion is that if PSG had have breached the backline, if Vitinha’s rocket had struck the crossbar and crossed the line for example, Dortmund simply would have been able to step up again, keep countering, keep pushing their own attacking intentions once more. They didn’t have to, so why push their luck by doing so?
Terzić’s team were compact, ferocious, non-stop in their tracking of runners, closing down long shots, defending set pieces.
The midfield triumvirate of Emre Can, Julian Brandt and Marcel Sabitzer have all probably long since started the downward slope of their career arc, yet were any of them a worse player than Fabián Ruiz across the two legs?.
Were they less reliable than Warren Zaire-Emery? Did they deserve to be semi-finalists, or finalists, less than Marco Asensio or Kang-in Lee? They did not.
They had their roles, stuck to them perfectly, and ensured the BVB collective was of far more value than the PSG patrol. Of the Parisian side’s midfield, only Vitinha was genuinely class across the two legs and the best that could be said about him was that he wouldn’t have looked out of place in Dortmund’s centre of the park, such was his endeavour as well as his ability.
So Hummels, Can, Brandt, and Füllkrug will be one spine of one team in north London on 1 June.
They will definitely not top summer transfer target lists, they will probably not finish top four in the Bundesliga and it’s quite possible only one will make Germany’s Euro 2024 squad.
But they not only understand their limitations these days, they embrace them in this competition.
It is that same team-wide awareness and selflessness which could yet see Borussia Dortmund become perhaps the biggest surprise Champions League winners since they themselves almost did it over a decade ago, in the very same stadium.