It has become increasingly difficult to retain the Champions' Cup. Whereas in the first twenty years of its existence, a prolonged dominance for one club was common-place, these days even one successful defence is a rare occurrence.
The following series of consecutive wins have been achieved:
5 (1955/56-1959/60) Real Madrid 3 (1970/71-1972/73) Ajax (1973/74-1975/76) Bayern München 2 (1960/61-1961/62) Benfica (1963/64-1964/65) Internazionale (1976/77-1977/78) Liverpool (1978/79-1979/80) Nottingham Forest (1988/89-1989/90) Milan
Other series: the city of Milano won the trophy in 3 consecutive seasons (1962/63 Milan, then twice Inter), the Netherlands won it 4 seasons in a row (1969/70 Feijenoord, then thrice Ajax), and England brought the Cup home in 6 consecutive years, the longest stretch by one country (the double wins of Liverpool and Forest were followed by Liverpool again in 1980/81 and Aston Villa in 1981/82).
In 1997/98, Juventus became the first team to lose consecutive finals; Valencia were the second team to do that in 2000/01, which also was the first final to feature both losers of the previous two finals.
The first (and so far only) time the winners of the previous two finals met in a final was 1961/62 (Benfica beating Real Madrid 5-3 in arguably the best ever Champions' Cup final). Other finals to have included two teams that had been present in the previous two finals: 1989/90 (Milan winners 1989, Benfica losers 1988) and 1993/94 (Milan losers 1993, Barcelona winners 1992).
While defending the trophy may have become harder, unbeaten winners became more and more common until the mid-nineties; the changed Champions' League format will presumable make it as rare again as in the first twenty years of the tournament, in which it happens only twice. All unbeaten winners with their P-W-D-L-F-A records:
1963/64 Internazionale 9 7 2 0 16- 6 1971/72 Ajax 9 7 2 0 14- 3 1978/79 Nottingham Forest 9 6 3 0 19- 7 1980/81 Liverpool 9 6 3 0 24- 4 [away] 1983/84 Liverpool 9 7 2 0 15- 3 [pen] 1988/89 Milan 9 5 4 0 20- 5 [pen] 1990/91 Crvena zvezda 9 5 4 0 18- 7 [pen] 1992/93 Olympique Marseille 11 7 4 0 25- 4 1993/94 Milan 12 7 5 0 21- 2 1994/95 Ajax 11 7 4 0 18- 4 1998/99 Manchester United 13 6 7 0 31-16 2005/06 Barcelona 13 9 4 0 24- 5
Note: [away] marks campaigns that involved progressing at least once on the away goals rule; [pen] marks campaigns requiring at least one penalty shoot-out.
Ajax, Liverpool and Milan are the only teams to have won the trophy unbeaten twice; of those three, only Ajax did not require penalty shoot-outs in either case.
The record number of consecutive participations in the Champions' Cup is 15, shared by Real Madrid and Dynamo Kyiv. All clubs to play at least 4 times in succession in the Champions' Cup (including preliminary rounds for the Champions' League):
15 Real Madrid (1955/56-1969/70) Dynamo Kyiv (1993/94-2007/08) 12 Manchester United (1996/97-2007/08) 11 Rosenborg BK (1995/96-2005/06) Olympiakos Pireus (1997/98-2007/08) PSV (1997/98-2007/08) Real Madrid (1997/98-2007/08) 10 Dynamo Berlin (1979/80-1988/89) Bayern München (1997/98-2006/07) Arsenal (1998/99-2007/08) 9 Celtic (1966/67-1974/75) Liverpool (1976/77-1984/85) Rangers (1989/90-1997/98) Skonto Riga (1997/98-2005/06) Sparta Praha (1997/98-2005/06) Olympique Lyonnais (1999/00-2007/08) 8 Shahtar Donetsk (2000/01-2007/08) 7 CSKA (Sofia) (1956/57-1962/63) FC Porto (1995/96-2001/02) Galatasaray (1997/98-2003/04) Ajax (2001/02-2007/08) Celtic (2001/02-2007/08) Sheriff Tiraspol (2001/02-2007/08) 6 Benfica (1960/61-1965/66) Újpest Dózsa (1970/71-1975/76) Linfield (1982/83-1987/88) Steaua Bucuresti (1993/94-1998/99) Barcelona (1997/98-2002/03) Spartak Moskva (1997/98-2002/03) Maribor Branik (1998/99-2003/04) Juventus (2000/01-2005/06) [punished by FIGC after 2005/06] FBK Kaunas (2000/01-2005/06) Internazionale (2002/03-2007/08) Milan (2002/03-2007/08) Pyunik Yerevan (2002/03-2007/08) 5 Górnik Zabrze (1963/64-1967/68) Anderlecht (1964/65-1968/69) Bayern München (1972/73-1976/77) Jeunesse d'Esch (1973/74-1977/78) Omonia Nicosia (1975/76-1978/79) [withdrew from 1974/75 competition] Omonia Nicosia (1981/82-1985/86) Steaua Bucuresti (1985/86-1989/90) Real Madrid (1986/87-1990/91) Sparta Praha (1987/88-1991/92) Brøndby IF (1996/97-2000/01) Deportivo (La Coruña) (2001/02-2005/06) Anderlecht (2003/04-2007/08) Benfica (2003/04-2007/08) Chelsea (2003/04-2007/08) Porto (2003/04-2007/08) 4 Young Boys (Bern) (1957/58-1960/61) Dukla Praha (1961/62-1964/65) Dinamo Bucuresti (1962/63-1965/66) Internazionale (1963/64-1966/67) Saint Etienne (1967/68-1970/71) Ajax (1970/71-1973/74) Viking (Stavanger) (1973/74-1976/77) Austria (Wien) (1978/79-1981/82) CSKA (Sofia) (1980/81-1983/84) Olympiakos Pireus (1980/81-1983/84) Shamrock Rovers (1984/85-1987/88) Górnik Zabrze (1985/86-1988/89) PSV (1986/87-1989/90) Olympique Marseille (1989/90-1992/93) [banned from 1993/94 competition] Barcelona (1991/92-1994/95) Steaua Bucuresti (1993/94-1996/97) IFK Göteborg (1994/95-1997/98) Juventus (1995/96-1998/99) Anorthosis Famagusta (1997/98-2000/01) Dinamo Zagreb (1997/98-2000/01) Bayer Leverkusen (1999/00-2002/03) Club Brugge (2002/03-2005/06) Barcelona (2004/05-2007/08) Fenerbahçe (2004/05-2007/08) Liverpool (2004/05-2007/08) Werder Bremen (2004/05-2007/08)
Since 1991/92 the Champions' Cup has included a Champions' League group stage, initially with 8 clubs (corresponding to the quarterfinals of the tournament), meanwhile with 32 clubs. The following clubs have reached this league stage of the competition in at least 3 successive seasons.
12 Manchester United (1996/97-2007/08) 11 Olympiakos Pireus (1997/98-2007/08) PSV (1997/98-2007/08) Real Madrid (1997/98-2007/08) 10 Bayern München (1997/98-2006/07) Arsenal (1998/99-2007/08) 8 Rosenborg BK (1995/96-2002/03) Dynamo Kyiv (1997/98-2004/05) Olympique Lyonnais (2000/01-2007/08) 7 Galatasaray (1997/98-2003/04) 6 Barcelona (1997/98-2002/03) Juventus (2000/01-2005/06) [punished by FIGC after 2005/06] Internazionale (2002/03-2007/08) Milan (2002/03-2007/08) 5 FC Porto (1995/96-1999/00) Spartak Moskva (1998/99-2002/03) Deportivo La Coruña (2000/01-2004/05) Chelsea (2003/04-2007/08) Porto (2003/04-2007/08) 4 Juventus (1995/96-1998/99) Bayer Leverkusen (1999/00-2002/03) Ajax (2002/03-2005/06) Anderlecht (2003/04-2006/07) Barcelona (2004/05-2007/08) Liverpool (2004/05-2007/08) Werder Bremen (2004/05-2007/08) 3 Milan (1992/93-1994/95) Spartak Moskva (1993/94-1995/96) Ajax (1994/95-1996/97) Steaua Bucuresti (1994/95-1996/97) Borussia Dortmund (1995/96-1997/98) Sturm Graz (1998/99-2000/01) Lazio (1999/00-2001/02) Sparta Praha (1999/00-2001/02) Lokomotiv Moskva (2001/02-2003/04) Panathinaikos (2003/04-2005/06) Sparta Praha (2003/04-2005/06)
The worst finish a European Champions' Cup winner ever achieved in their domestic league in their winning season was 11th, by Aston Villa in 1981/82:
English First Division 1981/82
11.Aston Villa 42 15 12 15 55-53 42
The second-worst finish, and the only one with a record under 50%, is that
of Bayern München in 1974/75:
German 1.Bundesliga 1974/75
10.Bayern München 34 14 6 14 57-63 34
All other Champions' Cup winners finished among the first 3 of their national championship with the exception of Nottingham Forest (5th in 1979/80), Liverpool (5th in 1980/81 and in 2004/05), Juventus (6th in 1984/85), Real Madrid (4th in 1997/98 and 5th in 1999/2000) and Milan (4th in 2006/07).
Among the multiple winners, Barcelona are the only one to have won all their Cups as domestic champions; Ajax were Dutch champions in 3 of their 4 Champions' Cup winning campaigns (2nd in 1970/71, their first win).
In all, the double of Champions' Cup and domestic league has been won on 20 occasions by 14 different teams:
Ajax (3 times, 1971/72, 1972/73 and 1994/95), Bayern München (twice, 1973/74 and 2000/01), Liverpool (twice, 1976/77 and 1983/84), Real Madrid (twice, 1956/57 and 1957/58), Barcelona (twice, 1991/92 and 2005/06), Benfica (1960/61), Internazionale (1964/65), Celtic (1966/67), Hamburger SV (1982/83), Steaua Bucuresti (1985/86), PSV (1987/88), Crvena zvezda Beograd (1990/91), Milan (1993/94), Manchester United (1998/99) and FC Porto (2003/04).
Four of the above made the double of Champions' Cup and domestic league into a treble, adding the domestic cup: Celtic (1966/67), Ajax (1971/72), PSV (1987/88) and Manchester United (1998/99). Celtic, Ajax and PSV thereby won all competitions they entered in their season; Celtic also won the Scottish League Cup 1966/67, for which there is no Dutch equivalent; Manchester United did not win the English version 1998/99.
If the winner of the Champions' Cup doesn't win its domestic league, the country in question gets two representatives, and this has occasionally led to meeting between clubs from the same country. It should be remarked that in the first two cases, Real Madrid had also won the Spanish league in 1956/57 and 1957/58, but UEFA admitted the runners-up, Sevilla and Atlético de Madrid respectively, to the Champions' Cup regardless.
From the 1997/98 season, league runners-up of the eight countries highest in the UEFA Coefficient Rankings can also qualify for the Champions League, and domestic ties became much more likely (cf. the section Runners-Up Stuff below); since the 1999/2000 season, six countries can enter three or four participants in the reformed Champions League. Spain managed to get three teams in the semifinals and for the first time ever, a 'domestic final' was played. Italy emulated this feat in 2002/03, and England in 2006/07 (but the fourth team, Milan, won the trophy). Chelsea and Liverpool set up a record for domestic meetings by playing each other in three consecutive seasons from 2004/05 to 2006/07. Other than those two, Real Madrid and Barcelona met in the Champions' Cup or League on three occasions (1959/60, 1960/61 and 2001/02).
All "domestic meetings" in the Champions' Cup:
1957/58 Spain Real Madrid v Sevilla [quarterf., 8-0 and 2-2] 1958/59 Spain Real Madrid v Atlético de Madrid [semif., 2-1, 0-1 and 2-1] 1959/60 Spain Real Madrid v Barcelona [semif., 3-1 and 3-1] 1960/61 Spain Real Madrid v Barcelona [2nd round, 2-2 and 1-2] 1978/79 England Nottingham Forest v Liverpool [1st round, 2-0 and 0-0] 1985/86 Italy Hellas Verona v Juventus [2nd round, 0-0 and 0-2] 1997/98 Germany Bayern München v Borussia Dortmund [quarterf., 0-0 and 0-1 aet] 1998/99 Germany Bayern München v 1.FC Kaiserslautern [quarterf., 2-0 and 4-0] 1999/00 Spain Valencia v Barcelona [semif., 4-1 and 1-2] 1999/00 Spain Real Madrid v Valencia [final, 3-0] 2001/02 Spain Barcelona v Real Madrid [semif., 0-2 and 1-1] 2002/03 Italy Internazionale v Milan [semif., 1-1 and 0-0] 2002/03 Italy Milan v Juventus [final, 0-0, 3-2pen] 2003/04 England Chelsea v Arsenal [quarterf., 1-1 and 2-1] 2004/05 Italy Milan v Internazionale [quarterf., 2-0 and 3-0 (awarded)] 2004/05 England Chelsea v Liverpool [semif., 0-0 and 0-1] 2005/06 England Liverpool v Chelsea [group stage, 0-0 and 0-0] 2006/07 England Chelsea v Liverpool [semif., 1-0 and 0-1 aet, 1-4 pen]
Real Madrid do not only hold the record of most wins; they are also the club who most often eliminated the defending champions: on no fewer than 7 occasions they managed to do this, in 4 of which they went on to win themselves. Together with CSKA (Sofia) they hold the distinction of performing this feat in consecutive seasons.
All clubs to eliminate the defending champions more than once (seasons in which they won themselves in bold):
7 Real Madrid (1963/64, 1965/66, 1987/88, 1988/89, 1997/98, 1999/00, 2001/02) 4 Juventus (1982/83, 1984/85, 1995/96, 2002/03) 3 CSKA Sofia (1973/74, 1980/81, 1981/82) Dynamo Kiev (1967/68, 1976/77, 1998/99) 2 Barcelona (1960/61, 1985/86) Internazionale (1966/67, 2004/05) Milan (1962/63, 1968/69)
Most successful countries against the holders:
Spain 10 eliminations (Real Madrid 7, Barcelona 2, Deportivo La Coruña 1) Italy 9 (Juventus 4, Milan 2, Internazionale 2, Sampdoria 1) Bulgaria 3 (CSKA Sofia 3) Ukraine 3 (Dynamo Kiev 3) England 2 (Liverpool 1, Nottingham Forest 1) Germany 2 (Bayern München 1, Borussia Dortmund 1) Netherlands 2 (Ajax 1, Feijenoord 1) Romania 2 (Dinamo Bucuresti 1, UT Arad 1)
No other country boasts more than one such elimination.
There have been quite a few penalty shootouts to decide the winners of the Champions' Cup in recent years. Here you'll find some records concerning them.
From the season 1997/98 on, runners-up from the 8 strongest leagues were allowed into the Champions' Cup. This led to a record of 3 German teams participating in the Cup, Borussia Dortmund as defending champions, Bayern München as German champions, and Bayer Leverkusen as German runners-up. This was emulated by Spain in 1998/99 as well as by England, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain in 1999/2000; however, Germany set a new record by entering 4 teams in the Champions' League group stage (the same three as in 1997/98 plus Hertha BSC). In fact Italy and Spain also entered four teams but saw one losing out in the last qualifying round. In 2000/01, Spain was the only country to enter four teams in the group stage, with Italy, Germany, France and England settling for three. It has since become common for two or three of the top-5 countries to enter 4 clubs in the group stage; England had a change to enter 5 in 2005/06 when Liverpool got a 'wild card' as holders but Everton (who had entered as fourth team in the 2004/05 league) failed to negotiate the final qualifying round.
In 1997/98, all three German teams reached the quarterfinal stage, which was a record. It was bettered in 1999/00, when Spain managed to field three semifinalists (a feat repeated in 2002/03 by Italy and in 2006/07 by England).
However, Bayer Leverkusen were not the first domestic runners-up to reach the quarterfinal stage. If we exclude the first competition 1955/56, in which many non-champions participated, that honour goes to Sevilla, who were admitted as Spanish runners-up in the 1957/58 edition and were only eliminated by champions and holders Real Madrid in the quarterfinal.
(In 1955/56, four clubs reached the quarterfinals who had not been champions in the previous domestic season, and one reached the semifinals, Hibernian, who had only finished 5th in the Scottish league 1954/55. The other three were Vörös Lobogo (Hungarian runners-up), Rapid Wien (third in Austria) and Partizan Beograd (5th in the previous Yugoslav season.)
In 1958/59, Atlético de Madrid, runners-up in the Spanish league the previous season, even went one stage further, reaching the semifinals and forcing Spanish champions and holders Real Madrid to a play-off before bowing out of the competition.
The second team to reach the semifinals of the Champions' Cup without having won the domestic title or the Champions' Cup in the previous season was AS Monaco, who did so in 1993/94 in spite of having finished third in the French league in 1992/93 behind Olympique de Marseille, who had also won the Champions' Cup in 1992/93 but were banned in the wake of a bribery scandal, and Paris Saint-Germain, who declined taking Olympique's place in the Champions' Cup, preferring to play in the Cup Winners' Cup instead.
In 1998/99, both finalists of the Champions' League had qualified as runners-up of their domestic league 1997/98; Manchester United became the first team to win the Champions' Cup having entered as runners-up, taking that distinction from Bayern München by two goals in injury time.
Likewise, in 1999/00 neither finalist would have qualified for the tournament under the traditional rules: Real Madrid had finished 2nd in Spain in 1998/99, Valencia only fourth.
Monaco's record of reaching the semifinals as third placed team from their country was bettered by Valencia, who reached the final in 1999/2000 having entered as Spain's 4th placed team the season before and reached it again as 3rd placed team in 2000/01. In 2001/02, Bayer Leverkusen equalled Valencia's record by reaching the final after entering as Germany's 4th placed team. Milan improved on this by becoming the first team to win the Champions League 2003 following qualification as 4th place team in their domestic championship in the previous season, a feat emulated by Liverpool in 2004/05.
Atlético de Madrid hold another record: they are the only club who have won the Intercontinental Cup against the winners of the Copa Libertadores, in spite of not (and indeed never) having won the European Champions' Cup in the previous season, when they beat Independiente as stand-ins for Bayern München in 1974.
While Atlético are the only team with more intercontinental than continental titles, Nottingham Forest have more continental wins (2 Champions' Cups in 1979 and 1980) than domestic league titles (1, in 1977/78, directly following promotion from the second division).
1973/74, 1st round: Dinamo Bucuresti 11-0 Crusaders
1965/66, 1st round: Stade Dudelange 0-8 Benfica
Benfica 10-0 Stade Dudelange
Benfica win 18-0 on aggregate
1969/70, 1st round: Feijenoord 12-2 KR (Reykjavik), total 14 goals
1965/66, 1st round: Stade Dudelange 0-8 Benfica
Benfica 10-0 Stade Dudelange
Benfica win 18-0 on aggregate, total 18 goals
1968/69, 2nd round: Reipas (Lahti) 1-9 Spartak Trnava
Spartak Trnava 7-1 Reipas (Lahti)
Spartak Trnava win 16-2 on aggregate, total 18 goals
1969/70, 1st round: Feijenoord 12-2 KR (Reykjavik)
KR (Reykjavik) 0-4 Feijenoord (in Rotterdam)
Feijenoord win 16-2 on aggregate, total 18 goals
1979/80, 1st round: HJK (Helsinki) 1-8 Ajax
Ajax 8-1 HJK (Helsinki)
Ajax win 16-2 on aggregate, total 18 goals
1968/69, quarterf.: Ajax 1-3 Benfica
Benfica 1-3 Ajax
playoff: Ajax 3-0 Benfica (aet, in Paris)
Prepared and maintained by Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Karel Stokkermans
Last updated: 3 Jan 2008
(C) Copyright Karel Stokkermans and RSSSF 1996/2008
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper
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