UEFA Champions League - History, Winners and Runners-up list
A brief history of the Champions League – and why it's so hard to win two in a row
With the Guardian’s unstoppable rise to global dominance (NOTE: actual dominance may not be global. Or dominant) we at Guardian US thought we’d run a series of articles for newer football fans wishing to improve their knowledge of the game’s history and storylines, hopefully in a way that doesn’t patronise you to within an inch of your life. A warning: If you’re the kind of person that finds The Blizzard too populist this may not be the series for you.
It’s quite possible that a footballing genius from Argentina will dominate the Champions League final this weekend. ‘Twas ever thus. The current generation will tell you that Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the history of Europe’s No 1 club competition, and perhaps the greatest player of all time. They may have a point. Then again, quite a few older folk will tell you how Alfredo Di Stefano would have had something to say about that.
Di Stefano was the first star of the European Cup. Uefa launched
their new competition – the European Cup would morph into the Champions
League in 1992 – back in 1955. Chelsea,
the English champions, didn’t bother entering, because the big cheese
of the Football League, Alan Hardaker, was a myopic little-Englander
fool who couldn’t (or didn’t want to) see what was happening on the
other side of the English Channel. Hardaker went on to launch the League
Cup in an attempt to see off Uefa’s new continent-wide midweek club
competition, and that illustrates his judgment perfectly.
Anyway, Chelsea meekly followed orders not to bother going toe-to-toe with Johnny Foreigner. Their decision looks daft now, but perhaps it was just as well. Ted Drake’s champions could only finish 16th in the league the following season; chances are they’d have gotten steamrollered by Di Stefano’s Real Madrid.
Real Madrid dominated the early days of the European Cup, winning the first five finals, and Di Stefano – who wore the number nine shirt as a nominal striker, but in fact roamed wild and free – was their main man. Not that Real always had it easy. The very first final proved a hell of a struggle. It was a minor classic.
Real faced Stade de Reims of France, and found themselves two down within 10 minutes. Reims’ star playmaker Raymond Kopa was pulling the strings, Michel Leblond scored the first-ever goal in a European Cup final after six minutes, and Jean Templin added another. But Di Stefano quickly grabbed a goal back. Real equalised. Michel Hidalgo – who would go on win Euro 84 as France boss – put Reims ahead again just after the hour, but Marquitos levelled for Real on 71, before Rial tucked away a Francisco Gento cross with 11 minutes left. Di Stefano, a month away from his 30th birthday, went home and spent his win bonus on his first car.
Di Stefano was unstoppable. (Bobby Charlton has him down as the greatest player in history, even if he never played at a World Cup.) He scored again in the 1957 final victory over Fiorentina, the 1958 win over Milan, and the 1959 triumph against Reims. The best was saved for last, though. The 1960 final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt is the most storied European Cup final of all, Real winning 7-3 in front of 127,621 spectators at Hampden Park in Glasgow. (A young Alex Ferguson was in the crowd, jaw agape at what Real were up to against a side which had battered his childhood favourites Rangers 10-4 on aggregate in the semis.)
In truth, the 1960 final wasn’t much of a contest, more an exhibition of absurd brilliance. Eintracht took the lead through Richard Kress on 18 minutes, but Di Stefano responded with a quickfire double, and the great Ferenc Puskas (some forward line, this) made it 3-1 before half time. Di Stefano went on to complete a hat-trick, while Puskas helped himself to four. At one point, Erwin Stein pulled a goal back to make the score 6-2; Real countered by kicking off, stringing five quick passes together near the centre circle, then sending Di Stefano away on a determined run, the ball eventually sent whistling into the bottom-right corner from distance. Perfection.
Real Madrid finally got knocked out of Europe for the first time by – who else could it be? – Bercelona. The Catalans reached the 1961 final, but lost to the new European powerhouse Benfica. The Lisbon club’s flame only burnt briefly, however. The great Eusebio turned up the season after, and inspired a second-half comeback as Benfica beat Real Madrid, for whom Puskas had scored a hat-trick, 5-3. Puskas remains the only player to have scored three times in a final and yet end up on the losing side. Benfica, meanwhile, are still waiting for another European trophy.
Benfica lost the 1963 final to Milan. The Italians had arrived, and would shape the narrative of the decade. Milan’s city rivals Internazional, a thoroughly modern defensive outfit, won the next two finals against Real Madrid and Benfica. It wasn’t that they didn’t sparkle in attack when it suited them – Sandro Mazzola and Jair were no mean partnership – but their signature tactic was catenaccio, a five-man defensive lock designed by their brazenly cynical manager Helenio Herrera.
This no-nonsense style turned Inter into the pantomime villains of Europe, a state of affairs which set up the 1967 final in Lisbon nicely. They faced Jock Stein’s swashbuckling Celtic, and the tale told was a pure roundheads-versus-cavaliers romp. Inter took an early lead, decided to sit back, and were utterly pummelled by Stein’s side, who came at them from all angles. They took 42 attempts at goal. Inter managed five. It took a while, but Inter eventually buckled in the second half, Celtic winning 2-1, one of the great romantic victories.
Real Madrid had, in winning the previous year’s final against Partizan Belgrade with 11 Spanish players, become the first home-grown team to win the European Cup. Celtic’s Lisbon Lions ramped it up: they were all born within 27 miles of Parkhead. Scottish football’s high-water mark, without any shadow of a doubt. And it was the first time the trophy had been spirited away from Latin Europe, the north rising.
Manchester United lifted the trophy in 1968, a delicious end to Matt Busby’s bittersweet quest, which had begun in 1956, United refusing to buckle to the small-minded pressure that had done for Chelsea and heading off for a European tour. Understandably, that quest had became an emotional obsession after the tragic loss of the Busby Babes at Munich in 1958. George Best scored the signature goal of the 68 final, sashaying through to land the decisive blow at the start of extra time, Benfica subsequently crumbling to a 4-1 defeat. Eusebio really should have won it at the end of normal time, mind you, but clean through, he shot straight at Alex Stepney.
United’s reign as European champions ended at Old Trafford in the following season’s semis against Milan, though they’ll always tell you that Denis Law’s shot crossed the line. Milan went on to thrash Ajax of Amsterdam in the final, 4-1, Johan Cruyff’s side not quite perfecting the old Total Football just yet.
The 1970s began with Feyenoord’s shock 2-1 win over Celtic, but this decade was all about imperial phases. Cruyff and Ajax finally got themselves up to speed, and won three on the bounce between 1971 and 1973, Panathinaikos, Inter and Juventus vanquished. Ajax’s performance during the first 20 minutes of the 73 final against Juventus is legendary, one of the most mesmeric passages of play in history, total domination. They scored just the one goal, though, before appearing to get a little bored of their own brilliance. A 1-0 win would do, but there laid bare was the germ of the problem that cost Holland victory in the 1974 World Cup final.
Then it was the turn of Bayern Munich: Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Paul Breitner, Uli Hoeness, Sepp Maier, all that. They’d win three in a row, too, though they very nearly didn’t manage the first. Atletico Madrid – not for the last time, as we shall see – were seconds away from victory in the 1974 final, only for Georg Schwarzenbeck, a central defender, to desperately try his luck from 30 yards. Atlético keeper Miguel Reina – father of 2007 Liverpool finalist Pepe – stood rooted to the spot, and the final went to a replay for the first and only time. Bayern thrashed Atlético 4-0 in the second match, the high point an exquisite lob from the majestic Müller. Bayern saw off Leeds United in 1975 – controversially so, as Peter Lorimer scored what would have been the game’s opener, only for it to be ruled out for a questionable offside call on Billy Bremner – and Saint-Étienne in 1976.
At which point the English hove into view. So far, Manchester United were the only English team to win the trophy. That was about to change in some style, as England won seven of the next eight finals. Liverpool – boasting the buzzing menace of Kevin Keegan, and one of the most underrated midfielders of all time in Terry McDermott – dismissed Borussia Mönchengladbach with panache in 1977, then held onto their trophy a year later by beating Club Brugge. Keegan had gone, but no matter: Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish had arrived, the former setting up the latter for a can-opener of a winner.
Liverpool were hot favourites to match the hat-trick feats of Ajax and Bayern, but they had their hands prised off the big cup by Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, who went on to win back-to-back cups themselves. Forest stand tall as the smallest club to win the European Cup, and the only one to win Uefa’s big prize more often than their own domestic league championship (it’s two to one on that score). That takes some doing. Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti both have three European Cup wins to their name, but pound for pound, Clough was surely the European Cup’s greatest manager. Even if the actual finals, one-goal wins over Malmö and Kevin Keegan’s Humburg, were rather forgettable (though the goal scored by tobacco’s John Robertson in the latter is worth seeking out).
Liverpool reclaimed the cup in 1981, full-back Alan Kennedy the unlikely scorer of the winner, chipping in from an acute angle with eight minutes to go against a non-vintage Real Madrid. Kennedy was the hero again in 1984, as Liverpool beat Roma on penalties in Roma’s own back yard of the Stadio Olimpico; Kennedy scored the decisive spot-kick. This was almost certainly Liverpool’s signature performance in Europe, Souness wandering the midfield with a haughty strut, letting nothing pass. Check out his penalty in the shoot-out, whipped into the top-right corner. Imagine possessing the stones to execute that one.
In between those Liverpool wins, Aston Villa beat Bayern in 1982, the Bavarians beginning what would become a long tradition of freezing in the final, while Hamburg saw off Juventus in 1983. After it, in 1985, came the horror of Heysel, as 39 supporters, nearly all of them Juve fans, were crushed under a collapsed wall, Liverpool fans having charged at them across the crumbling terraces of a stadium that was never fit for purpose. Michel Platini scored a penalty that was awarded for a trip outside the box, Juve won 1-0, and nobody much cared. English clubs were asked to stay away for a few years. RIP the 39.
Barcelona hoped to win their first-ever European Cup in 1986, but missed all of their penalties in a slapstick shoot-out against Steaua Bucharest, who became the first eastern Europeans to make off with the trophy. Bayern lost another final in 1987; they were 13 minutes from victory against unfancied Porto when Rabah Madjer scored with an impudent backflick, one of the iconic goals, and soon enough shipped a second to go down 2-1.
Then a run of fairly miserable finals. PSV Eindhoven beat Benfica on penalties after a spirit-sapping goal-free final in 1988. The great Milan team of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard steamrollered Steaua 4-0 in 1989, a one-sided non-event, then squeaked past Benfica in 1990. Neither victory fairly represents the sheer magnificence of that Milan side, but back-to-back European Cups are back-to-back European Cups. Nobody’s managed it since.
The 1991 final matched 1988 as a total misfire, which was a shame, as eventual winners Red Star Belgrade were a class act when on song. Red Star defender Miodrag Belodedici became the first player to win the European Cup with two clubs, having done so with Steaua four years earlier. It was the only noteworthy point of the match. Red Star beat Marseille on penalty kicks.
Then the last-ever European Cup final, before the tournament was rebranded as the Champions League. Seeing Real Madrid had so dominated the early years, it was perhaps fitting that Barcelona got a sniff of the old-school action before it was too late. Ronald Koeman swept home an extra-time free kick at Wembley to see off Sampdoria – and so to Uefa’s fancy new tournament: the Champions League.
We’re 23 years in now, and still no team has done what Real Madrid, Benfica, Internazionale, Ajax, Bavern Munich, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest or Milan did during the European Cup years, and win two finals in a row. So imperial phases have been harder to come by. A lot of clubs have given it a good go, though.
Italy tried its best in the early days. Milan contested three finals
in a row between 1993 and 1995, losing two of them, in 1993 to Marseille
and Louis van Gaal’s young Ajax in 1995. But those defeats sandwiched a
4-0 thrashing of Barcelona which stands as the most dominant display of
the modern era, Dejan Savicevic scoring one and making the other three.
That Barca side contained Ronald Koeman, Pep Guardiola, Hristo
Stoichkov and Romario – and hardly got a kick.
Juventus were the next to try their luck, also making three finals in
a row. They took Ajax’s title off them in 1996, but lost the next two
despite starting both matches as favourites. The 1997 final was a
memorable romp, Borussia Dortmund registering a 3-1 shock, Lars Ricken raking one in from 40 yards,
Alessandro del Piero back-flicking a saucy consolation goal in the
Madjer class. The 1998 final wasn’t so great, but did end Real Madrid’s
32-year wait for a seventh title, and so marks the beginning of the
super club era, where organisations such as Real began growing into the
modern behemoths they are today.
Alex Ferguson’s greatest Manchester United side – built around that
midfield of Giggs, Scholes, Keane and Beckham – should probably have
dominated around the turn of the millennium, but they had to settle for a
single victory. Still, what a victory: that night in Barcelona, Teddy
Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scoring in the final minutes of the
1999 final to turn certain defeat against Bayern Munich into the most
widescreen of wins. It was definitely the most dramatic.
The first final between two teams from the same nation occurred in 2000, Real Madrid seeing off Spanish rivals Valencia with ease, 3-0. Steve McManaman scored a typically insouciant effort in that game, and at the time plenty of folk wondered if a goal scored by their former charge would be the closest Liverpool, down on their luck after being once so dominant in Europe’s top competition, would ever achieve anything in the new Champions League. Hmm.
Valencia lost the final again in 2001, Bayern Munich finally managing to see the job through after those failures against Aston Villa, Porto and Manchester United. Real Madrid revisited Hampden in 2002, and produced something almost as memorable as 1960, Zinedine Zidane skelping home a spectacular volley of angular precision to see off Bayer Leverkusen. Poor Neverkusen, who managed to come runners-up domestically in both league and cup that season as well. Their star turn Michael Ballack also managed to get himself suspended from that summer’s World Cup final.
This sparked a period of English domin… well, no, not quite domination, not like the late 70s and early 80s. But Premier League clubs did start reaching a lot of finals again. Arsenal were 14 minutes from the title in 2006, despite Jens Lehmann having been sent off early in the first half, but Barcelona turned it round late on. Milan took their revenge on Liverpool in 2007, winning 2-1 in Athens; you could argue that the better team lost in both of their finals. All fair enough, then.
The first all-English final came along in 2008. Manchester United’s victory on penalties over Chelsea wasn’t up there with their previous two iconic wins, the game’s one memorable moment being John Terry’s risible technique-free attempt to win the cup from the spot, a slip that cost the Londoners everything. You have to admire their fans’ subsequent chutzpah in belting out that Steven Gerrard number. Short memories.
United were simply brilliant in the defence of their title in 2009 against Barcelona. For 10 minutes. But Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t put away his early chances, and Samuel Eto’o’s 10-minute goal turned the tide. Barcelona won 2-0, and when the pair met again two years later, the Spaniards declared at 3-1, Ajax-73 style, utterly dominant, the job done. Messi scored in both final appearances; you wouldn’t bet too much against him making it three from three against Juventus this weekend. But United were a force of nature under Alex Ferguson for the best part of two decades; a return of just two European Cups during that period seems awfully low. But then it goes to show just how hard it is to win the damn thing in the first place.
Meanwhile, it was back to bad habits for Bayern, who were thoroughly outplayed by Mourinho’s Internazionale in 2010, then had their pockets picked on their own doorstep in 2012, Chelsea finally bringing the trophy to London after 57 years after their former player Arjen Robben missed an extra-time penalty. Robben eased his and Bayern’s pain 12 months later, scoring the late winner to see off Borussia Dortmund. Bayern’s fifth win meant only Real Madrid and Milan had won more European Cups and Champions Leagues. Only Benfica and Juventus have lost as many finals (five). It’s a strange record Bayern boast.
This time last year, Real Madrid won their 10th trophy, whipping it from under the noses of city rivals Atléti, who in a callback to 1974 once again conceded a late, late equaliser when the cup was all but theirs. On Saturday we’ll find out whether Barcelona will replace their great enemy as European champions, joining Liverpool and Bayern Munich on five wins. Juventus meanwhile look to join Inter and Manchester United on three wins, and avoid becoming the least successful finalist of all by suffering a record sixth loss. Whoever wins the famous old cup, good luck in hanging onto it.
UEFA Champions League Winners
| Season | Winners | Runners-up | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
2019-20 |
postponed |
||
| 2018-19 | Liverpool | Tottenham Hotspur | 2-0 |
| 2017-18 | Real Madrid | Liverpool | 3-1 |
| 2016-17 | Real Madrid | Juventus | 4-1 |
| 2015-16 | Real Madrid | Atlético Madrid | 1-1 (5–3) |
| 2014-15 | Barcelona | Juventus | 3-1 |
| 2013-14 | Real Madrid | Atlético Madrid | 4-1 |
| 2012-13 | Bayern Munich | Borussia Dortmund | 2-1 |
| 2011-12 | Chelsea | Bayern Munich | 1-1 (4–3) |
| 2010-11 | Barcelona | Manchester United | 3-1 |
| 2009-10 | Internazionale | Bayern Munich | 2-0 |
| 2008-09 | Barcelona | Manchester United | 2-0 |
| 2007-08 | Manchester United | Chelsea | 1-1 (6–5) |
| 2006-07 | Milan | Liverpool | 2-1 |
| 2005-06 | Barcelona | Arsenal | 2-1 |
| 2004-05 | Liverpool | Milan | 3-3 |
| 2003-04 | Porto | Monaco | 3-0 |
| 2002-03 | Milan | Juventus | 0-0 |
| 2001-02 | Real Madrid | Bayer Leverkusen | 2-1 |
| 2000-01 | Bayern Munich | Valencia | 1-1 |
| 1999-2000 | Real Madrid | Valencia | 3-0 |
| 1998-99 | Manchester United | Bayern Munich | 2-1 |
| 1997-98 | Real Madrid | Juventus | 1-0 |
| 1996-97 | Borussia Dortmund | Juventus | 3-1 |
| 1995-96 | Juventus | Ajax | 1-1 |
| 1994-95 | Ajax | Milan | 1-0 |
| 1993-94 | Milan | Barcelona | 4-0 |
| 1992-93 | Marseille | Milan | 1-0 |
| 1991-92 | Barcelona | Sampdoria | 1-0 |
| 1990-91 | Red Star Belgrade | Marseille | 0-0* |
| 1989-90 | Milan | Benfica | 1-0 |
| 1988-89 | Milan | Steaua Bucureşti | 4-0 |
| 1987-88 | PSV | Benfica | 0-0 |
| 1986-87 | Porto | Bayern Munich | 2-1 |
| 1985-86 | Steaua Bucureşti | Barcelona | 0-0 |
| 1984-85 | Juventus | Liverpool | 1-0 |
| 1983-84 | Liverpool | Roma | 1-1 |
| 1982-83 | Hamburg | Juventus | 1-0 |
| 1981-82 | Aston Villa | Bayern Munich | 1-0 |
| 1980-81 | Liverpool | Real Madrid | 1-0 |
| 1979-80 | Nottingham Forest | Hamburg | 1-0 |
| 1978-79 | Nottingham Forest | Malmö FF | 1-0 |
| 1977-78 | Liverpool | Club Brugge | 1-0 |
| 1976-77 | Liverpool | Borussia Mönchengladbach | 3-1 |
| 1975-76 | Bayern Munich | Saint-Etienne | 1-0 |
| 1974-75 | Bayern Munich | Leeds United | 2-0 |
| 1973-74 | Bayern Munich | Atlético Madrid | 1-1 |
| 1973-74 Replay | Bayern Munich | Atlético Madrid | 4-0 |
| 1972-73 | Ajax | Juventus | 1-0 |
| 1971-72 | Ajax | Internazionale | 2-0 |
| 1970-71 | Ajax | Panathinaikos | 2-0 |
| 1969-70 | Feyenoord | Celtic | 2- |
| 1968-69 | Milan | Ajax | 4-1 |
| 1967-68 | Manchester United | Benfica | 4-1 |
| 1966-67 | Celtic | Internazionale | 2-1 |
| 1965-66 | Real Madrid | Partizan | 2-1 |
| 1964-65 | Internazionale | Benfica | 1-0 |
| 1963-64 | Internazionale | Real Madrid | 3-1 |
| 1962-63 | Milan | Benfica | 2-1 |
| 1961-62 | Benfica | Real Madrid | 5-3 |
| 1960-61 | Benfica | Barcelona | 3-2 |
| 1959-60 | Real Madrid | Eintracht Frankfurt | 7-3 |
| 1958-59 | Real Madrid | Stade de Reims | 2-0 |
| 1957-58 | Real Madrid | Milan | 3-2 |
| 1956-57 | Real Madrid | Fiorentina | 2-0 |
| 1955-56 | Real Madrid | Stade de Reims | 4-3 |
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