We all no doubt enjoy the Premier League, countless thousands of fans attend competitive – and sometimes not so competitive – match ups week in week out, and pay for expensive season tickets for the privilege. Then of course we have football’s armstair supporters, who pay for a pricey cable or satellite subscription every much in order to keep up to date on the performance of their favourite football team. But exciting as the Premier League may be, the ultimate test of a team’s quality extends well beyond domestic games and into international competitions, and the cream of the crop of those just has to be the UEFA Champions League.
Held each year the UEFA Champions League brings together the top football teams from several European Nations in a league format, followed by a knockout competition. Qualifying for the competition itself isn’t easy for teams due to fierce competition in knock out rounds to decide who makes the cut. To give an idea of the magnitude of the competition in the modern game, the 2012 – 13 final drew an unbelievable TV audience of more than 350 million viewers. It’s of course a favourite with betting markets too, as football fans put their money where their mouth is and bet on their team in Champions League to progress through the competition. Available bets are so varied nowadays, HT-FT markets, correct core, number of cards, and more besides!
The Champions League has been running from the 1950’s onwards, so there’s certainly enough data at this point to judge the men from the boys in terms of who routinely dismantles their competitors. The answer is actually quite straighforward in this case since Real Madrid are winners of the Champions League an impressive 12 times in total (and runners up 3 times – suggesting that if they make it to the final, you underestimate them at your peril!). They won the tournament 5 years in a row in the 1950’s and also won in 2017 – beat that! Next up is Milan with 7 wins and 4 runner up positions. Not too shabby!
Where do the English teams rank I hear you ask? Well Liverpool have really shown their quality over the decades by managing to pick up the trophy 5 times in total, including their memorable 3 – 3 draw against Milan in 2004 – 5 where Liverpool managed to evenually sneak the win on penalties. Still, it doesn’t matter how you do it, just as long as you do! Manchester United are three time winners too, last winning tthe Champions League back in 2008. The only English team to win the touranment since that time is Chelsea in 2012 – which was also the only time they’ve won the Champions next. Who will be the next English team to lift the trophy I wonder?