The Champions League is the most prestigious club tournament in football. One can always expect to see spectacular games when the most renowned clubs from around Europe go head-to-head in the competition.
Here are some interesting and quite unknown facts about the UEFA Champions League:
Defending Champions?
Image source: en.as.com
Ever since the European Cup was renamed as the Champions League, not a single club has managed to defend their title by becoming back-to-back winners. In prior years, Real Madrid won the title five consecutive seasons in a row, while other clubs like Liverpool, Benfica, Nottingham Forest, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Inter all strung together wins. Many consider the sheer intensity of the competition and the fact that the tournament includes a far wider array of clubs as reasons for the lack of defending champions.
Social Media Giants
Image source: goal.com
The Champions League enjoys the largest social media following of all international and local soccer leagues. In fact, their numbers are easily 4 for 5 times larger than the next closest league, including the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga. The UEFA UCL Twitter account has more than 9.5 million fans while their Facebook page has a massive 47 million followers. Since the inception of Facebook and social media as a whole, growth has been exponential.
An El Clasico final?
Image source: eurosport.co.uk
Real Madrid and Barcelona have long been strong contenders for the Champions League title regardless of the year. Barcelona have won the Champions League 5 times while Real Madrid have won it an unbelievable 12 times.
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Despite having to face each other in the Champions League (and the prior European Cup) a total of 15 times throughout their history, Barcelona and Real Madrid have never clashed in a Champions League final. One can only imagine the intense rivalry that would rage across Spain should such a match someday happen.
The Success of Spain
Image source: goal.com
Spanish football has long reigned supreme, from the European Cup through to the Champions League. To date, both Barcelona and Real Madrid have amassed the most wins in Champions League history at 18 titles. In tied second-place position comes England and Italy with 12 wins apiece. Germany and Holland come next with 7 and 6 wins respectively. All of these wins include European Cup titles along with Champions League ones.
The longest reign in the Champions League
Image Source: rtve.es
Iker Casillas is the player with the most number of caps in the Champions League. The Spanish goalkeeper has played an unbelievable 171 (+- depending on when you’re reading this) matches so far, the highest in the history of the tournament. Currently playing for Porto, he’s seen a few more matches but it’s unlikely that he’ll see as many as he did at Real Madrid where his total reached the 150 mark. After Casillas we have Xavi Hernandez at 157 matches, Cristiano Ronaldo at 151 and Andres Iniesta at 129.
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The Champions League has proven itself as the most exclusive, most professional and most exciting football competition. Many legendary players have been forged and many historic moments have been witnessed. With the Round of 16 recently upon us, the 2018-19 Champions League season is sure to be filled with drama. Make sure you
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