A to Z of the UEFA Champions League

UEFA Champions League or European Cup as it was earlier called has entered its 57^th season in 2011-12. Champions League is European football’s most prestigious club competition and according to few players and managers, it is better than even the World Cup.

Champions League casts its unique spell on the viewers. While watching Barcelona trying to defend their crown by beating Bayer Leverkusen in the away leg, I decided to write A-Z of the Champions League.

Away Goals are the most precious asset in the Champions League. But this rule was first introduced in 1967-68, that too only for the first round. Till that time, if both the teams were tied on the aggregate scores from both the legs, a play off used to be played at a neutral venue. The honour of being the first club to qualify for the second round of the European Cup belongs to FC Valur of Iceland. In the first leg at Reykjavik, Valur drew 1-1 against Jeunesse Esch of Luxembourg, and the return fixture at Esch-sur-Alzette ended 3-3. Thus Valur qualified for the second round on away goals. The Away Goal rule for the second round and quarterfinals was applied in the 1968-69 and in 1970-71 for the later rounds.

Benfica holds the overall record of “Biggest two legged wins”. They beat Stade Dudelange of Luxembourg 18-0 in the preliminary round in 1965-66. Pedras scored a hat-trick in first leg in which Benfica scored 8 unanswered goals. The next leg in Lisbon turned out to be more emphatic. Eusebio scored 4 and Jose Augusto scored a hat-trick. Benfica ran riot and won 10-0.

Coin toss was used as a tie breaker in the pre away goals and penalty shootout era. The first coin toss was used in the 1963-64 playoffs to decide a winner between FC Zurich and Galatasaray, after the tie ended 2-2. Galatasaray lost the coin toss and hence the tie, but in 1969-70 they won the coin toss against Spartak Trnava in the second round. Apparently that match was the last time when coin toss was used in the European Cup as a tie breaker.

Defending the Champions League has been some kind of Holy Grail for the winners. Ever since European Cup was renamed The Champions League, none of the Champions have been able to successfully defend the trophy. After winning the Champions League only AC Milan, Ajax, Juventus and Manchester United, have been able to reached the next season’s Finals, but without any success.

El Classico in the European Cup was held in 1960-61 season. Barcelona had to overcome Belgian side Lierse 5-0 over two qualifying legs. This set up first round clash between five time defending European Cup Champions Real Madrid and qualifiers Barcelona. The Legend Luis Suarez of Barcelona scored 88^th minute penalty to draw the first leg 2-2 at Bernabau. Two weeks later Barcelona beat Real 2-1 in Camp Nou in front of 120,000 spectators. Barcelona lost to Benfica in the final.

“Football, Bloody hell”. This is by far most acute summation of the sport. Manchester United defeated Bayern Munich in extraordinary climax by scoring two goals in the injury time. United thus became first club in the Champions League era to achieve a historic treble. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson deliriously summed up the experience in the post match interview.

Gabriel Hanot, editor of L’Equipe newspaper is a mastermind behind the launch of European Cup. Having been impressed by the success of South American Championship of Champions Clubs, he proposed the idea to UEFA. When British press announced Wolves as “World Champions”, Hanot finally convinced UEFA to host a pan European club tournament, to determine best club in Europe. L’Equipe selected the 16 participating clubs on the basis of being prestigious and most representative in Europe.

Hans-Jorg Butt holds a distinction of being an only goalkeeper to have scored goals in the Champions League for three different teams. Butt has scored for Hamburg, Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. Burg’s all three goals have come from the penalty spot. A unique feature about these goals is, all three of them have been scored against Juventus.

Istanbul, in May 2005, hosted one of the incredible Champions League Finals has ever been played. Liverpool having played 3^rd qualifying round, progressed through very tight group stage, thanks to Steven Gerrard’s wonder strike. By dismissing Chelsea in the semi final, they set up final showdown with AC Milan. Paolo Maldini scored for AC after 53 seconds and went 3-0 up at half time. Liverpool scored 3 goals in 6 crazy minutes to draw level. Jerzy Dudek pulled off a double save in the injury time. As the game went to penalties, Milan chickened out and Dudek saved 2 penalties and Liverpool miraculously lifted their 5^th Champions League trophy.

Johann Cryuff turned out to be most successful managers who themselves had been great players. He had won three consecutive European Cups with Ajax as a player in 1971, 72 and 73 and as a coach with Barcelona in 1992. His apprentice Josep Guardiola, having won a European cup as a player in Cryuff’s team, has gone on to win two Champions League as a coach with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011.

Klaus-Dieter Sieloff of Borussia Monchengladbach, became a first player to score on a penalty kick in the first ever penalty shootout in the European Cup history. Both the legs in the second round ended in 1-1 draw and after the extra time, penalty shootout had to be used as a tie breaker. Everton’s Joe Royal could’ve had this honour but he missed his penalty and Sieloff converted first spot kick for the Germans.

Lisbon Lions have nothing to do with any team coming from the Portuguese capital. But it is a nickname given to Legend Jock Stein’s Celtic which beat Inter 2-1 in the 1966-67 European Cup final. Celtic became the first British club to win European Cup. A unique feature about this team was, all the team members were born within 30 miles of Glasgow. Celtic achieved a unique Pentagram by winning Scottish League, Scottish Cup, Scottish League Cup, Glasgow Cup and European Cup.

Marouane Chamakh is the only player to score in six consecutive Champions League fixtures. His first goal in this hot streak came against Olympiacos in the Round of 16’s second leg, 2009-10 season. Chamakh then scored in both the legs of Quarterfinal against Lyon. He scored next 3 goals for Arsenal in 2010-11 season against Braga, Partizan and Shakhtar.

Nottingham Forrest became unlikely winners of the European Cup in 1979. Nottingham Forrest had to play defending champions Liverpool in the round 1. Forrest under their talismanic manager Brian Clough, not only won European Cup of 1979, but also successfully defended the cup in 1980. Apparently Nottingham Forrest has become the only winners of European Cup who have won more European titles than the domestic league.

Olympiacos FC hold an honour of maximum as well as successive representations in The Champions League Group stage by a Greek side. Apart from being a first Greek side to feature in European Cup, from 1997-98 season onwards, they have featured in the group stage for 11 consecutive seasons till 2008-09. Olympiacos again qualified in 09-10 and 11-12 seasons. Olympiakos has reached Quarter Finals once and five times have been defeated in round of 16.

Peter Palotas became the first player to score a Hat-trick in the European Cup. Palotas’ scored the goals on 25, 59 and 80^th minute for a Hungarian outfit MTK Budapest in 6-3 victory against Anderlecht. MTK lost to eventual runner up Stade Reims in the quarter final on the aggregate 8-6. In the second leg which ended 4-4, Palotas scored 2 more goals. Palotas missed out on a first player to score two hat-tricks in the same season.

Qualifying rounds have not always proved easy fixtures for the big teams. Teams finishing outside the automatic group stage qualification spot, have to play the qualifying rounds. But failing to qualify automatically in the group stage does not mean you are a weaker side. Manchester United in 98-99, AC Milan in 2002-03 and 06-07, Liverpool in 04-05 and Barcelona in 08-09 have gone on to win the Champions League from the third qualification spot.

Raul holds the record of scoring most goals (71) and most appearances (144) in the Champions League. He has scored 66 goals for Real Madrid and 5 for Schalke. Raul has appeared 132 times for Real Madrid and 12 times for Schalke in the Champions League.

Steaua Bucharest lifted the European Cup in 1985-86 by beating Barcelona on penalties. The match ended 0-0 in the normal time and after having played through the extra time, in came the penalty shootout. The nerves started to show as both the teams missed initial two penalties each. Steaua goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam hand a “Hand of God” and saved all 4 penalties by Barcelona. Steaua Bucharest became the first Eastern European side to win a European Cup.

Tottenham Hotspur when they drew their final group stage match 3-3, against Dutch side Twente in 2010-11, they became a first side to score at least 2 goals in each of their group stage matches. Spurs scored 18 goals in their 6 matches, 10 at home and 8 away. Spurs topped their group and knocked out AC Milan in knock out tie, but went down tamely against Real Madrid in round of 16.

Undefeated European campaign is definitely one to savour. It certainly not a very easy task to play continental games home and away without tasting a single defeat. Only nine clubs have lifted the European Cup without being defeated. Only Ajax, Liverpool, AC Milan and Manchester United have been able to achieve this feat twice. Apparently Manchester United’s dramatic victory in 1998-99, is only time any club has been victorious by winning fewer number of games. United could only win 5 games throughout the campaign.

Victoria Plzen FC made the debut in Champions League as they secured the entry to the 2^nd qualifying round as winners of the Czech league. Plzen won 2^nd, 3^rd and playoff qualification round and gained the Group Stage spot for the first time in its history. Plzen were drawn against Barcelona, AC Milan and BATE Borisov. Plzen’s highest point in the Champions League came when they held AC Milan to 1-1 draw in Minsk. They finished 3^rd in their group to qualify for the Europa League.

Wembley has had a privilege of hosting maximum (6) finals of European Cup and Champions League. Manchester United and Barcelona have played 2 finals on Wembley including the one against each other in 2010-11. Barcelona having outplayed United, have won both the finals where as United have beaten Benfica 4-1 to lift 1966 European Cup.

Xavi produced a sensational display in the 2008-09 Champions League Final, against Manchester United. He outmanoeuvred United’s midfield and set up a wonderful cross to Lionel Messi to score a winner. Xavi was duly awarded Man of the Match and Midfielder of the year award. He repeated the similar performance in the Wembley final in 2010-11. He, along with Iniesta, detonated Manchester United’s tactically naive midfield.

Yugoslavian outfit Red Star Belgrade became a second Eastern European side to win the European Cup when they defeated Marseille on penalties. Even this game ended 0-0 in normal time and extra time, went on penalties. Red Star converted all the 5 of their spot kicks. This Red Star team had all but one Yugoslav players in their squad. The only non Yugoslav player in the squad was a Romanian, Midorag Belodedici, who had earlier helped Steaua Bucharest to become first Eastern European country to win the European Cup.

Zinedine Zidane, arguably one of the greatest players the game has ever seen, has only one Champions League winner medal to show. Zidane in his first season with Juventus in 1996-97, ended up on runners-up  side against Borussia Dortmund. Five years later, Zidane made a world record €75 M to Real Madrid, and again reached up to finals in the first reason, against Bayer Leverkusen. However, he unleashed a stunning left foot volley for one of the best goals scored in any finals, which turned out to be a winner.