UEFA Champions League Football Trivia

Aaron Hunt (L) of Werder fights for the ball with Robinho (C) of Real Madrid during the UEFA Champions League group C match between Werder Bremen and Real Madrid at the Weser stadium on November 28, 2007 in Bremen, Germany.

  • Nottingham Forest has achieved the unusual feat of having won the UEFA Champions League more often than they have won their domestic league. The English side have only topped the Premier League once, but have twice claimed the UEFA Champions League title.
  • Scottish side Celtic, besides being the first Northern European club to win the competition, are also the only club who can claim to have won the title fielding a side made up entirely of players from the club's home city.
  • Celtic also have the distinction of completing a 'quadruple' winning both domestic cups, the domestic league and the UEFA Champions League in the 1966/1967 season.
  • Liverpool is the only team to have reached the final knockout stages after starting the competition in the first qualifying round. The club started the 2005/2006 competition in the first qualifying round, topped their group and were then knocked out of the tournament by Benfica in the first knockout round.
  • Italian city Milan is the only city to host two UEFA Champions League winning teams – AC Milan and Inter Milan.
  • The UEFA Champions League has only twice held a final featuring sides from one country. Real Madrid played Valencia in the all Spanish 2000 final, then AC Milan squared off against Juventus in the all-Italian 2003 Champions League final.
  • AEK Athens claims a UEFA Champions League trivia spot for Greek clubs having achieved the unusual feat of drawing every one of their six group stage games in 2003. This achievement earned them a third place finish and relegation to the UEFA Cup.
  • Five teams have managed to win the UEFA Champions League without losing a single game – Ajax, Manchester United, Barcelona, Liverpool and Inter Milan.
  • In 2006 Arsenal produced the best defensive effort in the history of the UEFA Champions League, going 10 games without conceding a goal.
  • English teams were banned from the UEFA Champions League between 1986 and 1991 following a series of stadium disasters and hooliganism problems. The absence of English teams gave three teams the opportunity to win the tournament for the first time following a decade of English dominance - PSV Eindhoven, Red Star Belgrade and Steaua Bucure?ti all won the title before England returned to the UEFA Champions League fold in 1991.

For more interesting UEFA Champions League trivia and records visit the Champions League Records page on this site.