Champions League Day - We go over again! (Edition #7)

I have enjoyed writing a newsletter yesterday. Digging into the history of the Champion League and its clubs was really interesting. Understanding that some teams that do not perform very well now, had many glorious periods which I believe are still lovely memories for old-time fans. So decided to make another dedicated for the teams playing today.

Bayern Munich vs Paris Saint Germain and Tottenham vs AC Milan. I believe these couples have more titles and histories to look into. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

Bayern Munich vs Paris Saint Germain

Two elite clubs have a long H2H history and since 1994 met 12 times (13 including International Champions Cup which I’m going to ignore in this case). Both teams managed the win 6 times each and interestingly not a single game ended with a draw.

If you follow the Champions League, you probably know that it ended with Munich winning 1-0 at PSG's home stadium this February. So Bayern has a great chance to take revenge for the 2020-2021 season when PSG eliminated the Munich club in the quarter-final. Well, PSG has a lot of motivation too because, in the 2019-2020 season’s Final, the victory belonged to Munich Bayern.

Now let’s check the history of how the teams perform in the Champions League and Europa League.

Even with stunning investments and top-notch players, PSG still struggles with winning any of these championships. Paris's team has never won any of them. The best achievement for PSG was already mentioned final with Bayern in 2020. And in the last 14 years, Paris only managed to go through more than a quarter-final stage two times, one you know already, another in the 20/21 season when the team lost against Manchester City.

Can Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe finally bring the Champions League winner cup to Paris for the first time? Well, they need to beat Bayern Munich which is one of the best CL teams in the first place.

Bayern Munich participated in 26 competitions of the Champions League since 1994. Since then, it managed to play in 6 finals of which 3 ended with a win! 2 of the lost finals were resolved only after the penalties.

Moreover, Bayern has 6 more semi-finals that the team didn’t get over. Most impressive is the fact that Munich club only once didn’t make it out of the group stage.

The consistency and discipline Bayern Munich always show is quite astonishing. And it looks like they can step into the quarter-finals this time too.

Tottenham vs AC Milan

England vs Italy, however, it is not the final of the Euro, but a round of 16. The first game belongs to AC Milan which managed to win at San Siro 1-0.

Both these teams at national championships are on the brink of being not promoted to the Champions League if they end the season outside of the top 4.

AC Milan and Hotspur played only 3 times in the history of the CL. One win belongs to Milan (this February), 1 to Tottenham, and 1 game ended with a draw. The last time teams met on the field was in the 10/11 season, also, the round of 16. That time, Tottenham Hotspur was the team that advanced to the next round.

If we want to see how Tottenham performs in the UEFA tournaments - Europa League and Champions League, it’s clear that Hotspur isn’t the top name. Only in the 18/19 season London club managed to reach the CL final where lost against Liverpool 0-2.

This was the single time when Hotspur was successful to pass through the quarter-final. We find the same story with the Europa League where Tottenham never made it more than the quarter-finals.

AC Milan is a totally different story. This legendary Italian club has a lot of titles in the UEFA tournaments. Since 1992, AC Milan has won 3 Champions League titles, and 3 more finals were lost. 

On the other hand, since the 06/07 season when Milan club won against Liverpool 2-1, the club never go further than the quarter-finals stage. The last season, AC Milan even didn’t go out of the group.

For clarity - I didn’t include the tournaments such as UEFA Super Cup or UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and others that I might have missed. Also, I didn’t go back to the times when the Champions League had a different name (as I did in the previous post). So mainly this is modern history only.

This is the end of this post. I have found more touchpoints this time too, like AC Milan and Bayern have the exact number of finals and wins in the Champions League finals. Also, their upcoming rivals have never won the CL or Europa League.

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