Champions League Day - Let's go into some facts! (Edition #6)

Every real football fan loves watching the Champions League, even if our beloved teams didn’t reach this stage. Or our teams aren’t playing at CL at all. Whether your team is playing today, tomorrow, or not at all, there are plenty of interesting facts to know anyways.

This time, let’s go deeper into the history of Chelsea vs Dortmund and Benfica vs Club Brugge when they played against each other.

Chelsea vs Borussia

The fans of Chelsea have had to burn a lot of nerves lately, but it made it to this stage. However, Dortmund won the 1st leg 1:0 making things for Chelsea hard if they want to advance to the next stage.

I truly would love to go deep into the long history of these teams, but this was the first time when these teams met (February 15), and today it’s 2nd time they play against each other ever.

Yes! Chelsea and Dortmund Borussia have never met until this year.

Despite everything, both teams have titles of Champions League - Chelsea did it twice in the 2011-2012 and 2020-2021 seasons, and Borussia once, in the 1996-1997 season. Dortmund had a golden chance to win CL for 2nd time in the 2012-2013 season but lost the final to Munich Bayern 2-1.

Interestingly, Chelsea started the season 2012-2013 in the Champions League as well but was transferred to the UEFA Europa League because finished the group stage in the 3rd place.

Both teams ended the season in the finals, however, in different championships. Other than that, these teams have no history against each other.

Club Brugge KV vs S.L. Benfica

Surprise surprise, but this is also the first year when S.L. Benfica and Club Brugge KV meet. Let’s find out how did they do in the previous seasons playing at Champions League or UEFA Europa League.

Club Brugge KV is the only Belgian club that ever played in the final of the Champions League, however, a long time ago when it was called the European Cup. In 1978, Brugge lost to Liverpool 0-1.

Moreover, Club Brugge KV qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time in modern history. They played at every group stage of CL since 2018, and in total at 10 group stages since 1992 (when the Champions League got this name originally).

Brugge has a long history of being around the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League and participated in any of these tournaments 40 times since 1971 (including the old names of these tournaments).

Benfica as well as Brugge has an amazing Champions and Europa League history. To be fair, this Portugal football club has a truly honorable legacy that many fans can be proud of.

S.L. Benfica won European Champion Clubs' Cup two times - in the 1960-1961 and 1961-1962 seasons. Played in the finals of 1962-1963, 1964-1965, 1967-1968, 1987-1988, and 1988-1989 seasons as well. However, never played in more than the quarter-final after the tournament was renamed to the Champions League.

Moreover, Benfica played in the finals of the UEFA Europa League 2012-2013 when they lost to Chelsea 1-2. And 2013-2014 when the loss against Sevilla FC was only faced after the penalties. Since then, S.L. Benfica has had a hard time. The team brings a score of 2-0 against Brugge so one more quarter-final is a small step away.

All the teams are intertwined and have many touching points. Some of them can create history, while others need to break a curse.

This post has a lot of dates and dry facts, however, I hope you liked it as much as I enjoyed researching and writing.

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