History UsefulNotes / UEFAChampionsLeague

The winners (in order of first victory) are: Real Madrid (12), Benfica (Lisbon) (2), AC Milan (7), Internazionale (Milan) (3), Celtic (Glasgow) (1), Manchester United (3), Feyenoord (Rotterdam) (1), Ajax (Amsterdam) (4), Bayern Munich (5), Liverpool (5), Nottingham Forest (2), Aston Villa (Birmingham) (1), Hamburg SV (1), Juventus (Turin) (2), Steaua Bucharest (1), FC Porto (2), PSV Eindhoven (1), Red Star Belgrade (1), FC Barcelona (5), Olympique Marseille (1), Borussia Dortmund (1), Chelsea (London) (1).

It ranks as one of the most popular sporting events in the world; the final of the competition is on par with the Super Bowl in that both events can draw in over 100 million spectators each year. It's easily one of the most important dates in a soccer fan's calendar.

It ranks as one of the most popular sporting events in the world; the final of the competition is on par with the SuperBowl in that both events can draw in over 100 million spectators each year. It's easily one of the most important dates in a soccer fan's calendar.

For those who get the chance to compete in it, it offers huge amounts of prize money and TV exposure and is the pinnacle of European club competitions. It showcases some of the finest football in the continent and generally some of the most epic games you could ask for. The competition has been dominated mostly by English, Italian and Spanish teams since its start, with Real Madrid having won it a record 11 times in their history (including the first 5 finals); however, clubs in France, Germany, Holland and numerous other teams have lifted the prestigious trophy at times.

The winners (in order of first victory) are: Real Madrid (11), Benfica (Lisbon) (2), AC Milan (7), Internazionale (Milan) (3), Celtic (Glasgow) (1), Manchester United (3), Feyenoord (Rotterdam) (1), Ajax (Amsterdam) (4), Bayern Munich (5), Liverpool (5), Nottingham Forest (2), Aston Villa (Birmingham) (1), Hamburg SV (1), Juventus (Turin) (2), Steaua Bucharest (1), FC Porto (2), PSV Eindhoven (1), Red Star Belgrade (1), FC Barcelona (5), Olympique Marseille (1), Borussia Dortmund (1), Chelsea (London) (1).

The UEFA Champions League is [[SeriousBusiness the most important]] club-based [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]] competition in Europe, and acts as the European counterpart to South America's UsefulNotes/CopaLibertadores.[[note]]Other football feds have their own versions, like the CONCACAF Champions League (formerly the Champions' Cup) for North and Central America[[/note]] It's a championship between the most successful clubs of [[UsefulNotes/EuroFooty Europe]] which has been held yearly since 1955. Although the clubs disputing this title are all European, they have in their squads some of the best players [[FiveTokenBand from all parts of the world]]. As a result, it is usually regarded as ''the'' elite club competition in the world and any player who thinks they're anyone aspires to play in the Champions League.

For those who get the chance to compete in it, it offers huge amounts of prize money and TV exposure and is the pinnacle of European club competitions. It showcases some of the finest football in the continent and generally some of the most epic games you could ask for. The competition has been dominated mostly by English, Italian and Spanish teams since its start, with Real Madrid having won it a record 10 times in their history (including the first 5 finals); however, clubs in France, Germany, Holland and numerous other teams have lifted the prestigious trophy at times.

The winners (in order of first victory) are: Real Madrid (10), Benfica (Lisbon) (2), AC Milan (7), Internazionale (Milan) (3), Celtic (Glasgow) (1), Manchester United (3), Feyenoord (Rotterdam) (1), Ajax (Amsterdam) (4), Bayern Munich (5), Liverpool (5), Nottingham Forest (2), Aston Villa (Birmingham) (1), Hamburg SV (1), Juventus (Turin) (2), Steaua Bucharest (1), FC Porto (2), PSV Eindhoven (1), Red Star Belgrade (1), FC Barcelona (5), Olympique Marseille (1), Borussia Dortmund (1), Chelsea (London) (1).

The UEFA Champions League is [[SeriousBusiness the most important]] club-based [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]] competition in Europe, and acts as the European counterpart to South America's UsefulNotes/CopaLibertadores.[[note]]Other football feds have their own versions, like the CONCACAF Champions League (formerly the Champions' Cup) for North and Central America[[/note]] It's a championship between the most successful clubs of [[UsefulNotes/EuroFooty Europe]] which has been held yearly since 1955. Although the clubs disputing this title are all European, they have in their squads some of the best players [[FiveTokenBand from all parts of the world]].

%%!!Tropes as portrayed in fiction:

The UEFA Champions League is [[SeriousBusiness the most important]] club-based [[TheBeautifulGame football]] competition in Europe, and acts as the European counterpart to South America's UsefulNotes/CopaLibertadores.[[note]]Other football feds have their own versions, like the CONCACAF Champions League (formerly the Champions' Cup) for North and Central America[[/note]] It's a championship between the most successful clubs of [[UsefulNotes/EuroFooty Europe]] which has been held yearly since 1955. Although the clubs disputing this title are all European, they have in their squads some of the best players [[FiveTokenBand from all parts of the world]].

!!The TROOOOOOOOOOPES:

* AlwaysABiggerFish: Invoked in 2003-04 when José Mourinho said his Porto side could not be expected to swim with the sharks.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Goalkeepers have a habit of heading to the opposing goal if his team need to get a goal in the dying minutes of the final or knockout stages and they get a corner kick. And of course, bringing on substitutes for that same purpose.
** This happened in the 1999 Final - Manchester United were a goal down to Bayern Munich as they headed into injury time. Teddy Sheringham & Ole Gunnar Solskjær had both been brought on, and United got a corner kick, which lead to goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel coming forward. Sheringham wound up putting United level - this demoralised Bayern so much, that after the restart, United immediately regained the ball, and within a minute, had got ''another'' corner, which lead to Solskjær scoring the winning goal.
** Arsenal's Jens Lehmann was considered one of the best players of the 05/06 competition, pulling off several great saves and even one from a penalty to get Arsenal to the final, however he then got a controversial sending off in the final and Arsenal lost 2-1.
** 2002 final. César, who had been Real Madrid's starting keeper for most of the season, gets injured and is replaced by Iker Casillas, who along the season had been in a bad patch. In the last fifteen minutes, Bayer starts to bombard Madrid's goal with several shoots, several of them in the last few minutes on corner kicks, and Casillas stopped them all. Real Madrid ends up winning 2-1. There is a reason Iker is nicknamed "The Saint".
** Liverpool's Jerzy Dudek's amazing double save to deny AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko late into extra time in the 2005 final, redeeming him from the mistake he made in normal time that required underperforming Djimi Traoré to pull this trope off in his place to prevent Milan from regaining the lead. It was even voted the greatest Champions League moment of all time.
** During the penalty shootout in the 2012 final, Manuel Neuer stepped forward to shoot the third penalty. Not only shooting, but even ''scoring''. Didn't help Bayern that day, though.
** In 2014, Real Madrid player Sergio Ramos invoked this by scoring a goal in the third-to-last minute of the final match against crosstown rival Atlético Madrid. Since Real were losing until that moment, the goal allowed them to keep playing through extra time, during which they scored three more goals to win.
* BittersweetEnding: Ethnic tensions rose before Red Star Belgrade won the 1991 UEFA Cup, and shortly afterwards the entire nation of Yugoslavia collapsed, resulting in hundreds of thousands of war casualties. Not only Red Star itself fell into #167 in UEFA Club Rankings, but the ''entire'' former Yugoslavia has never advanced into the knockout stages of the Champions League since 1995.
* BoringInvincibleHero - Real Madrid won the first five European Cup trophies, and would go on to win five more. {{Justified|Trope}} in which, by the time, they had some of the world's best players signed: Alfredo di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás and Raymond Kopa, among others.
* BoringYetPractical - Overtly defensive teams like 2012 Chelsea.
* BreakTheHaughty: This is why Bayern Munich lost the 1999 final - after scoring an early goal, Bayern led Manchester United 1-0 for the majority of the allotted 90 minutes, only for United to equalise in added time. Bayern were so shocked by this that United immediately scored the winning goal a minute later.
* CheatersNeverProsper - Constantly averted, but most spectacular in 1993 when Marseille won the European Cup, and were subsequently convicted of [[ThrowingTheFight match fixing]] in a French League tie the previous week. Due to this, they lost the right to represent Europe in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup to the runners-up, AC Milan, but since the fixing scandal happened in Ligue 1, their CL win was eventually acknowledged.
* ConsolationPrize: Relegation to the UEFA Europa League for third-placed teams in the group stage.
* CurbStompBattle:
** In the 2011-12 season alone, we've had HJK Helsinki thrashing Bangor City 13-0 on aggregate in the second qualifying round, Real Madrid and Lyon thrashing Dinamo Zagreb, 6-2 and 7-1 respectively, Chelsea and Valencia thrashing Genk 5-0 and 7-0 respectively, Barcelona thrashing BATE Borisov 5-0 all in the group stages then in the knockout round, we've got Barcelona thrashing Bayer Leverkusen 10-2 on aggregate and Bayern Munich thrashing FC Basel 7-1 on aggregate in the knockout round.
** In the 2012-13 Season Bayern Munich, the eventual champion, trashed Barcelona 7-0 aggregate (Bayern winning 4-0 in the first leg and 3-0 on the second). Even though Bayern were favorites due to their impressive season and Barcelona's poor fitness, nobody expected them to trash the Catalans the way they did.
** In the 2015 Knockout rounds, Bayern were playing Shaktar Donetsk and drew 0-0 in the first leg. Bayern proceeded to absolutely demolish Donetsk 7-0 on their home ground. The next round, Bayern lost 1-3 against Porto in the first leg, but proceeded to thrash Porto 6-1 in the second leg.
* {{Curse}}:
** Juventus and Barcelona both seemed cursed in the tournament until the 90s; Juve's one win up to 1996 had come on a day when 39 of their supporters died, Barça had never won the tournament until 1992 despite being one of Europe's top teams. With those curses dead, London clubs later became the most cursed, the drought ending with Chelsea's 2012 victory against Bayern Munich.
** Real Madrid has two:
*** With a record of 9 CL, and having won the Spanish League in 2003, the club unfairly decided not to renew Vicente del Bosque's manager contract, who won the last two as their coach, in 2000 and 2002. That year they hit the quarterfinals with the same team and then spent 6 years without getting past the round of 16 despite having world class players. Plus, during that time, the team who beat them would always lose to the eventual Champion.
*** The team is said to suffer from the infamous "German curse", related to the numerous defeats the team often has when playing in Germany, resulting in the majority of the cases in their elimination. This was averted in 2014, where they defeated three clubs from that country in a row.[[note]]Schalke 04 in the round of 16, Borussia Dortmund in quarterfinals and Bayern Munich in semifinals; only losing to the second team in the away match.[[/note]] That year they also won their long-coveted 10th trophy.
* ADayInTheLimelight:
** This happens frequently with teams from minor European leagues that manage to reach the group stage (and sometimes take away points from bigger clubs and even managing to reach the knockout stages).
** In terms of surpise winners in the final:
*** Celtic in 1967 against Internazionale in Lisbon.
*** Steaua Bucharest in 1986 through a penalty shoot-out against Barcelona in Seville.
*** Red Star Belgrade in 1991 through a penalty shoot-out against Marseille in Bari.
* DeusExMachina: The away goals rule sends one team out without losing in many matches. At its most {{egregious}} in the 2003 semi-final when AC Milan defeated Inter on away goals. They share a stadium.
* DeusExitMachina: What if the big teams of Europe all collectively failed in the same year? You might get a final between teams as small as Nottingham Forest and Malmö. 1978-79 actually saw this happen.
* EleventhHourSuperpower: Man Utd in the aforementioned 1999 final.
* EpicFail: The 1979 European Cup, where nearly every single team that would have been considered a contender failed miserably. The losing finalists were Malmö FF of Sweden.
* EveryYearTheyFizzleOut:
** Chelsea used to suffer from this until 2012, after defeating Bayern Munich in the final. Certain commentators have phrased that final as "Bayern Munich versus [[BigDamnHeroes Didier Drogba]], as this player scored the equalizing goal and the final penalty kick. In the following season, Chelsea fizzled out by becoming the first defending champion to fail to make it out of the next tournament's group stage and instead being relegated to the Europa League ([[FissionMailed which they ended up winning]]).
** Arsenal always look very good in the group stage, and they've been in the Champions League every year since its inception. Due in part to bad luck at the draw and some poor play, however, they still stand without a trophy thus far, always being put out in the first couple of rounds of the knockout stage.
* FissionMailed: During the group stage, teams have to win matches to end at the top two of their groups and qualify to the knockout stage. But if the team finishes third, they will be moved to the knockout stage of the Europa League, so they can try winning in that competition instead. Notably, Chelsea did this in the 2012-13 season and ''won'', making it one of the few teams in history to having won both competitions in a row.
* FiveTokenBand: Many clubs are like this, given that they hire the best players from all around the world. More prominently African footballers, be they naturalized or not. A notable example was the Inter Milan team who won in 2010. They had 3 Brazilians (Júlio César, Maicon, Lucio), 4 Argentinians (captain Javier Zanetti, Walter Samuel, Esteban Cambiasso, Diego Milito), a Romanian (Cristian Chivu), a Dutchman (Wesley Sneijder), a Macedonian (Goran Pandev) and a Cameroonian (Samuel Eto'o) in their starting line-up. The only Italian who actually played that match (Mario Balotelli, who was born to Ghanaian parents and adopted his current surname from his foster parents) entered the pitch at minute 90+2.
* FootballHooligans: A terribly tragic example in the 1985 final when Liverpool supporters were responsible for the deaths of 39 people, mostly Juventus fans, after an incident at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. It turned out English hooliganism was a NotSoHarmlessVillain and the English clubs were thrown out for 5 years, which would eventually lead to English Football's redemption when this and the tragedy at Hillsborough forced several new regulations to be implemented. It's worked for the most part.
* GameBreakingInjury: Happens frequently in this competition, and it can become a major concern when other tournaments (such as the UEFA Euro and the World Cup) are on the horizon.
* GroupHug: Huddles before matches.
* HesBack: Liverpool made it back to the Champions League for the first time in half a decade in 2014, finishing in the Top 4 after a legendary run to honor the 25th anniversary of the Hillsboro Disaster. Subverted, in the end, because they bombed out pretty hard.
* HomogenousMultinationalAdCampaign: The whole tournament is one of these - although alcohol advertising laws in various countries have necessitated [[LogoJoke variations on Heineken's logo]].
* HonestJohnsDealership: Rangers supporters in 2010 were held at the DW Stadium in Wigan prior to departing for Manchester to prevent a repeat of their violence in the city in the 2008 UEFA Cup final. So the Wigan club shop sold some Rangers shirts!
* IFightForTheStrongestSide: Most players in this tournament attempt to do this, with mixed results.
* IconicLogo: The ball of stars.
* {{Irony}}: Real Madrid brought spent ''millions'' on bringing in top stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká in to the club at the start of 2009-10. To make room in their squad, they sold Dutch starts Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben to Internazionale and Bayern Munich respectively. Real failed to get past the last 16, whilst Inter and Bayern, largely inspired by Sneijder and Robben, were able to reach the final, which was housed ''in Madrid''.
* KarmaHoudini: So many cheats that this is inevitable.
* KickTheDog: In 2000 the Spanish authorities could either have entered qualified 4th placed Real Zaragoza or European Champions Real Madrid. They denied Real Zaragoza the Champions League money, and Zaragoza have not nearly hit those heights again since then.
* LaserGuidedKarma: 2015, Chelsea vs. Paris-Saint Germain, Round of 16:
** Aggregate 1-1 going in to Chelsea. PSG's Zlatan Ibrahimovic is sent off by straight red due to a dive by Oscar. Chelsea put in a goal in the 79', but David Luis answers in the 85'. Aggregate is 2-2. Diego Costa gets into an altercation with Thiago Silva, and shoves him but the referee doesn't see. Game proceeds to extra time. Chelsea score early in the first half of extra time and take a 3-2 lead. In the 114' Thiago Silva puts in a goal to knot the scores at 3-3. Since PSG scored more goals at Chelsea in the away match than Chelsea at PSG in the home match, PSG advanced on away goals difference. This not only avenged the unfair expulsion of Zlatan, but also PSG's elimination to Chelsea in 2014, which also occurred by the away goal rule.
* MinorInjuryOverreaction: Commonplace.
* MiracleRally:
** Liverpool coming from 3-0 down to win on penalties against AC Milan in 2005.
** Achieved twice by Chelsea in the road to their 2012 Championship. In the second round, they overturned a 3-1 first leg deficit against Napoli, beating them 4-1 in extra time. Then, against Barcelona in the semifinals, they overturned a 2-0 deficit to draw 2-2 and win 3-2 on aggregate. Whilst down to ten men for most of the match.
* MomentKiller: Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves infamously telling Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic that a yellow card ruled him out of the final in 2012.
* NewAndImproved: In 1992 the "European Cup" became the "UEFA Champions League". By 1998 they'd let non-champions in.
* NominalImportance: The teams in the qualifiers include the Champions of countries like San Marino, Andorra and the Faroe Islands. It seems like the UEFA just wants to get rid of them before the real competition starts.
* NonIndicativeName: The Champions League is neither a league nor is it for champions only anymore.
* NoSenseOfDirection: John Arne Riise's tie-swinging own goal in the 2008 semi-final against Chelsea counts as this.
* OneHitWonder: There are always teams that will do brilliantly one year and then never really strike lucky again. Aston Villa in 1982 (they finished ''eleventh'' in England that year), [[TheWoobie Leverkusen]] in 2002, Red Star Belgrade in 1991 (although... [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars well...]]), quarter-finalists [=APOEL=] Nicosia in 2012...
* OpposingSportsTeam: Inter Milan in 1967 served as the bad guy to Celtic's good guy, even down to the black (and blue) kit. To go in depth, the Inter Milan of this era were using their infamous Catenaccio tactic (literally meaning "door-bolt" in Italian), in which they'd score one goal and lock up shop. Celtic are more known for their more attacking football. The most prominent statistic is Celtic's 42 shots compared to Inter's 5. It was seen as a victory for football, and it was a huge achievement for Celtic.
* PlayableEpilogue:
** The FIFA Club World Cup. Prior to it, the Intercontinental Cup, with the champion of the UsefulNotes/CopaLibertadores.
** The UEFA Super Cup, contested with the winners of the Europa League.
* ProductDisplacement: Stadiums with naming rights held by non-sponsors always get generic names (i.e. Emirates Stadium becomes "Arsenal Stadium"). Do the broadcasters do this? No.
* PutMeInCoach: Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Teddy Sheringham in 1999 for Manchester United.
* RedemptionQuest:
** AC Milan playing Liverpool in the 2007 final.
** Fernando Torres in the 2012 semifinals against defending champions Barcelona. The former Liverpool star spent his first years in Chelsea in bad shape, almost always getting dispossessed and missing open goals. [[JumpedAtTheCall Then his team came calling]] [[DavidVersusGoliath against what was considered to be the strongest team in the world]], and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome he scored the deciding goal]] that brought the underdog Chelsea into the Finals. Days later, he scored a hat trick in the [[EnglishPremierLeague domestic league]], convincing everyone that [[HesBack he is indeed back.]]
** FC Barcelona is currently amidst one. Two years after their brutal defeat against Bayern at semi-finals, they are once again fighting for their place at the Final. Made even more thrilling since this is the first time FC Barcelona legend Pep Guardiola faces them in an official match, as FC Bayern's manager. FC Barcelona won the first match 3-0 at home, showing they haven't forgotten and are willing to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong fight for their spot as champions]].
* RoyalBrat: Real Madrid at times.
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Alex Ferguson moaning about 'typical Germans'.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Dynamo Kiev were expelled from European competition for giving referees fur coats.
* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: The first final in 1956 was Real Madrid vs Stade de Reims. Only one is a world famous club now. Even though Reims had some of the finest players in France at the time.
* ShaggyDogStory:
** The tragic tale of [[TheWoobie Bayer Leverkusen]] in 2001/02. A team that had never won their national league before up against seven-time champions Real Madrid. The saddest part was that Leverkusen were on course for a treble, due to also being in both the German Cup final and leading the Bundesliga by five points with three games to go. But after Leverkusen lost the Champions League final 2-1 to Real Madrid, the German Cup final 4-2 to Schalke, and even the league to Borussia Dortmund after losing two of their last three games and blowing their five point lead, [[KickTheDog the team was crucified in the media]]. The team then lost star players Michael Ballack and Zé Roberto to Bayern Munich, and never recovered.
** Almost the exact same scenario happened to Borussia Dortmund in 2012/13 - they came second in the league to Bayern Munich, were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by them, and lost the Champions League Final 2-1 to Bayern as well. [[GenerationXerox And Bayern now have Dortmund's two star players - Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski.]] Only time will tell if they go the same way as Leverkusen.
** Leeds United. Their chairman took out huge loans, which were supposed to be repaid with Champions League revenue money. However, Leeds lost to Valencia in the 2001 semi-final, and lost 4th place in the Premier League to Newcastle United. The result was that all of their best players had to be sold to repay the loans, leading to the manager resigning and the club barely avoiding relegation in 2002. Now, the club languishes in the Championship, nowhere near the glory days of the early millennium. At least Leverkusen still remain in the Bundesliga (barely avoided relegation in 2003, and directly qualified to the Champions League in 2013).
* SpotlightStealingSquad: John Terry & Roman Abramovich, after Chelsea's win in the 2012 final. [[WhatAnIdiot Terry had been banned from playing in the final after kneeing a Barcelona player in the back during the second leg of the semi final]], and [[MoneyDearBoy Abramovich is Chelsea's owner & has nothing to do with the actual team beyond funding them]]... Yet both of them went up to collect the trophy following Frank Lampard (who was standing in for Terry as team captain due to the ban) & before the rest of the team ''and the coach''. It was made even worse by Terry changing into his Chelsea kit, so he looked like he had been part of the team, and UEFA barring banned players from taking part in the presentation in previous years.
* StealingFromTheTill:
** Fernando Morientes in 2003-04 playing for AS Monaco against Real Madrid, ''while on loan from Real'' scoring the goals that knocked out the Spanish team. Most teams insist that their own players do not play against them.
** This happened again in 2013-14 with goalkeeper [[TheBigGuy Thibault Courtois]], on loan at Atlético Madrid from Chelsea. When Atlético unexpectedly got to the semi-finals - against Chelsea - Chelsea tried to insist that if Courtois played against them Atlético would have to pay an exorbitant fee, so FIFA stepped in and ruled Courtois could play. He did, and Atletico won.
* TheTrickster: Give it up for the [[SarcasmMode master of modesty]] José Mourinho. When he was Chelsea manager he sneaked into his team's dressing room during half-time of a match he was banned from by hiding in the laundry basket. At Real Madrid, he orchestrated two of his players to be sent off so their bans would fall on a dead-rubber, clearing their record for the important games.
* UnderdogsNeverLose:
** Atlético Madrid was aiming at this in 2014, after defeating teams like Porto, Milan and Barcelona on the way. In the final match, their opponent was Real Madrid, and they were winning 1-0 up by the 92nd minute. Then Real scored their first goal and brought in an extra time, during which they started playing more aggressively. After the subsequent 30 minutes, Atlético ended up losing 1-4, subverting the trope. They tried to pull this again in the 2015 quarterfinals against the same rival, as they only needed to win by one goal to advance to the semifinals; but a goal from Mexican player Javier Hernández (an underdog himself in Real's squad) put them a halt to their dreams once again.
** Played straight for Liverpool for the entire 2004-05 campaign (where for all their history, they were regarded as underdogs then having been in a period of decline). Chelsea took it even further in the 2011-12 campaign; they had nowhere as illustrious a history in European competitions as Liverpool had, and their team then is regarded as one of the weakest in a long time to win.
* UnexpectedCharacter: You can be surprised of the teams (and countries) who make it to the group stage and clash with the titans. Such is the case of Cypriot team [=APOEL=] Nicosia - they reached the quarter-finals in 2011-12.
* WeakButSkilled: Rangers' defending to get a draw at Man Utd in 2010-11.
* WhoNeedsOvertime:
* WeWillMeetAgain:
** Teams in the Group Stage play it like a league. Once at home, once away for each of the three other teams. Many of the "regular contenders" (e.g. Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus) often meet another at some point in the knockout stage every year.
** Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund have been in the same Group for three consecutive years, to the point where it's almost become a RunningGag with the supporters. With Dortmund's struggles in the 2014/15 campaign, however, it will not happen in the 2015/16 UCL.
* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt:
** In the 2013/14 season of the tournament, Barcelona fans hoped to invoke this trope after their elimination in the quarterfinals while Real Madrid was drawn to confront Bayern Munich in the semifinals.[[note]]The reason for this is because, at the time, former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola was leading Bayern[[/note]] Real Madrid won, thus defying the trope.
** Man Utd in 1999, scoring the equalizer and winner in stoppage time.
** Borussia Dortmund did this in their 2nd quarter-final match against Málaga in 2013. And then Bayern Munich did this to Dortmund themselves in 2013, with Arjen Robben scoring the winning goal in the 89th minute.
* WideEyedIdealist: FC Nordsjælland from Denmark. FC Nordsjælland was by quite a distance the club in the 2012/13 Champions League with the lowest budget, and an almost hilariously low internal salary cap ( per month) compared to other clubs. What exactly made them wide-eyed idealists? They still tried to play the same kind of football as FC Barcelona, despite the fact that they had no players with any experience from this level of football whatsoever [[note]]No player in the squad had ever played in the tournament. Nordstrand had been an unused sub for Copenhagen and Lorentzen had played in the qualification for Brøndby[[/note]]. Aside from their impressive 1-1 against Juventus, they've been beaten in every game, which is mostly because they weren't good enough at both ends.
----

The winners (in order of first victory) are: Real Madrid (10), Benfica (Lisbon) (2), AC Milan (7), Internazionale (Milan) (3), Celtic (Glasgow) (1), Manchester United (3), Feyenoord (Rotterdam) (1), Ajax (Amsterdam) (4), Bayern Munich (5), Liverpool (5), Nottingham Forest (2), Aston Villa (Birmingham) (1), Hamburg SV (1), Juventus (Turin) (2), Steaua Bucharest (1), FC Porto (2), PSV Eindhoven (1), Red Star Belgrade (1), FC Barcelona (4), Olympique Marseille (1), Borussia Dortmund (1), Chelsea (London) (1).

The UEFA Champions League is [[SeriousBusiness the most important]] club [[TheBeautifulGame football]] competition in Europe, and acts as the European counterpart to South America's UsefulNotes/CopaLibertadores[[note]]Other football feds have their own versions, like the CONCACAF Champions League (formerly the Champions' Cup) for North and Central America[[/note]]. It's a championship between the most successful clubs of [[UsefulNotes/EuroFooty Europe]] which has been held yearly since 1955. Although the clubs disputing this title are all European, they have in their squads some of the best players [[FiveTokenBand from all parts of the world]].

The UEFA Champions League is [[SeriousBusiness the most important]] [[TheBeautifulGame football]] competition in Europe, and acts as the European counterpart to South America's UsefulNotes/CopaLibertadores[[note]]Other football feds have their own versions, like the CONCACAF Champions League (formerly the Champions' Cup) for North and Central America[[/note]]. It's a championship between the most successful clubs of [[UsefulNotes/EuroFooty Europe]] which has been held yearly since 1955. Although the clubs disputing this title are all European, they have in their squads some of the best players [[FiveTokenBand from all parts of the world]].

** Following the first leg in Paris, a video emerged of several white Chelsea fans blocking a black PSG fan from entering a train, which caused mass outrage all across Europe for racist allegations ([[{{Hypocrite}} never mind the fact that Didier Drogba, one of the greatest to ever wear a Chelsea uniform, is black]]). In England especially, people were denouncing the act, and Chelsea rivals West Ham even released a video trolling Chelsea by showing them what to do to a black fan of the opposite team. This game came not three weeks after this incident. Justice was especially cold that night.

** Fernando Torres in the 2012 semifinals against defending champions Barcelona. The former Liverpool star spent his first years in Chelsea in bad shape, almost always getting dispossessed and missing open goals. [[JumpedAtTheCall Then his team came calling]] [[DavidVersusGoliath against what was considered to be the strongest team in the world]], and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome he scored the deciding goal]] that brought the underdog Chelsea into the Finals. Days later, he scored a hat trick in the [[EnglishPremierLeague domestic league]], convincing everyone that [[HesBack he is indeed back.]]

* BonusMaterial[=/=]PlayableEpilogue:
** The FIFA Club World Cup. Prior to it, the Intercontinental Cup, with the champion of the UsefulNotes/CopaLibertadores.
** The UEFA Super Cup, contested with the winners of the Europa League.

** In the 2015 Knockout rounds, Bayern were playing Shaktar Donetsk and drew 0-0 in the first leg. Bayern proceeded to absolutely demolish Donetsk 7-0 on their home ground. The next round, Bayern lost 1-3 against Porto in the first leg, but proceeded to thrash Porto 6-1 in the second leg. Bayern Munich really seems have raised this trope to an art form in the past years...

** Atlético Madrid was aiming at this in 2014, after defeating teams like Porto, Milan and Barcelona on the way. In the final match, their opponent was Real Madrid, and they were winning 1-0 up by the 92nd minute. Then Real scored their first goal and brought in an extra time, during which they started playing more aggressively. After the subsequent 30 minutes, Atlético ended up losing 1-4, subverting the trope.

** In the 2015 Knockout rounds, Bayern were playing Shaktar Donetsk and drew 0-0 in the first leg. Bayern proceeded to absolutely demolish Donetsk 7-0 on their home ground.

* HesBack: Liverpool made it back to the Champions League for the first time in over a decade in 2014, finishing in the Top 4 after a legendary run to honor the 30th anniversary of the Hillsboro Disaster. Subverted, in the end, because they bombed out pretty hard.

* WeWillMeetAgain: Teams in the Group Stage play it like a league. Once at home, once away for each of the three other teams. Many of the "regular contenders" (e.g. Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus) often meet another at some point in the knockout stage every year.

* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: In the 2013/14 season of the tournament, Barcelona fans hoped to invoke this trope after their elimination in the quarterfinals while Real Madrid was drawn to confront Bayern Munich in the semifinals.[[note]]The reason for this is because, at the time, former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola was leading Bayern[[/note]] Real Madrid won, thus defying the trope.

* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: In the 2013/14 season of the tournament, Barcelona fans hoped to invoke this trope after their elimination in the quarterfinals while Real Madrid was drawn to confront Bayern Munich in the semifinals.[[note]]The reason for this is because, at the time, former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola was leading Bayern[[/note]] Real Madrid won, thus defying the trope.

* LaserGuidedKarma: 2015, Chelsea vs. Paris-Saint Germain. Round of 16, aggregate 1-1 going in to Chelsea. PSG's Zlatan Ibrahimovic is sent off by straight red due to a dive by Oscar. Chelsea put in a goal in the 79', but David Luis answers in the 85'. Aggregate is 2-2. Diego Costa gets into an altercation with Thiago Silva, and shoves him but the referee doesn't see. Game proceeds to extra time. Chelsea score early in the first half of extra time and take a 3-2 lead. In the 114' Thiago Silva puts in a goal to knot the scores at 3-3. Since PSG scored more goals at Chelsea in the away match than Chelsea at PSG in the home match, PSG advanced on away goals difference. This not only avenged the unfair expulsion of Zlatan, but also PSG's elimination to Chelsea in 2014, which also occurred by the away goal rule.
** Also, following the first leg in Paris, a video emerged of several white Chelsea fans blocking a black PSG fan from entering a train, which caused mass outrage all across Europe for racist allegations ([[{{Hypocrite}} never mind the fact that Didier Drogba, one of the greatest to ever wear a Chelsea uniform, is black]]). In England especially, people were denouncing the act, and Chelsea rivals West Ham even released a video trolling Chelsea by showing them what to do to a black fan of the opposite team. This game came not three weeks after this incident. Justice was especially cold that night.

* LaserGuidedKarma: 2015, Chelsea vs. Paris-Saint Germain. Round of 16, aggregate 1-1 going in to Chelsea. PSG's Zlatan Ibrahimovic is sent off by straight red due to a dive by Oscar. Chelsea put in a goal in the 79', but David Luis answers in the 85'. Aggregate is 2-2. Diego Costa gets into an altercation with Thiago Silva, and shoves him but the referee doesn't see. Game proceeds to extra time. Chelsea score early in the first half of extra time and take a 3-2 lead. In the 114' Thiago Silva puts in a goal to knot the scores at 3-3. Since PSG scored more goals at Chelsea in the away match than Chelsea at PSG in the home match, PSG advanced on away goals difference. This not only avenged the unfair expulsion of Zlatan, but also PSG's elimination to Chelsea in 2014, which also occured by the away goal rule.

** In the 2012-13 Season we've had Bayern Munich, the eventual champion, trashing Barcelona 7-0 aggregate (Bayern winning 4-0 in the first leg and 3-0 on the second.) Even though Bayern were favorites due to their impressive season and Barcelona's poor fitness, nobody expected them to trash the Catalans the way they did.

*** With a record of 9 CL, the club unfairly fired Vicente del Bosque, who won the last one as their coach, in 2002, where they also won a league title. That year they hit the quarterfinals with the same team and, since then, they spent 6 years without getting past the round of 16 despite having world class players. Plus, during that time, the team who beat them would always lose to the eventual Champion.

* ADayInTheLimelight: This happens frequently with teams from minor European leagues that manage to reach the group stage (and sometimes take away points from bigger clubs and even managing to reach the knockout stages).
** In terms of surpise winners in the final, we have, for example:
*** Celtic in 1967 against Internazionale in Lisbon;
*** Steaua Bucharest in 1986 through a penalty shoot-out against Barcelona in Seville;

* DeusExMachina - The away goals rule sends one team out without losing in many matches. At its most {{egregious}} in the 2003 semi-final when AC Milan defeated Inter on away goals. They share a stadium.
* DeusExitMachina - What if the big teams of Europe all collectively failed in the same year? You might get a final between teams as small as Nottingham Forest and Malmö. 1978-79 actually saw this happen.

* {{Irony}}: Real Madrid brought spent m on bringing in top stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká in to the club at the start of 2008-09. To make room in their squad, they sold Dutch starts Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben to Internazionale and Bayern Munich respectively. Real failed to get past the last 16, whilst Inter and Bayern, largely inspired by Sneijder and Robben, were able to reach the final - in Madrid!

* LaserGuidedKarma: 2015, Chelsea vs. Paris-Saint Germain. Round of 16, aggregate 1-1 going in to Chelsea. PSG's Zlatan Ibrahimovic is sent off by straight red due to a dive by Oscar. Chelsea put in a goal in the 79', but David Luis answers in the 85'. Aggregate is 2-2. Diego Costa gets into an altercation with Thiago Silva, and shoves him but the referee doesn't see. Game proceeds to extra time. Chelsea score early in the first half of extra time and take a 3-2 lead. In the 114' Thiago Silva puts in a goal to knot the scores at 3-3. Since PSG scored more goals at Chelsea than Chelsea at PSG, PSG advanced on away goals difference.

*** Almost the exact same scenario happened to Borussia Dortmund in 2012/13 - they came second in the league to Bayern Munich, were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by them, and lost the Champions League Final 2-1 to Bayern as well. [[GenerationXerox And Bayern now have Dortmund's two star players - Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski.]] Only time will tell if they go the same way as Leverkusen...

* UnexpectedCharacter: You can be surprised of the teams (and countries) who make it to the group stage and clash with the titans.
** The gold medal for this surely has to go to Cypriot team [=APOEL=] Nicosia - they reached the quarter-finals in 2011-12!

* [[WhoNeedsOvertime Who Needs Extra Time]]:

** Borussia Dortmund did likewise in their 2nd quarter-final match against Málaga in 2013. And then Bayern Munich did this to Dortmund themselves in 2013, with Arjen Robben scoring the winning goal in the 89th minute.

* {{Irony}}: Real Madrid brought spent £200m on bringing in top stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká in to the club at the start of 2008-09. To make room in their squad, they sold Dutch starts Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben to Internazionale and Bayern Munich respectively. Real failed to get past the last 16, whilst Inter and Bayern, largely inspired by Sneijder and Robben, were able to reach the final - in Madrid!

* WideEyedIdealist: FC Nordsjælland from Denmark. FC Nordsjælland was by quite a distance the club in the 2012/13 Champions League with the lowest budget, and an almost hilariously low internal salary cap (€13,330 per month) compared to other clubs. What exactly made them wide-eyed idealists? They still tried to play the same kind of football as FC Barcelona, despite the fact that they had no players with any experience from this level of football whatsoever [[note]]No player in the squad had ever played in the tournament. Nordstrand had been an unused sub for Copenhagen and Lorentzen had played in the qualification for Brøndby[[/note]]. Aside from their impressive 1-1 against Juventus, they've been beaten in every game, which is mostly because they weren't good enough at both ends.

* BoringInvincibleHero - Real Madrid won the first five European Cup trophies, and would go on to win four more. {{Justified|Trope}} in which, by the time, they had some of the world's best players signed: Alfredo di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás and Raymond Kopa, among others.

* FissionMailed: During the group stage, teams have to win matches to end at the top two of their groups and qualify to the knockout stage. But if the team finishes third, they will be moved to the knockout stage of the Europa League, so they can try winning in that competition instead. Notably, Chelsea did this in the 2012-13 and ''won'', making it one of the few teams in history to having won both competitions in a row).

* FissionMailed: During the group stage, teams have to win matches to end at the top two of their groups and qualify to the knockout stage. But if the team finishes third, they will be moved to the knockout stage of the Europa League, so they can try winning in that competition instead.