The Champions League is the pinnacle of European club football. Since it began in 1955, it has seen unforgettable matches, epic comebacks and finals that have marked generations.
The tournament is held annually between the champions (and, in some cases, runners-up) of Europe’s national leagues. The winner is crowned UEFA Champions League champions and earns a place in the prestigious FIFA Club World Cup.
It is contested on a knockout basis and the teams are seeded based on their performance in each competition. The teams are then drawn against one another in a round of sixteen, and the team that scores more goals over two matches (known as “legs”) advances to the next phase.
The last time a team won both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup in the same season was Bayern Munich in 1989. The Bayern team of that year was arguably the best in history, featuring superstars such as Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Riedle and Matthias Sammer. But it was the playmaker who stood out the most: Jari Litmanen, the Finnish star who scored two goals in the semi-final against Ajax in a match that Bayern won 5-2 on aggregate.
The last club to win both the Champions League and the UEFA Europa League in the same season was Barcelona in 2015. Their attack of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar was unstoppable throughout that campaign, and the Catalan giants won both tournaments with style. But if we were to pick a less aesthetically pleasing winners of the Champions League, it would have to be Chelsea in 2008-09. The Blues under Roberto Di Matteo were tactically sound, managing to outfox Juventus in the quarter-finals and frustrate Bayern Munich in the final.