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“What’s the furthest a team has gone in Europe while being relegated in the same season?” wonders Matt Reilly.
This question was probably asked in reference to Tottenham, who were still in the Champions League at the time, but it’s still relevant to some of this year’s quarter-finalists. Nottingham Forest are three points above the relegation places in the Premier League; Fiorentina only have a five-point cushion in Serie A.
Celta Vigo, who sit sixth in La Liga and will play Freiburg in the Europa League quarter-final, are surely safe. But that hasn’t always been the case. “Celta Vigo went from fourth in La Liga in 2002-03 to 19th the next year, crashing straight back down to earth,” writes Ciaran Hannigan. “But in the Champions League they beat Slavia Prague, came second in a group with Milan, Club Brugge and Ajax, before being put away by Arsenal in the round of 16.”
Perugia reached the last 16 of the Uefa Cup in the same season before going out to PSV Eindhoven. European success was not replicated in Serie A: they failed to win any of their first 22 games and were eventually relegated via a playoff. Two years later, Juventus – who had reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League – were demoted because of their part in the Calciopoli scandal. (Marseille were relegated in 1993-94, but were banned from playing in Europe that season.)
The other team to be relegated in the same season they played in the newfangled Champions League are Villarreal in 2011-12. The Spanish side took zero points from a group with Manchester City, Napoli and Bayern Munich; in La Liga, a draw with Atlético on the final day would have kept them up, but Radamel Falcao’s late winner sealed their fate. Thanks to Pete Tomlin for that and several other examples.
In modern times there have probably been more surprise relegations in La Liga than any of the other big five leagues. As Tom Reed points out, several Spanish sides have gone down after playing in the Uefa Cup or Europa League the same season.
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Real Zaragoza 2001-02, first round; 2007-08, first round
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Alaves 2002-03, second round
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Celta Vigo 2006-07, last 16
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Real Zaragoza 2007-08, first round
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Real Betis 2013-14, last 16
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Espanyol 2019-20, last 32
The Best League in the World™ has also demonstrated its competitiveness via the medium of dramatic freefall, with three examples (okay, two and a quarter as the Intertoto Cup doesn’t really count) at the turn of the century.
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Blackburn Rovers 1998-99, Uefa Cup first round
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Bradford City 2000-01, Intertoto semi-final
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Ipswich Town 2001-02, Uefa Cup third round
Most of these relegated teams were eliminated pretty early in Europe. But as Dirk Maas points out, in the first age of European football before 1992, a whole host of quarter-finalists went down in the same season.
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Ruda Hvezda Brno 1960-61, Cup Winners’ Cup
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Dynamo Zilina 1961-62, Cup Winners’ Cup
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Espanyol 1961-62. Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
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Napoli 1962-63, Cup Winners’ Cup
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Bayern Munich 1962-63, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
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1. FC Magdeburg 1965-66, Cup Winners’ Cup
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Lyn 1968-69, Cup Winners’ Cup
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Beroe Stara Zagora 1973-74, Cup Winners’ Cup
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Real Betis 1977-78, Cup Winners’ Cup
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Bologna 1990-91, Uefa Cup
Like Juventus in 2005-06, Bayern’s relegation in 1962-63 was not based on their league performance that season. “Despite finishing third in the Oberliga Süd,” writes Dirk, “Bayern were relegated due to a low position on the 12-year ranking that was used to determine which teams would qualify for the inaugural Bundesliga season.”
Unbeaten and eliminated
“Viktoria Plzen got knocked out of the Europa League despite not losing a game in the tournament,” reports Dean Whearty. “Has this happened before in European competition?”
This peculiar form of football injustice has happened dozens of times both before and after the introduction of a group stage. In 1970-71, for example, the European Cup holders, Feyenoord, went out on away goals in the first round: they drew 1-1 at home to UTA Arad and 0-0 in Romania.
Huge thanks to Knowledge regulars Kalen Kasraie and Dirk Maas for doing the heavy lifting on this. We’ve concentrated on unbeaten teams who played the most games before being eliminated.
Ten games is the record for an eliminated unbeaten team in the Champions League, shared by Rangers in 1992-93 and the holders Manchester City in 2023-24, but spare a thought for Espanyol. They went 15 games without defeat in the 2006-07 Uefa Cup – and still didn’t win it.
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First round Artmedia Bratislavia (2-2 away, 3-1 home)
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Group stage Sparta Prague (2-0 away), Zulte Waregem (6-2 home), Ajax (2-0 away), Austria Wien (1-0 home)
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Last 32 Livorno (2-1 away, 2-0 home)
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Last 16 Maccabi Haifa (0-0 away, 4-0 home)
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Quarter-final Benfica (3-2 home, 0-0 away)
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Semi-final Werder Bremen (3-0 home, 2-1 away)
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Final Sevilla 2-2 (1-3 pens)
In the final at Hampden Park, Espanyol missed three of their four penalties against Sevilla. Their season had a happy ending of sorts, mind you, when they stopped their rivals Barcelona winning the title.
A not dissimilar misery descended upon Benfica in the Europa League in 2013-14. They were unbeaten throughout the competition but lost on penalties in the final to, yep, Sevilla. Benfica played only nine games to Espanyol’s 15, though, and were parachuted into the Europa League after finishing third in their Champions League group. Espanyol, Juventus (Fairs Cup, 1970-71) and Arsenal (Cup Winners’ Cup, 1979-80) are the only truly unbeaten losing finalists in the men’s game.
The longest futile unbeaten run we could find in the women’s game was nine games by Montpellier in the 2009-10 Champions League. After an excellent 0-0 draw away to the Swedish side Umeå IK – WCL royalty in the first decade of the competition – Montpellier seemed to be cruising into the semi-finals when they led 2-0 in France with five minutes remaining. Emma Åberg Zingmark and Sofia Jakobsson had other ideas.
Let’s finish with a list of teams who were unbeaten in Europe at the time they were eliminated. (In other words, sides who were defeated in the Champions League and then went out of the Europa League without losing in that competition are not included.) We’ve listed them in ascending order of games played, with Espanyol clear at the top.
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Feyenoord Cup Winners’ Cup 1991-92 (W2 D6)
Lost on away goals to Monaco in the semi-final.
AEK Athens Champions League 2002-03 (W2 D6)
Eliminated at the group stage after six draws. Were beaten later that season in the Europa League.
AC Milan Uefa Cup 2008-09 (W4 D4)
Lost on away goals to Werder Bremen in the last 32.
Valencia Uefa Cup 2008-09 (W3 D5)
Lost on away goals to Dynamo Kyiv in the last 32.
Chelsea Champions League 2014-15 W4 D4)
Lost on away goals to PSG in the last 16.
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Montpellier Women’s Champions League 2009-10 (W5 D4)
Lost on away goals to Umeå IK in the quarter-final.
Arsenal Cup Winners’ Cup 1979-80 (W5 D4)
Lost on penalties to Valencia in the final.
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RWD Molenbeek Uefa Cup 1976-77 (W4 D6)
Lost on away goals to Athletic Bilbao in the semi-final.
Rangers Champions League 1992-93 (W6 D4)
Finished second behind Marseille in their group.
Manchester City Champions League 2023-24 (W8 D2)
Lost on penalties to Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
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Juventus Inter-Cities Fairs’ Cup 1970-71 (W8 D4)
Lost on away goals to Leeds in the final.
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Espanyol Uefa Cup 2006-07 (W11 D4)
Lost on penalties to Sevilla in the final.
Knowledge archive
“Saturday’s one-sided FA Cup tie between Chelsea and Port Vale was the first competitive fixture between the teams in 97 years. Is this a record?” asks John Benstead.
We had this question in 2019, when Newport and Manchester City met for the first time in 56 years. Here’s what we said back then.
“Even if you doubled Newport v City it wouldn’t beat the gap between fixtures for Chorley and Stockport County,” declared Gary Fairclough. “Before Stockport’s 3-0 league defeat to Chorley in November 2014 the two sides had not played each other competitively for 114 years. Their last meeting was in 1900; Britain was in turmoil over the second Boer War and across Europe new football teams were taking their first steps in the game with strange names like Ajax, Lazio and Bayern Munich. They probably never amounted to much.”
But that can be topped. Here’s Michael Knaggs: “My best guess is on 24 August 2016, Accrington beat Burnley 1-0 in the EFL Cup. It was their first competitive meeting since 1893, 123 years prior, when Victoria had eight years to go as Queen of the empire, Dvorak’s New World Symphony premièred and Arthur Conan Doyle revealed that Sherlock Homes had died. If anyone can beat that, I tip my hat to them.”
Can you help?
“Marc Guéhi has now played against Liverpool five times this season and won each game (including a shootout in the Community Shield),” notes Tim Spargo. “What are the records for most appearances and most wins against a single club in one season?”
“Which club has the highest ratio of Champions League or European Cup titles compared to league titles?” asks David Sauter. “And which teams have won a major European trophy without ever winning their domestic league?”
“At one point in their recent friendly against Zambia, Argentina fielded five left-footed players,” notes Tim Dockery. “This got me wondering (i) which team has had the most lefties on the field at the same time and (ii) considering both teams, which game featured the most lefties on the field at the same time?”
“Lisa Forrest scored twice for Glasgow City against Rangers in the Women’s League Cup final, joining her brothers Alan and James in scoring against the Gers. Are there any other footballing families who have a favourite team to torment?” asks John Law.
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