UEFA Champions League winners history list | Football Bible
UEFA Champions League winners history list
Published on
Aug 13, 2014
Each year, an elite club that outsmarts the other strong European clubs is crowned the season’s UEFA Champions League winner.
The title has been contended for 59 seasons and a number of teams have gained prominence in that time. Real Madrid is the most successful team having won ten times, followed by AC Milan with seven victories and five titles for both Liverpool and Bayern Munich. Here is the complete UEFA Champions League winners list.
1955-1960
Winner: Real Madrid (SPAIN)
Runners-up: Stade de Reims (1956, 1959), Fiorentina (1957), Milan (1958), Eintracht Frankfurt (1960)
Final scores: Real 4-3 Reims; Real 2-0 Fiorentina; Real 3-2 AC Milan (Extra Time); Real 2-0 Reims (1959); Real 7-3 Eintracht
Host countries: France (1956); Spain (1957); Belgium (1958); Germany (1959); Scotland (1960)
Real Madrid was the strongest team at the time. They won five consecutive tournaments a record that has not been matched. Though they encountered some resistance, the brilliance of their star players Ferenc Puskas, Francisco Gento, Alfredo Di Stefano and Jose Santamaria helped them conquer. In 1958, the final game was decided by an extra time goal scored by Francisco Gento. The 1960 European Cup final was a thrilling match as Madrid humiliated Eintracht to a 7-3 loss in Glasgow. This match recorded the largest attendance ever with over 135000 fans at the stadium.
1960-1962
Runners-up: Barcelona (1961); Real Madrid (1962)
Final scores: Benfica 3-2 Barcelona; Benfica 5-3 Real Madrid
Host countries: Switzerland (1961); Netherlands (1962)
Barcelona ended Real Madrid’s supremacy by beating them in the 1961 competition in the quarters. They made it to the finals only to lose to Benfica. Benfica boldly went on to lift the trophy a second time the following season by beating Real Madrid by 5-3.
 
Winners: AC Milan (1963); Inter Milan (1964, 1965) (ITALY)
Runners-up: Benfica (1963); Real Madrid (1964); Benfica (1965)
Final scores: AC Milan 2-1 Benfica; Inter Milan 3-1 Real; Inter Milan 1-0 Benfica
Host countries: England (1963); Austria (1964); Italy (1965)
AC Milan denied Benfica a chance to make it a hat-trick by beating them in the 1963 final. Their city rivals Internazionale Milan ensured the trophy stayed in Italy in the subsequent two seasons. With a wonderful combination of star players, namely Faketti, Mazzola, Sarti, Burnjic, Suares and Jaire the Inter squad marked an era that many Italians expected to match the earlier Real Madrid’s success.
 
Winners: Feyenord Rotterdam (1970) ; Ajax (1971, 1972, 1973) (NETHERLANDS)
Runner-up: Celtic (1970); Panathinaikos(1971); Internazionale Milan  (1972); Juventus(1973)
Final score: Rotterdam 2-1 Celtic (Extra time); Ajax 2-0 Panathinaikos; Ajax 2-0 Inter; Ajax 1-0 Juventus
Host countrys: Italy (1970); England (1971); Netherlands (1972); Serbia (1973)
The Dutch got a taste of the trophy when Rotterdam beat Celtic 2-1 after extra time in the finals of 1970 in Milan. The following season, Ajax ensured the trophy found its way back to the country by overpowering the Greek team Panathinaikos to a 2-0 defeat. Ajax maintained two more consecutive victories against Internazionale and Juventus by utilizing “the total football”.
 
Runner-up: Atletico Madrid (1974); Leeds United (1975); Saint-Etienne (1976)
Final score: Bayern 4-0 Atletico (Rematch); Bayern 2-0 Leeds United; Bayern 1-0 Saint-Etienne
Host country: Belgium (1974); France (1975); Scotland (1976)
The Bayern Munich team was extremely successful with the squad consisting of a number of the German national squad, which won the European Championship in 1972 then the World Cup in 1974. The first victory came through a 4-0 rematch against Atletico Madrid after the first game ended in a 1-1 draw. The following season, Bayern won the match against Paris Leeds United with a 2-0 score line and resulted in the English crowd causing havoc at the stadium. The third victory came against Saint-Etienne who they outscored 1-0.
 
1976-1982
Winner: Liverpool (1977, 1978, 1981); Nottingham Forest (1979, 1980) Aston Villa (1982) (ENGLAND)
Runner-up: Borussia Monchengladbach (1977); Club Brugge (1978); Malmo FF (1979); Hamburg (1980); Real Madrid (1981); Bayern Munich (1982)
Final score: Liverpool 3-1 Monchengladbach; Liverpool 1-0 Club Brugge; Nottingham 1-0 Malmo; Nottingham 1-0 Hamburg; Liverpool 1-0 Real; Villa 1-0 Bayern Munich
Host country: Italy (1977); England (1978); Germany (1979); Spain (1980); France (1981); Netherlands (1982)
Liverpool started the English dominance by triumphing over Borussia Monchengladbach, scoring three goals to their opponent’s one goal. It enjoyed another success the following year by beating Club Brugge, the Belgian champions. However they fell to their English counterparts Nottingham Forest the next season as Forest made a sensational campaign to win the trophy. In addition, Forest defended the trophy in 1980 by beating Hamburg.
In 1981, Liverpool secured their third victory by defeating Real Madrid by 1-0. Being the era for English teams to dominate, Aston Villa managed to win 1-0 against Bayern Munich in the 1982 final in Rotterdam.
 
Final score: Juventus 1-0 Liverpool
Host country: Belgium
The defending champions lost 1-0 to Juventus in the next final. The Juventus excitement was eclipsed by the actions of Liverpool crowd that led to the demise of 39 Juventus fans. This was a dark cloud over English success as a ban of five years was imposed on the English teams and a six-year ban for Liverpool. It marked a big challenge for English cups to contest for the title even upon the end of the ban.
 
Winners: Steaua Bucuresti (1986) (ROMANIA) ; Porto (1987) (PORTUGAL) ; PSV Eindhoven (1988) (NETHERLANDS)
Runners-up: Barcelona (1986); Bayern Munich (1987); Benfica (1988)
Final scores: Steaua Bucuresti 0-0 Barcelona (2-0 pen); Porto 2-1 Bayern; PSV 0-0 Benfica (6-5 pen)
Host countries: Spain (1986); Austria (1987); West Germany (1988)
With the English teams missing out after the Heysel Disaster, the trophy was first lifted by Steaua Bucuresti from Romania after defeating Barcelona through penalties. Helmuth Duckadam, the Steaua keeper, saved four penalties to aid his team to a 2-0 win. Next Porto outweighed Bayern Munich in a thrilling final when Algeria’s Rabah Madjer scored a spectacular back-heel for Porto.
 
Runner-up: Steaua Bucuresti (1989); Benfica (1990)
Final score: AC Milan 4-0 Bucuresti; AC Milan 1-0 Benfica
Host country: Spain (1989); Austria (1990)
Two decades after their first and only win, AC Milan routed Steaua Bucuresti to a 4-0 win to take the trophy. They defended the trophy a year later and won the final against Benfica by 1-0. The efforts of Arrigo Sacchi were proving to be fruitful for the club as he put up arguably the best defense in the tournament.
 
Winner: Red Star Belgrade (YUGOSLAVIA)
Runner-up: Marseille
Final score: Red Star Belgrade 0-0 Marseille (5-3 pen)
Host country: Italy
Red Star Belgrade, Champions of the Yugoslav League, held Marseille to a goalless draw and went on to beat them on penalties. At this time, the 5 year ban on English teams was lifted.
 
Final score: United 2-1 Bayern Munich
Host country: Spain
The final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich is obviously one memorable match among the past Champions League finals. Both teams were on the hunt for a treble and Manchester had won the FA Cup and Premier League prior to the final. Bayern took the lead in the sixth minute through a stunning free kick and the Manchester United team struggled to find the net even in the second half. Into the three minutes of stoppage time, United was awarded a corner kick and all the players went forward, including the keeper. Teddy Sheringham got the equalizer in that moment and a second corner, still taken by David Beckham, resulted into the winning goal scored by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
 
Final score: AC Milan 0-0 Juventus (3-2 pen)
Host country: England
Italy had not performed well in the previous season of the competition but they came back much improved, three Italian teams making it to the semi finals. The 2003 final was AC Milan against Juventus. After a 0-0 tie, Juventus lost 3-2 to AC Milan on penalties. This was an important one for the Milan captain, Paolo Maldini, as he lifted the trophy exactly forty years after his father had done the same for Milan. In addition, Clarence Seedorf had won the Champions League three times with three different teams, after Ajax (1995) and Real Madrid (1998).
 
Final score: Liverpool 3-3 Milan (3-2 pen)
Host country: Turkey
The 2005 final was a clash between prominent teams, Milan playing against Liverpool. Milan found the net after 52 seconds, which stands as the fastest goal in Champions league history. Another two goals from Hernan Crespo before half time provided Milan with a comfortable lead. This was later to be ruined by goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso before the sixtieth minute to bring the game to an even 3-3 score line. This is one outstanding comeback in a major and deciding match. The game proceeded to the penalty shootout and Liverpool conquered 3-2 to be victorious for the fifth time.