22 Champions League Things You Don’t Know

A UEFA Champions League winners title is the pinnacle achievement in European club football. Less than 20 teams have managed this in over 50 years of the Champions League competition.

We have listed 22 Champions League facts you may not know.

1. Nottingham Forest have won the Champions League more often than they have won their domestic league.

2. Nottingham Forest have claimed the Champions League title twice.

3. Celtic were the first Northern European club to win the competition.

4. Celtic are the only club who can claim to have won the Champions League title fielding a side made up entirely of players from the club’s home city.

5. Celtic also have the honour of completing a ‘quadruple’ - winning both domestic cups, the domestic league and the Champions League.

6. Liverpool is the only team to have reached the final knockout stages after starting the competition in the first qualifying round.

7. Milan is the only city to host two Champions League winning teams – AC Milan and Inter Milan.

8. Moscow is the only city in Russia to host a Champions League Final (Luzhniki Stadium).

9. The Champions League has only three times held a final featuring clubs from one country. (Real Madrid vs Valencia, AC Milan vs Juventus and Manchester United vs Chelsea Champions League final).

10. AEK Athens drew every one of their six group stage games in 2003.

11. Five teams have won the Champions League without losing a single game – Ajax, Manchester United, Barcelona, Liverpool and Inter Milan.

12. Arsenal produced the best defensive effort in the history of the Champions League - 10 games without conceding a goal.

13. PSV Eindhoven, Red Star Belgrade and Steaua Bucuresti all won the Champions League before England returned to the Champions League in 1991.

14. Otmar Hitzfield is the only Champions League manager to win the title with two different teams - Bayern Munich and Dortmund.

15. Marseille was the first French club to win the 1st Champions League (1993).

16. Ruud Van Nisterlooy scored the most goals in a single Champions League season - 12 goals.

17. John Arne Riise was the only player to miss a penalty for Liverpool in the 2005 Champions League Final penalty shoot-out.

18. Mike Newell (Blackburn) holds the record for the fastest hat-trick in a Champions League game (9 minutes).

19. Moscow is the furthest East the Champions League final has ever been played.

20. The Luzhniki Stadium hosted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

21. It is Chelsea’s first appearance at a Champions League Final.

22. No London club has ever won the Champions League.

I am sure there are tons of other Champions League trivia out there. Why not let us know?

BTW - Do you hink Chelsea will be the 1st London Club in Champions League history to win the coveted tournament final?

• 2007/2008 UEFA Champions League Betting Preview
• Champions League Semi-Finals
• Midweek Football - Chelsea & Old Firm Derby
• English Premier League - Chelsea Hot to Trot
• Champions League Preview: Liverpool vs. Chelsea