When one is asked about the greatest love stories of all time, you’re almost guaranteed to say Romeo and Juliet or Cleopatra and Mark Antony. But, Spanish giants Real Madrid and the UEFA Champions League trophy is another great love story that seems to have no end.
They have won Europe’s most prestigious trophy a staggering fifteen times. This means they hold the record for the most titles with second place AC Milan more than halfway behind with 7 trophies. That record is however not the only record they own in the competition as they also rank first in wins, appearances and goals scored.
Real Madrid have had some of the best players of all time play for them in the UCL, Zinedine Zidane Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, all these have at a point been part of a UCL win for the club. Cristiano Ronaldo in particular was the spearhead for an attack that won the competition three years consecutively between 2016 and 2018. Some of the greatest goals in UCL history have also come from the boot of a Madrid player, Zidane’s sumptuous volley against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 final and an overhead kick from Cristiano Ronaldo against Juventus in 2018 the most notable examples.
They’ve won the competition at least once in every decade but two since the competition’s inception in 1955. They went on a thirty year dry spell between 1966 and 1996 before conquering Europe once again in the 1997/98 season winning their 7th trophy and two more in the 1999/2000 and 2001/2002 seasons to reach 9.
The coveted tenth trophy would not come until the 2013/14 season, suffering embarrassing round of 16 eliminations and agonizing Semi Final defeats along the way. One of such semi final defeats came in the 2011/12 season, bowing out of the competition after losing a penalty shootout against Bayern Munich in which Kaka, Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo missed their spot kicks. That elimination is thought to have awoken the never say die attitude we see in the club in recent times, that Madrid team is considered the best team to have never won the competition.
The following season, they would be eliminated by Bayern’s rivals Dortmund again in the Semi Final, losing the tie 4-3 on aggregate, unable to complete a comeback after getting stunned by a 4-1 loss in the first leg. They would finally gain redemption in the 13/14 season, beating crosstown rivals Atletico Madrid in the final but that win almost didn’t happen that night as they were a goal down until the very last minute. They would finally get the equalizer in the 92nd minute through club captain Sergio Ramos and go on to win the match 4-1 in extra time.
They have not looked back since that famous victory as they have gone on to win 5 more ucl trophies in the next 11 years since that season, and even those five have not come easy.
Madrid have had to suffer to keep their reputation as the patriarchs of the UCL alive, famous comebacks against Wolfsburg in the 15/16 season and in literally all of their knockout matches in the 21/22 season are testament to the undying spirit that they possess. They were very much dead and buried against Manchester City in the Semi Final in that season but they seemed to find another gear, another level that propelled them to success, after losing the first leg 4-3, some of the players could still be seen smiling as they knew that until the tie was done, they still had a chance. That elite level mentality that they possess is just as important as their footballing abilities as a team and in the second leg, despite going a goal down and having the aggregate score at 5-3, that mentality kicked in and they scored twice in the game’s dying embers to level the tie and go on to complete the comeback in extra time to set up a final with Liverpool.
The final truly showed how resilient Madrid is as Thibaut Courtois stopped chance after chance that Liverpool created and Madrid managed to create and actually score one of their own, showing why they are known as one of and if not the most clinical team in football history.
They would also go on to win the UCL again in the 23/24 season thanks to the heroics of Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior. In a season where they were largely overlooked as favourites after star striker Karim Benzema had left for Saudi Club Al-Ittihad, Madrid managed to find a near perfect balance of attack and defense alongside their famous mentality to once again become Champions of Europe, beating Dortmund 2-0 in the final.
In this 25/26 season, they are in a transitional period. After the embarrassment that was the previous season where they lost 4 out of 4 clasicos, got eliminated by Arsenal in the quarter finals of their favourite competition by an aggregate score of 5-1 and lost 4-0 to PSG in the Club World Cup semi finals, it’s a new dawn with a new coach at the helm, Xabi Alonso, and he is trying with each match to reshape the ideas of how the club should play and win matches. They’ve gotten off to a fine start this season as they sit at the top of La Liga and second in the UCL group phase but concerns still remain about their ability to win big games, concerns that a 5-2 drubbing at the hands of Derby rivals Atletico did little to
quell.
It remains to be seen if Xabi Alonso can lead them to the promised land in his first full season but the Club’s hierarchy as well as its fanbase will certainly be expecting him to, to drown away the memories of that poor 24/25 season. He of course has some of the best players in the world at his disposal in Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham and it is believed that he can and will bring the UCL back to the Santiago Bernabeu at some point.
