The Spanish LaLiga Santander teams have not lost a Champions League or Europa League final since the 2000-2001 season
MADRID, 4 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid was proclaimed champion of the Champions League barely a week ago against Liverpool in the final in Paris, the fourteenth Champions League for the white club, which already has twice as many ‘Orejonas’ as Milan, the second team with the most times has raised this trophy; a title that also certifies not only the dominance of Spanish football in European competitions in the 21st century, but also its near infallibility in finals.
Spanish football thus continues to enhance a cycle that does not seem to end, despite the slump and lack of competitiveness of which it has been accused in recent years, and in which Real Madrid’s records stand out, with three consecutive Champions Leagues (2016, 2017 and 2018) or Sevilla’s three Europa League trophies in a row (2014, 2015 and 2016).
In addition, the recent Champions League won by the white team was the eleventh time in this century for a Spanish team, that is, 50 percent of those played, a figure similar to what happens in the UEFA Cup/ Europa League, as Villarreal’s title last year is also the 11th for a LaLiga Santander club since 2001.
And it is that, the Spanish teams have won a total of 33 European titles of the 66 that have been played so far this century, the same as the rest of the leagues together. The Premier has thirteen trophies, the Serie A and the Bundesliga have won six, the Portuguese League has three trophies to its credit, teams from the Netherlands have only won one title, while Ligue 1 still hasn’t released its UEFA competition locker.
Up to six different clubs have lifted European titles in this 21st century, with Real Madrid as the most successful with 10 trophies, followed by FC Barcelona and Sevilla with seven, Atlético with six, Valencia with two and Villarreal with one . In addition, three other Spanish clubs -Alavés, Espanyol and Athletic- have chosen to lift one of those 66 titles played in the last 22 years, while in these 22 years there have been ten finals between Spanish teams, for five starring the Premier League .
Similarly, Real Madrid’s triumph in Saint-Denis was the 17th time that a LaLiga team had beaten a team from another competition in a European final. Thus, since Valencia’s defeats in 2001 in the Champions League against Bayern and Alavés against Liverpool in the former UEFA Cup, the only defeats in these two competitions by a national team have been with another Spanish club.
Real Madrid, with their victory in Paris, will play the European Super Cup in Helsinki in August against Eintracht, opting for their fourth title in 2022, the 34th European title for LaLiga Santander clubs in the 21st century. It will be the sixteenth participation of a Spanish team in this competition in the last 22 years; in the previous 15, 12 ended with a victory for Spanish football.
An undeniable submission of Spanish teams that also moves to the Club World Cup, a competition that accredits you as the best club of the year in the world and that Real Madrid has lifted four times, for the three times that Barça has won it. After not being in the final of the 2000 edition, when the competition returned in 2005, only FC Barcelona, in 2006 against the Brazilian Sao Paulo, lost the final. Thus, this record of seven trophies conquered is followed, by far, by English football, with three titles, and the Bundesliga and Serie A, both with two.
In addition, in women’s football at club level, Spain is beginning to be a power in Europe, with FC Barcelona as the great hope to be among the best teams of the present and future. The Catalan club has played three finals in the last four years, lifting the trophy once (2021). Even so, dominance over this competition, whose first edition was held in the 2001-02 season, is still exercised by Germany with a total of nine titles divided between FFC Frankfurt (4), Turbine Potsdam (2), Wolfsburg ( 2) and MSV Duisburg (1).
This dominance at the club level is also carried over to the FIFA and UEFA national team competitions. Only Spain has repeated victory in the European Championship in this 21st century, with two titles (2008 and 2012), a superiority that is amplified with the 2010 World Cup, to complete a series of three consecutive titles for the national team, of the 11 that were they have played until now and since 2000. France (Euro 2000 and World Cup 2018) and Italy (World Cup 2006 and Euro 2020) are the other teams capable of having repeated.