What makes the Champions League the most coveted prize in football?
There’s something about the famous Champions League anthem that makes the hair on the back of your neck rise. Those choral, angelic voices are the signals of elite football, while the TV camera pans along the line of world class footballers ready to perform on the biggest stage club football has to offer.
The Champions League, or European Cup as it was formerly called, has always held a special allure, from the days of Alfredo Di Stéfano and Real Madrid’s dominance in the 1950s, to the great Barcelona team managed by Pep Guardiola – marshalled by Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, fronted by Lionel Messi.
The history of the competition is one of great teams and great players, memorable matches and drama upon drama. Last season’s semi-finals offered all of this in abundance – Liverpool’s remarkable 4-0 win over Barcelona having trailed 3-0 from the first leg, and Tottenham Hotspur’s last gasp winner in Amsterdam to deny Ajax a place in the final. In those two second leg semi-final ties, all that is great and glorious about the Champions League was there for all to see, for football fans to bask in.
The appeal of the Champions League is born of the elite nature of the competition. It is 32 of Europe’s top clubs coming together to do battle, the hard-hitting heavyweights who have won the tournament many times before, and the lesser clubs hoping to upset UEFA Champions League odds and forge their own path towards greatness.
The chance of seeing an upset is one of the reasons the Champions League is so dramatic. Last season, Ajax knocked out Real Madrid, who had won the tournament three consecutive times in as many seasons. And who can forget Liverpool’s incredible triumph in 2005, having knocked out the likes of Juventus and Chelsea, before coming from 3-0 down to beat A.C. Milan on penalties in the final. Such moments are what enshrine the Champions League as football’s finest entertainment.
And then, many times it is the sheer brilliance of a team that impresses most in the Champions League. Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, who picked up the title in 2009 and 2011, were such a side. The inspirational, maverick figure of Carles Puyol at the back, the metronomic influence of Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta, the flair of Messi, the cutting edge brought by David Villa – it was one of the great European club sides, one that we will all continue to look back on with astonishment as the years go by.
The same could possibly be said of Real Madrid, who have won four of the last six Champions Leagues. While their domestic form may have fluctuated in that time, Madrid found the winning formula in Europe, to the point that their progression to the final seemed nothing short of a formality. Cristiano Ronaldo was the heartbeat of the side, able to conjure a moment of magic seemingly out of nothing. Without doubt, the Spanish side missed his enigmatic presence last season.
For supporters, much of the magic of the Champions League is how it builds slowly all season towards its final crescendo. The group stages pass by with the occasional shock or cracking match, and then the competition truly comes into its own in the knockout stages, gathering pace like a snowball rolling down a mountain, culminating in the clash of giants in the final.
The nature of the Champions League is that those teams that reach the final do so not by luck or mere fortune. Only the most deserving sides reach the tournament’s showpiece, those who have beat the rest to get there. The team that ultimately win become a champion in the truest sense.
