Man City equal the Champions League record originally set by Man Utd

Manchester City’s 4-0 win over Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday sent Pep Guardiola’s side into the Champions League for the season, after Inter were allowed to play on matchday one.

City have become one of the dominant forces in European football in recent times, lifting the Champions League trophy in 2023 as part of a historic treble for the club.

But this week’s The trip to Slovakia wasn’t just an opening win in the 2024/25 editionit was also a landmark 25th game unbeaten in the competition which spanned two seasons.

Only one other team in the history of the European Cup or the Champions League has achieved this. As luck would have it, they were local rivals Manchester Unitedbetween 2007 and 2009.

In the modern era, clubs play more games, so it is naturally easier to string together long winless runs in a shorter period of time. When Real Madrid won five European Cups in a row, they needed just seven games to be crowned champions, unless a repeat or two adds to that.

But even as five-time winners, Madrid’s would-be unbeaten runs were cut short by the occasional doubleheader defeat, such as against FK Partizan, AC Milan and Rapid Vienna in 1956, Vasas in 1958, Atlético de Madrid. in 1959, and OGC Nice in 1960.

A more recent one Champions League “Three Peats” over the past decade also included the odd loss that ultimately didn’t affect their progress or overall success in the competition.

Manchester City’s last Champions League defeat came in 2022 at the hands of Madrid. City were minutes away from reaching the final until two late goals from Rodrygo leveled the aggregate to force extra-time, before a Karim Benzema penalty sealed a dramatic defeat.

But now it’s two Champions League seasons without a win and counting. City went as far as 2022/23 without defeat, while they managed to keep it up in 2023/24, despite being knocked out by arch-enemies Madrid in the quarter-finals. Both legs of the tie ended in draws and City were eventually eliminated on penalties, which is not considered a loss.

city They have now gone 25 games unbeaten at this level, the same as Sir Alex Ferguson’s third great Manchester United team, the Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez era, 15 years ago.

From a semi-final humiliation in the pouring rain at the San Siro by Kaka and AC Milan in May 2007, United went through the entire 2007/08 European season unbeaten, culminating in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea in the final of 2008 that was decided. to penalties, this time in torrential rain in Moscow.

United returned to the final a year later, going a further 12 games without a win in 2008/09, but then lost to a treble-winning Barcelona side in Rome.

Other notable efforts include Ajax going 20 games unbeaten between 1985 and 1995, obviously not in consecutive seasons. Bayern Munich have twice put together a 19-game unbeaten run almost two decades apart, first from 2001 to 2002 and then again from 2019 to 2021.

For Manchester City, the 26th match is against Sparta Prague at the Etihad Stadium on 23 October. Should they avoid defeat in that one, which seems very likely, the unbeaten record will be theirs alone.

Man Utd and Man City: joint unbeaten Champions League record

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