Toughest routes to the CL Final?

esmufc07

Brad
Joined
Aug 7, 2007
Messages
50,291
Was just thinking that if Madrid do beat Bayern, their route will have been;

Group - Spurs, Dortmund, APOEL
Last 16 - PSG
QF - Juventus
SF - Bayern
Final - ROMA

Which is pretty fecking tough. Certainly one of the toughest I can remember in recent years, though I'm probably forgetting a fairly obvious one.

United in '99 was also pretty tough.

Group - Barcelona, Bayern, Brondby
QF - Inter
SF - Juventus
Final - Bayern

Any others?
 
Madrid’s was tough last season too. Napoli, Bayern, Atletico, Juventus.

Barcelona 2015 played champions in every round too I think.
 
JamesB__ said:
Madrid’s was tough last season too. Napoli, Bayern, Atletico, Juventus.

Barcelona 2015 played champions in every round too I think.
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Aye. It probably happens more often than we/I realise.

Rubbish thread
 
08 was pretty tough simply because we had to see off both Barcelona & Chelsea
 
esmufc07 said:
Was just thinking that if Madrid do beat Bayern, their route will have been;

Group - Spurs, Dortmund, APOEL
Last 16 - PSG
QF - Juventus
SF - Bayern
Final - ROMA

Which is pretty fecking tough. Certainly one of the toughest I can remember in recent years, though I'm probably forgetting a fairly obvious one.

United in '99 was also pretty tough.

Group - Barcelona, Bayern, Brondby
QF - Inter
SF - Juventus
Final - Bayern

Any others?
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:lol:
 
bayern in 2000-2001 was pretty tough. They had the two group stage format then, bayern landed PSG in the first group stage, Arsenal in the second group stage and topped both. Then they beat us in the quarters, real madrid in the semis and valencias greatest ever side in the final.
 
It's interesting to look at the two occasions Mourinho won the CL because while he's often hailed for winning it with Porto in 04 due to their underdog status, his route to winning it in 09-10 was actually far more difficult.

In 04, he came up against one of (if not the) weakest United teams of the PL era, and barely managed to scrape past them. He then saw off Lyon (admittedly very good at the time, but hardly the best side around) in the quarters, and got a relatively easy run to the trophy from thereon coming up against Deportivo in the semis and Monaco in the final.

By contrast, he had to overcome a high-scoring Chelsea side that eventually won the double in 09-10, got a relatively easy quarter-final, but then had to see off defending champions and one of the strongest club sides we've seen in Barca in the semis, before coming up against potential treble winners Bayern in the final. To overcome all three was incredibly impressive.
 
Arbitrium said:
bayern in 2000-2001 was pretty tough. They had the two group stage format then, bayern landed PSG in the first group stage, Arsenal in the second group stage and topped both. Then they beat us in the quarters, real madrid in the semis and valencias greatest ever side in the final.
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Weren't PSG a bit crap back then though?
 
esmufc07 said:
Aye. It probably happens more often than we/I realise.

Rubbish thread
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It doesnt, i went back as far as 95-96 and there are a lot of (on paper) relatively easy routes to the final.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
Liverpool 77

Crusaders
Trabonzapor
St-Ethiene
FC Zurich
Borussia Monchengladbach
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Not trying to defend Liverpool and their 4 terrible not so great European cups. But Monchengladbach were dominating Germany in the 70s.

St-Ethiene also were the best Frence team at the time.
 
Cheesy said:
It's interesting to look at the two occasions Mourinho won the CL because while he's often hailed for winning it with Porto in 04 due to their underdog status, his route to winning it in 09-10 was actually far more difficult.

In 04, he came up against one of (if not the) weakest United teams of the PL era, and barely managed to scrape past them. He then saw off Lyon (admittedly very good at the time, but hardly the best side around) in the quarters, and got a relatively easy run to the trophy from thereon coming up against Deportivo in the semis and Monaco in the final.

By contrast, he had to overcome a high-scoring Chelsea side that eventually won the double in 09-10, got a relatively easy quarter-final, but then had to see off defending champions and one of the strongest club sides we've seen in Barca in the semis, before coming up against potential treble winners Bayern in the final. To overcome all three was incredibly impressive.
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Tbf that version of Bayern wasn't that good - we should've seen them off in the QF. They scraped past Fiorentina on away goals, us on away goals & got Lyon in the SF. Inter were comfortably better than them.

Only Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Robben & Muller survived that final till their next final in 2012.
 
Arbitrium said:
bayern in 2000-2001 was pretty tough. They had the two group stage format then, bayern landed PSG in the first group stage, Arsenal in the second group stage and topped both. Then they beat us in the quarters, real madrid in the semis and valencias greatest ever side in the final.
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Craziest thing is that team wasn't even particularly talented.

All in all, it's hard to say because names often don't tell the whole picture. Take barcelona in 14/15. City-PSG-Bayern-Juve. On paper incredibly tough but in reality? City were missing Yaya and were in poor form, PSG was missing Zlatan, Verratti and Thiago Silva in the first leg and Bayern had half the team injured and the other half playing through injury. Even Juventus had Pogba in poor form(just came back from long injury layoff) and were missing Chiellini

In other words: Roma-Wolfsburg-City was the true hardest route to the final
 
Ac Milan in 02-03

They came through the qualifiers, topped the first group stage with a strong deportivo side and recent CL winners Bayern.

Then they topped the second group stage which contained Real Madrid and Dortmund.

They beat Ajax in the quarters, rivals Inter in the semis and Juventus in the final.

I think this wins for me.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
Liverpool 77

Crusaders
Trabonzapor
St-Ethiene
FC Zurich
Borussia Monchengladbach
Click to expand...

I think their ‘78 route to the final was tougher.

Bye
Dynamo Dresden
Benfica
SF:Borussia Monchenglabach
Final:Club Brugge

Barca in ‘15, played PSG in the group stage, then City, PSG, Bayern in the knock out rounds, Juventus in the final. On paper that looks incredibly tough.

United in ‘99 had a tough group & knock out phase.
 
giorno said:
Craziest thing is that team wasn't even particularly talented.

All in all, it's hard to say because names often don't tell the whole picture. Take barcelona in 14/15. City-PSG-Bayern-Juve. On paper incredibly tough but in reality? City were missing Yaya and were in poor form, PSG was missing Zlatan, Verratti and Thiago Silva in the first leg and Bayern had half the team injured and the other half playing through injury. Even Juventus had Pogba in poor form(just came back from long injury layoff) and were missing Chiellini

In other words: Roma-Wolfsburg-City was the true hardest route to the final
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:lol::lol: That was a fecking disgrace of a route but well you had your fair share of bad draw luck in other years.
 
http://clubelo.com/ is a great site imo

Inter, Juventus and Bayern were 3rd, 4th and 2nd in ELO at the time Utd played them in '99 so it's up there as the hardest routes
 
Trizy said:
Not trying to defend Liverpool and their 4 terrible not so great European cups. But Monchengladbach were dominating Germany in the 70s.

St-Ethiene also were the best Frence team at the time.
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No they were not. True - they won the League 3 years in a row in 1973/74, 74/75 and 75/76 - but after that they deteriorated quickly and ended 5th (beaten by 13 Points - which was a lot in the old 2 Points pr win-system). So yes they were the best team the season before, but they were far away from being best at the time when Liverpool played them.

Borussia W was the best team in Germany - that is correct. They had 3 really good players in Jupp Heynckes, Berti Vogts and the dane Allan Simonsen. But it was really tight and they won by 1 Point to Braunschweig and Schalke
 
Ours in 2012 was pretty difficult, by no means the toughest, but the teams we faced were at the peak of their powers.

Valencia and Leverkuson in the group stage, then Napoli, Benfica, Barca and then Bayern in the final, and Bayern had home advantage too.
 
giorno said:
Craziest thing is that team wasn't even particularly talented.

All in all, it's hard to say because names often don't tell the whole picture. Take barcelona in 14/15. City-PSG-Bayern-Juve. On paper incredibly tough but in reality? City were missing Yaya and were in poor form, PSG was missing Zlatan, Verratti and Thiago Silva in the first leg and Bayern had half the team injured and the other half playing through injury. Even Juventus had Pogba in poor form(just came back from long injury layoff) and were missing Chiellini

In other words: Roma-Wolfsburg-City was the true hardest route to the final
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Still disgusted by that and you guys almost blew it against Wolfsburg!
 
Arbitrium said:
Ac Milan in 02-03

They came through the qualifiers, topped the first group stage with a strong deportivo side and recent CL winners Bayern.

Then they topped the second group stage which contained Real Madrid and Dortmund.

They beat Ajax in the quarters, rivals Inter in the semis and Juventus in the final.

I think this wins for me.
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Final atbold trafford was worst game of all time
 
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