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The Champions League is the biggest club competition in world football.
It is a competition that has given us so many iconic moments, from Liverpool's instant-classic 3-0 comeback in the 2019 semifinals to the two-minute turnaround of Real Madrid versus Manchester City a few nights back. In the process of giving us these incredible moments, the Champions League also produced some dominant teams.
As this edition's final is approaching on the 28th of May, we decided to turn back the clock and look at some of the best winners in the competition's history.
Most dominant Champions League winners ever
Barcelona in 2010-11
Hailed as one of the best teams ever, this Barcelona squad was beyond amazing. There are no words to describe the pure footballing excellence that this team produced week-in, week-out. It was very similar to their squad that won in 2008-09, and while that team was impressive, there is a huge asterisk on this squad due to the dubious refereeing in the return leg of the semifinals versus Chelsea.
This team, apart from a single incident in the semifinals, was out-and-out dominant in all sections of the Champions League and looked completely unbeatable. Starting with the group stages, Barca won four out of the six games and qualified for the Round of 16 as the first team in their group.
At that stage of the competition awaited Arsenal, who pulled a shocking result at the Emirates, winning 2-1. In the second leg, however, Barcelona easily won, beating the English club 3-1 and 4-3 overall on aggregate. Then came a fairly easy opponent in Shakhtar Donetsk, where a 5-1 win in the first leg made the 1-0 win in the second leg almost irrelevant. Barcelona met Real Madrid in the semis, and while there is a ton of controversy over the red card shown to Pepe in the first leg, it is still an impressive 3-1 victory for Los Cules on aggregate. In the final, Barcelona put together a purely dominating performance over Manchester United, winning 3-1 with goals by Pedro, David Villa and Lionel Messi.
Overall, Barcelo suffered one loss and three draws in 13 Champions League in 2010-11, one of the best showings in event history.
Real Madrid in 2016-17
Due to the fact they won the competition 13 times, there were a lot of Champions League campaigns to choose from for Real Madrid. Out of all of them, the most dominant was most likely the title they won in 2016-17, when they become the first team to win the competition back-to-back.
Of course, they won it one more time after this title, but this campaign was the most dominant by all parameters. However, it did not look promising in the group stages, where Real Madrid combined three wins and three draws to finish second in the group, right behind Borussia Dortmund. Afterward, Real Madrid was just flat-out dominant.
First, it was Napoli in the Round of 16, and two 3-1 wins sealed the deal for Los Blancos. In the quarters, it was an old foe in Bayern Munich standing in their way. This was probably the most controversial part of Real Madrid's campaign, as Bayern did win 2-1 in the second leg, erasing a 2-1 win the defending champions had earned in Munich. However, three goals, two of them coming from offside positions, helped Madrid advance. Real met local rivals Atletico Madrid in the semis, with Ronaldo scoring a first-leg hat-trick and Karim Benzema providing some magic in the second leg to lead his team to a 4-2 win on aggregate.
In the final, Juventus was no match and Real Madrid won 4-1, sealing their second straight Champions League title and 12th overall in their history.
Liverpool in 2018-19
There are likely better candidates in terms of pure dominance, but this Liverpool team was incredible and deserves a place on this list.
Coming back from a season where they were two Loris Karius mistakes away from holding the Champions League trophy, the Reds were fantastic in the knockout stages, recording just one draw and one loss. In the group stages, it was fairly different, with the six-time winners suffering a stunning defeat to Red Star Belgrade and also dropping points versus PSG and Napoli. Yet, when it came to the biggest part of the competition, Liverpool were ready.
First, it was Bayern Munich in the Round of 16. After a boring 0-0 draw, Liverpool won the second leg in Munich 3-1. Liverpool made easy work of Porto in the quarter, winning 6-1 on aggregate. In the semis, we witnessed a magnificent comeback by Liverpool. Down 3-0 from the first leg versus Barcelona, the Reds won 4-0, including the now world-famous “corner taken quickly” by Trent Alexander Arnold, who found Divock Origi for the fourth goal and a complete comeback. In the Champions League final, Liverpool faced Tottenham Hotspur and got an easy 2-0 win to win their sixth title, tied for the third-most with Bayern Munich.
