Real Madrid and AC Milan: The incredible numbers behind two European superpowers

Real Madrid and AC Milan, who play each other tonight at the Bernabeu, are the two most successful clubs in the history of the European Cup/Champions League.

Between them, they have won the competition 22 out of the 69 times it has been completed (32 per cent) and more than 40 per cent of the finals (28) have involved at least one of them. They are the only two teams to have retained the trophy since 1980 and, unsurprisingly, between them have provided some of the best players, most iconic moments and compelling storylines in the tournament’s history.

Yet the club from the Spanish capital have still won the competition more than twice as many times as the Italian side (15 to seven), with six of those 15 coming since Milan’s most recent triumph in 2007.

It wasn’t always this way, though. At one point in the mid-1990s, Milan were just one win behind Madrid — but those days are now long gone.

Before Tuesday’s match, The Athletic takes a look at the history and the numbers surrounding both clubs in the European Cup/Champions League and explains how their fortunes in the competition, which was rebranded with the latter name in 1992-93, have evolved and diverged over the almost seven decades it has been played…

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How their records compare to other clubs

Firstly, here are all the winners of the European Cup/Champions League — a competition which started in the 1955-56 season and has been held annually since.

These are the 15 times Madrid have won the trophy. The Spanish club have only lost in the final on three occasions and the most recent of those was in 1981, meaning they have won the trophy the last nine times they have played for it.

And here are the seven times Milan have been crowned kings of Europe.

Madrid’s run of five consecutive wins, from 1956 to 1960, is the only time a club have been champions more than three times in a row, with Francisco Gento, Alfredo Di Stefano and Jose Maria Zarraga the only players to feature in the final in all five of those seasons.

The Spanish side had to wait 32 years, from 1966 to 1998, before adding their seventh title, which is the second-longest gap between victories in the competition’s history. Milan won the trophy four times in that period, but did suffer a 20-year drought of their own from 1969 to 1989.

Below is a race chart showing when Madrid and Milan have each won the trophy.

Madrid went five clear in the first five seasons of the tournament (which included beating Milan in the 1958 final) but their drought from 1966 to the late 1990s allowed Milan to close to just one behind when they secured their fifth title in 1994. That is the only time in the history of the European Cup/Champions League any club have been within one of Madrid’s number of titles (obviously excluding the first two seasons of the competition) and lasted until 1998, when Madrid won for a seventh time.

As you can see, the Spaniards have burst clear again of late and now have an eight-title lead over Milan. In the competition’s history, Madrid have had distinct periods where they have triumphed several times, with the most recent of these seeing them lift the trophy in six of the past 11 seasons. No other club has won it more than once in this time.

And here is a race chart showing all the clubs to have won the competition — and when.

Both clubs competed in the inaugural European Cup, with eventual winners Madrid knocking Milan out in a two-legged semi-final in the spring of 1956.

Milan failed to qualify for the competition the following season, while the first time Madrid missed out was in 1970-71. The Italian side also didn’t compete in it that season, making it the first edition without either club involved.

The most recent campaign without them both was 1991–92 (its last playing before the competition was renamed the Champions League) — Madrid competed in the UEFA Cup (today’s Europa League) after finishing third in La Liga in 1991 while Milan were banned from Europe for that season after refusing to complete their 1990-91 European Cup quarter-final against Marseille following floodlight failure during the second leg in France.

Overall, Madrid have competed in the European Cup/Champions League 23 more times than Milan (55 to 32). Madrid have won the competition in 27 per cent of the seasons they have played in it (15 of 55), and with Milan it’s 22 per cent (seven of 32).

The most recent season Madrid weren’t in the tournament was 1996-97 and their 28 campaigns in a row since then is the longest unbroken run by any club. Milan, meanwhile, are in the Champions League for a fourth consecutive season — having not qualified from 2014-15 to 2020-21.

The most consecutive seasons Milan have featured in the competition is six (2002-03 to 2007-08).

Madrid’s longest time out of the tournament was the five seasons they missed from 1981-82 to 1985-86; for Milan, it is nine (1970-71 to 1978-79).

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The players who have legendary status at Madrid and Milan

Here are the 10 players to have made the most appearances in the competition for Madrid.

All of these men appeared for Madrid in the tournament’s Champions League-era, which is unsurprising given the number of games in it per season has increased over the years.

Luka Modric, who has played in three Champions League matches this season, will be hoping to have just Casillas ahead of him on this list by next summer. The Croatian, 39, has won the competition a joint-record six times — alongside Gento, current team-mate Dani Carvajal and former colleagues Toni Kroos and Nacho. Modric, Carvajal and Gento are the only three men to actually appear in the final in all six of their triumphs.

The players to have won the competition the most times while never playing for Madrid are Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, who both did so five times for Milan.

Here are the 10 Milan players to have played the most games in the European Cup/Champions League.

Maldini’s 128 European Cup/Champions League matches included eight finals. This is a record shared with Gento (the Spaniard played 89 times in the competition overall, so nine per cent of his European Cup games were in the final).

Next, we have the top 10 goalscorers for Madrid in the competition.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s 105 goals came in just 101 games. Only Lionel Messi (120 for Barcelona) has scored more for a single club in the European Cup/Champions League.

Di Stefano’s total of 49, scored between October 1955 and May 1964, was the highest number of goals scored by one player in the European Cup-era of the competition. Meanwhile, seven of Puskas’ 35 goals came in the final of the competition (he got four in the 1960 decider and three two years later). The Hungarian is the only player to score two hat-tricks in a final of the competition.

His hat-trick in 1962, against Benfica, is one of three instances of a player scoring more than once in the final and ending up on the losing side. The others are Erwin Stein, for Eintracht Frankfurt against Madrid in 1960, and Hernan Crespo, for Milan in 2005 against Liverpool (both two goals).

That 1962 match saw Madrid lose 5-3. There have been 62 finals in the competition since then, and in only one of them have the losing team scored more than once — Milan, when Liverpool beat them on penalties after a 3-3 draw in 2005.

Here are the 10 players who have scored the most goals for Milan in the competition.

Three of Pierino Prati’s eight came in the 1969 final against Ajax, in what is the most recent instance of a player scoring a hat-trick in the competition’s deciding game. All four have been achieved by either Madrid or Milan players:

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The game at the Bernabeu tonight will be the 16th time these two clubs have faced each other in the competition, with only three match-ups occurring more often.

Here are those previous 15 matches — with six wins each and three draws, the two sides have an equal record in the fixture. They have met in the final only once — in 1958, when Madrid triumphed 3-2 after extra time — and last met in the knockout stage of the competition in 1989-90.

Neither club have had regular success in their domestic league in the seasons where they have won the European Cup/Champions League.

Madrid have won La Liga in five of the 15 seasons in which they have gone on to be crowned European champions (1956-57, 1957-58, 2016-17, 2021-22 and 2023-24) and Milan have done the same in Serie A on just one of the seven occasions when they won the continent’s premier club tournament (1993-94).

Fourteen players have represented both teams in the competition, beginning with Christian Panucci — he made his Champions League debut for Milan in October 1993 and did the same for Madrid in September 1997. He went on to lift the trophy in both those seasons. Clarence Seedorf and Fernando Redondo are the only other men to win the European Cup/Champions League with both clubs. Seedorf did so with Madrid in 1998 and then Milan in 2003 and 2007 and Redondo won it with Madrid in 1998 and 2000 and Milan in 2003.

Luis Carniglia, Fabio Capello and Carlo Ancelotti are the only managers to have taken charge of both clubs in the competition.

Carniglia managed Madrid to victory in 1958 (beating Milan in the final in the former) and 1959 before taking charge of the Italian club in the summer of 1963. The Argentinian was sacked towards the end of his debut season, shortly after Milan lost in the European Cup in the quarter-finals to… Madrid. He is one of just two non-European managers to win the competition, with his countryman Helenio Herrera the other (Inter Milan in 1964 and 1965).

Capello didn’t replicate his 1994 triumph with Milan while managing the Spanish giants — in his first spell at the Bernabeu, for the 1996-97 season, Madrid weren’t in the competition, and then in his second stint (2006-07), they were knocked out in the last 16 by Bayern Munich.

Ancelotti has won the competition five times as a coach — twice with Milan (2003 and 2007) and three times at Madrid (2014, 2022 and 2024). He is the only manager to win the competition more than twice at two different clubs. The Italian also won it twice as a player, with Milan in 1989 and 1990.

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The match tonight surely won’t be the last time Madrid and Milan meet in the competition, and with the Italian side now a stronger outfit than in recent years and qualifying for it again more regularly, they will be hoping to add to their seven European titles in the near future.

Madrid’s huge lead at the top is unlikely to be bridged at any point soon, but as we have seen, they tend to win the competition in bursts.

If they should stagnate again and Milan keep improving then, who knows, maybe their lead might slowly start being eroded…

(Top photos: Getty Images/Design: Dan Goldfarb)