How many times have Liverpool won the Champions League?
The Anfield Road side are back in another Champions League final as they face Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Paris.
No club can hold a candle to Spanish giants Real Madrid when it comes to European Cup/Champions League wins with ‘Los Blancos’ lifting the famous trophy an incredible 13 times.
The LaLiga side will be looking to add to that tally on Saturday night at Paris’ Stade de France in the 2022 UEFA Champions League final when they face Premier League side Liverpool FC.
The Anfield side are no strangers to lifting European club football’s biggest prize with the ‘Reds’ winning the competition six times and a seventh win on Saturday in Paris would see Jurgen Klopp’s men draw level with AC Milan who have also won the competition on seven occasions.
70s heyday
The second half of the 1970s and the early 80s was a purple patch for English teams in the European Cup with six sides winning the competition in succession with three Liverpool wins (1977, 1978 and 1981). Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest lifted the trophy in 1979 and 1980 with Aston Villa the winners in 1982.
In securing that hat-trick of wins, the ‘Reds’ overcame Borussia Monchengladbach, Club Brugge and this year’s opponents Real Madrid with that 1981 final also taking place in the French capital.
Liverpool secured their fourth European Cup in 1984 when the edged out AS Roma after a penalty shoot-out at the Stadio Olimpico in the Italian capital.
Lean period
The ‘Reds’ did advance to two European Cup finals in 1985 and then again in 2007 (with the competition now called the Champions League) and on both occasions stumbled against Italian opposition, losing to Juventus in ‘85 with the game overshadowed by tragedy in the stands when 39 Juventus fans died in Brussels and falling to Milan in Athens.
The Road to Istanbul
Liverpool’s fifth glory game in dramatic fashion as they played AC Milan in Istanbul’s Attaturk Stadium. Highly fancied Milan were 3–0 before the interval and in the second half Liverpool launched a comeback to bag three goals in a dramatic six-minute spell to level the scores at 3–3, with goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladimír Šmicer and Xabi Alonso. The scores remained the same during extra time, and a penalty shoot-out was required to decide the winners. The score was 3–2 to Liverpool when Andriy Shevchenko’s penalty was saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek and the ‘Reds’ bagged title number five.
Back-to back finals
Under German coach Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have become the footballing powerhouse they were back in the glory days under the likes of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan and are now no stranger to taking their place at the top table of European football. The Anfield side reached the 2018 final (in Kyiv) and were outplayed on the night by Real Madrid with Gareth Bale bagging one of the finest goals ever to grace a UCL final as part of a 3-1 win for the Spanish side.
‘Reds’ fans only had a year to wait as they graced the 2019 final staged at the Wanda Metropolitano in the Spanish capital and were too strong for a Tottenham side in a final that failed to impress the neutrals after an early Mo Salah penalty saw Liverpool stake a claim for title number six with a 2-0 win.