Goodbye to the UEFA Champions League Group Stage “Forever”

This week marked the end of this season’s UEFA Champions League group stage. But if you have been following the latest around the Champions League, you will know that next year’s Champions League (2024-25) will be played under a new format. A format that will see 36 clubs participating in the tournament and a completely different group-stage action leading into the knockouts. We bid farewell to the famous group stages (8 groups with 4 teams in each group featuring home and away matches with the top 2 from each group qualifying for the knockouts and the third best team of each group getting a ticket to the UEFA Europa League) of UEFA Champions League which was there since 2003-04 season.

Today, we look at numbers from the previous 21 seasons of UEFA Champions League’s group stages spanning from the 2003-04 season till the current 2023-24 season. Who has been the group stage top scorer of all time? Is it Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi? Who has recorded the most significant win? Which team has scored the highest, and which has scored the least? Which team has entered knockouts with the fewest group stage points? We bring to you all the data in this article.

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Most Appearances in Champions League groups (2003-04 to 2023-24)

The only club that has taken part in all the Champions League campaigns is Real Madrid. The Spanish Giants have won the title five times in this current format. This level of consistency boasts of the club’s elite-level status in world football, and for that reason, they are called the Kings of Europe each time they step foot on the field.

Barcelona and Bayern Munich are just behind Real Madrid on the number of appearances in the Champions League campaign, as both these clubs have missed only one campaign out of 21. The Spaniards missed the campaign in 2003-04, while the Germans missed out on Champions League action in 2007-08. An interesting fact to note is that the 2003-04 campaign was the one before Lionel Messi’s Barcelona debut.

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Top Scoring Clubs Champions League 2003-04 Onwards

A total of 4 clubs have crossed the 200 goals landmark in the group stages of the Champions League in this current format. Real Madrid are the leaders and the first club ever to have crossed the 300-goal mark this week in their 3-2 away win against Union Berlin. Real Madrid will hold this unique record as the group stages format has taken its last breath.

Porto stands at 7th with 176 goals in the group stages and is the only club outside Europe’s big five leagues with the most goals. Under Jose Mourinho, Porto famously won the 2003-04 campaign, which was also the first season under this current format. Will they rewrite history by winning a Champions League Final with the new format introduced next season? It will be intriguing to watch that unfold, so get in line with your Champions League Final tickets.

The two clubs from Manchester, England’s biggest football rivals, rank above one another. Manchester City recently overtook Manchester United’s 175 group stage goals as they struck past 3 goals against Crvena Zvezda to take their tally to 176 goals. It is worth noting that the dominance of Manchester City is quite evident from these stats because they have overtaken their neighbors after having played 4 fewer seasons in this current group-stage Champions League format.

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Most Successful Clubs in terms of No. of Wins

When you talk about the maximum number of wins by a club in the Champions League group stage, it is Bayern Munich. The German giants have kept this record to their name and kept Real Madrid from leading another Champions League chart.

Regarding Premier League Clubs, Chelsea led the line by securing 66 wins under the reign of 12 different managers from 2003-04 to 2023-24.

Bayern Munich’s feat of most wins has gotten the boost by maintaining a perfect six-win group stage on three occasions. It has become quite common recently that top seeds win all six games, but it wasn’t that easy before. During the first 11 seasons of this current format, only once a team won all their group stage matches, a feat achieved by Real Madrid 2011-12. However, in the next nine seasons, six teams have accomplished this feat, and in the 2023-24 season, Manchester City and Real Madrid have won their 6 matches. Maybe next season will add a different flavor in this sense.

Bayern in their treble-winning season of 2019-20, is the only team who have gone on to win the competition. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Manchester City and Real Madrid, with both being the favorites to win the Champions League.

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Top Goal Scorers

Top Goal Scorers! Without a doubt, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the two names that pop up. With 80 goals, Messi is leading Ronaldo’s 73 goals in the group stages of the current Champions League format. Lionel Messi completed his 80 goals with two teams; he scored 71 goals for Barcelona, and nine of them came for Paris Saint-Germain, while Cristiano Ronaldo scored 55 goals playing for Real Madrid, 11 goals for Manchester United, and the remaining seven goals playing for Juventus.

From the top 10 scorers list, only Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski plays in the current Champions League season and has scored one goal against Royal Antwerp in this year’s group stage.

Finally, talking about the most significant win recorded in the group stage came when Liverpool beat Turkish side Besiktas by a score of 8-0 in 2007 and when Real Madrid scored a similar scoreline against Swedish club Malmo in 2015.

Yossi Benayoun was the star performer for Liverpool for his hat-trick, and Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema scored trebles for their side while handing out a massive defeat to Swedish side Malmo. This was Cristiano’s fourth and last hat-trick in the group stages; however, he did go on to score 4 in the knockout stages.

These were all the latest numbers from the current format seasons of the Champions League. New records will be written from next season under a new format.