5 trends for the last 8 Champions League teams

 

With this season’s 2012-13 Champions League entering the business end of the competition, there are five interesting trends to bear in mind when betting on the last 8 teams (which include five previous winners of the competition).

 

1. Don’t expect a new winner

 

Only three teams have won the Champions League since it was re-formatted from the European Cup in 1992 that didn’t win it in it’s previous incarnation – Marseille in 1993, Borussia Dortmund in 1997, and most recently Chelsea in 2012. As it stands, five of the eight quarter-finalists in this year’s competition have tasted Champions League success before:

 

 Real Madrid

 Bayern Munich

 Barcelona

 Juventus

 Borussia Dortmund

 

Of the teams left, PSG haven’t reached the semi-finals since 1995, while a French team haven’t won the Champions League since its inception in 1993.

 

Malaga are appearing in their first ever Champions League and may lack the experience and quality to win it. While Galatasaray have only progressed past this stage when the Champions League was the European Cup, reaching the semi-finals in 1989. A Turkish side is yet to win the competition.

 

2. Single nation finals are rare

 

There are three Spanish sides and two German sides left in the competition, meaning there is a possibility of an all-Spanish or all-German final. But only on three occasions has there been a final involving two teams from one country:

 

 2000 – Real Madrid vs Valencia

 2003 – AC Milan vs Juventus

 2008 – Man Utd vs Chelsea

 

3. Successful managers bring success

 

Four of the last six managers to win the Champions League had already claimed the trophy once before. There are three previous winners left in this year’s competition:

 

 Jupp Heynckes (Bayern Munich) won the Champions League with Real Madrid in 1998

 Carlo Ancelotti (PSG) won the Champions League with AC Milan in 2003 & 2007

 Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid) won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 & Inter Milan in 2010

 

4. Fortune favours the consistent

 

Barcelona have reached the last five semi-finals and hold the joint-record for consecutive semi-final appearances, which they will break if they make the semis this year.

 

Bayern Munich have reached the final twice in the last three years, and in total have reached the final on nine different occasions, the 3rd most after Real Madrid with 12 and AC Milan with 11.

 

5. The reward of a top goalscorer

 

Having the top goal-scorer in a side has been enough for a team to reach at least the Champions League semi-finals since the 2005-06 season. Teams with the top goalscorer have won four Champions League titles in the last six.

 

Lionel Messi has been the top goal-scorer for the last four Champions Leagues’, of which Barcelona have won two.

 

And from our previous trends article…

 

At the start of the competition we gave you some Champions League trends – of which some have already proved true:

 

 Retaining the Champions League is unlikely. The holders, Chelsea, were knocked out in the group stage, losing out to Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk for a place in the last 16.

 

 Consecutive Champions League winners never come from the same country. With Chelsea falling at the group stage, and the holders taking the place of Tottenham Hotspur due to UEFA rules. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich knocked out the remaining English contingent of Manchester United and Arsenal respectively, in the last 16.

 

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