The curse of the UEFA Champions League holders

Hardly could anyone have predicted that AC Milan were going to be the last team to defend the European Cup, which was rechristened UEFA Champions League in the 1992-93 season, when they won it back to back in the 1988-89 and 1989-90 season.

The old format of the UEFA Champions League which was purely knockout ties, offered clubs the luck to defend the trophy starting with Real Madrid who won it a record 5 consecutive times from 1955 to 1960, before Benfica won it twice on the trot in the 1960-161 and 1961-62 seasons. Inter Milan took their turn with a back to back wins in 1963-64 and 1964-65, then Dutch Masters, Ajax with their total football won it three consecutive times from 1971 to 1973.

Bayern Munich in an all-conquering feat took the baton from Ajax and would make the trophy theirs for the following three seasons from 1974 to 1976. The likes of Liverpool and Nottingham Forest all had shares of retaining the European Cup trophy, before AC Milan re-established their continental superiority with back to back wins.

However, for a period of 26 years no team has managed to retain the European Cup, especially it is yet to happen in the UEFA Champions League era which began in the 1992-93 season.

Union of European Football Association decided to introduce the league format into the elite European Cup and renamed the UEFA Champions League and since the renaming to depict its new format of grouping clubs at the beginning of the competition, the contest has failed to see a defending champions retain their title.

Several clubs got very close to it but they couldn't make this enviable history as the first club to defend the UEFA Champions League.

Milan, after losing the final in 1993, did their homework well in 1994 by demolishing favourites Barcelona to win the Cup. But faulted when everybody expected them to retain it against a young and inexperienced Ajax side coached by Luis Van Gaal when teenager, Patrick Kluivert’s goal shattered their dream of defending the trophy.

Juventus after winning the UEFA Champions came close to defending it in 1997, but Dortmund handed them a 3-1 defeat to end that dream in the grand finale.

Barcelona under Pep Gaurdiola who had set a record by winning all the trophies in the 2008-09 season and were expected to finally break the jinx of holders inability to retain the UEFA Champions League trophy, but Jose Mourinho and his Inter Milan side had devised a master plan to subdue the Catalonians. They defeated Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg and held onto their first leg advantage, until the late minute that Gerald Pique finally breached the Inter Milan defence line with a goal, but it was too little too late for them to stage a famous comeback.

Before that champions Manchester United who were not all that flamboyant the following season were also handed an opportunity to defend their trophy, but Barcelona who were in a devastating form crashed them in the final.

Real Madrid, the most successful team in European club football had to wait for 12 years before winning their 10th European Cup, ‘the La Decima’ in 2014 and after winning 22 matches on the trot the following season under Carlo Ancelotti to become the first manager in the rich history of Madrid to do so.

Everybody thought he had everything under control and they were on their way to becoming the first club to defend the Champions League trophy. Little did anybody know that a defeat to Valencia to end their unbeaten run would affect their performance in the season. Even after that defeat to Valencia Real Madrid were in a good position to make history in Europe when they were drawn against Juventus in the semifinals of the Champions League, since they were the weakest side on paper, but they knocked out Real Madrid.

The latest casualty of defending champions who have been unable to retain the UEFA Champions League title are Barcelona. They won the UEFA Champions League in 2015, with one of the deadliest trio the world has ever seen. In the 2015-16 season they were the overwhelming favourites to defend the UEFA Champions, especially, after their trio had scored over 100 goals that season and had gone over 30 games unbeaten, which was a club record, but a defeat to Real Madrid in the second round of the league gave other clubs the confidence that Barcelona were after all not invincible as perceived.

In the mid-week after the Real Madrid defeat, Barcelona had to struggle to overturn a 1-0 lead a 10-man Atletico Madrid took to win 2-1 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League tie. Entering into the second leg, Barcelona were still seen as the favourites, against Atletico Madrid even at the Vicente Calderon, but they were overwhelmed by then Atletico in the all-spanish quarter finals to repeat what they did against the Catalan giants at this same stage in 2014. Atletico have fallen the almighty Barcelona yet again in the UEFA Champions League.

This has intensified a lot of people claiming that the champions league holders are always a cursed side whenever they enter into the competition to defend it, so when cometh a history maker in the most prestigious European club competition.