If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

UEFA Champions League knockout stage: Did you know?

• Teams have come back from a first-leg deficit to go through to the next stage on 20 occasions, including both 2006/07 semi-final victors. The biggest losing margin a side has overturned was achieved by RC Deportivo La Coruña in 2003/04 when they fought back from a 4-1 defeat at AC Milan to win 4-0 at home and progress to the semi-finals.

• Fifteen ties, including three in the 2006/07 season’s first knockout round, have been decided on the away goals rule, including five where the triumphant team lost the first leg.

• Manchester United FC hold the record for the biggest first-leg lead with a 4-0 home success against FC Porto in the 1996/97 quarter-finals, eventually going through by that margin after a goalless return.

• Eight ties have now gone to penalties. Four of these were finals – 1996, 2001, 2003 and 2005. The first two-legged tie decided on spot-kicks was PSV Eindhoven’s 4-2 win against Olympique Lyonnais on 13 April 2005 after a 2-2 aggregate draw. The second was Liverpool’s 4-1 semi-final win on penalties on 1 May 2007 against Chelsea after a 1-1 aggregate draw.

• In all, 14 ties have required extra time, including, in 2007/08, Fenerbahçe’s win against Sevilla FC and FC Schalke 04’s triumph against FC Porto in the first knockout round, with both ties eventually being settled on penalties. So far, only six ties have been settled by extra time alone: four quarter-finals and two first knockout round encounters.

• Real Madrid CF extended their record for knockout stage qualification in successive seasons. The 2007/08 campaign was the eleventh straight season since 1997/98 that they made it beyond the group stage, moving them ahead of Manchester United, who appeared nine times in a row between 1996/97 and 2004/05. Overall, they have now played in the knockout stage 12 times, one more than United and two more than FC Bayern München.

• Had Bayern beaten AC Milan in the 2006/07 last eight, it would have meant the first time the UEFA Champions League final four had no representation from either the Primera División or Serie A.

• The last European Champion Clubs’ Cup season that featured not one semi-finalist from either Spain or Italy, or England for that matter, was the 1990/91 campaign.

• The 2004/05 first knockout round encounter between Lyon and Werder Bremen featured more goals (12) over its two legs than any previous UEFA Champions League knockout tie – as Lyon defeated Bremen 10-2.

• United’s 7-1 victory against AS Roma in the 2006/07 campaign is the biggest victory in a UEFA Champions League quarter-final match. The previous best were Barcelona’s 5-1 second-leg defeat after extra time of Chelsea (1999/00), RC Deportivo La Coruña’s 4-0 return victory against AC Milan (2003/04) and United’s 4-0 first-leg success against Porto (1996/97).

• The biggest European Cup quarter-final victory was Madrid’s 8-0 first-leg defeat of Sevilla FC in the 1957/58 edition.

• Roma-United featured eleven goals over the two legs, a quarter-final record shared by Chelsea’s 6-5 aggregate victory against Bayern in 2004/05 and Madrid’s success by the same margin against United in 2002/03.

• There has never been a knockout tie ending goalless after two legs. Eight have finished 1-0 on aggregate, most recently Milan’s narrow victory against Celtic after extra time in the 2006/07 first knockout round.