English football clubs in international competitions

[3] In the non-UEFA organized Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, English clubs provided four winners and four runners-up, the second-most behind Spain with six and three, respectively.

[5] In the former fourth-tier UEFA Intertoto Cup, England won four titles and had a further final appearance, placing it fifth in the rankings, although English clubs were notorious for treating the tournament with disdain, either sending "B" squads or withdrawing from it altogether.

Prior to the establishment of official UEFA competitions in the 1950s, England had been pioneers in early continental football, organizing the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, which was won by West Auckland when they defeated Juventus in 1909.

In 1954, before anyone had really expanded the borders of domestic football, after recently winning the first division for the first time Wolves thought they would test themselves against Hungarian giants Honved.

Wolves had also beaten a Spartak Moscow side earlier in the series, and the Daily Mail crowned them 'champions of the world' after sinking the Hungarians.

But Gabriel Hanon, editor of L'Equipe at the time, hit back, saying the English side needed to win in Budapest or Moscow before they could claim that title.

Hanon was at Molineux for the match and enjoyed it so much he started a campaign to introduce a competition where Europe's elite clubs would face off against each other regularly.

However, Chelsea were denied by the intervention of The Football League, in particular their secretary Alan Hardaker, who persuaded them to withdraw, insistent that pan-European tournaments are a mere distraction to the English domestic season.

Four goals from Viollet and a hat-trick from Tommy Taylor helped United to achieve a 10–0 second leg victory as they progressed 12–0 on aggregate.

[23] United's first three home ties of the competition were played at Manchester City's Maine Road ground, since the floodlights at Old Trafford were still in the process of being installed and were not switched on until March 1957.

Leeds United centre forward Mick Jones was the top scorer in the 1969–70 tournament; his eight goals helped his club to reach the semi-final stage, where they lost to Celtic.

They were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Ajax, who went on to win the second of three consecutive European Cups, while Arsenal would not feature in the competition for another twenty years.

The sequence began when Liverpool, managed by Bob Paisley, beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1 in the 1977 European Cup Final, in what was striker Kevin Keegan's last game for the club.

The following season it was Nottingham Forest's turn to make a first round exit as Liverpool went all the way to the final, where they beat Real Madrid 1–0 to secure their third European Cup under Bob Paisley.

Liverpool's Terry McDermott and Graeme Souness were the tournament's joint top scorers, alongside Bayern Munich's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, with six goals apiece.

A sixth successive English victory was still achieved however, as Aston Villa, playing in the European Cup for the first time, beat Bayern Munich 1–0 in the final in Rotterdam.

[32] The run of victories by English clubs came to an end in 1982–83 when both Liverpool and Aston Villa went out at the quarter-final stage after losing to Widzew Łódź and Juventus respectively.

The match finished 1–1 after extra time and Liverpool won the subsequent penalty shootout 4–2 to lift their fourth European Cup.

The 1992–93 season saw the competition rebranded as the UEFA Champions League, a move that formalised the mini-league format that had been introduced the previous year.

United failed to reach the group stage however, losing out on away goals to Galatasaray following a 3–3 aggregate scoreline in their second round tie.

[37] As one of eight seeded teams, Manchester United were given a bye directly to the group stage, but missed out on the quarter-finals after finishing third, behind Barcelona on goal difference.

[38] In 1995–96, Blackburn Rovers were England's Champions League representatives, but their campaign was not a successful one as they won just one of their six group games and failed to qualify for the latter stages.

Around this time, then-UEFA president Michel Platini began to make statements which resulted in a widespread perception that he was anti-English,[45] which some attributed to his alleged fear of English domination in European club competition.

At its most dominant, from 2007 to 2009, the Premier League had 75% (9 out of 12) of the semi-finalists, 67% (4 out of 6) of the finalists, 100% (3 out of 3) of the runners-up, but only 33% (1 out of 3) of the winners (Manchester United in 2008), with the other two titles going to Milan in 2007 and Barcelona in 2009.

The downward trend was reversed in 2018–19, when all four Premier League entrants (including Liverpool, who had reached the 2018 final as a sign of impending English resurgence) progressed to the quarter-finals.

Liverpool won their sixth European Cup by defeating fellow English side Tottenham Hotspur in the 2019 Champions League final.

An early penalty converted by Mohamed Salah and a late Divock Origi goal ensured a 2–0 victory for Jürgen Klopp's team.

Defending champions Bayern Munich were knocked out on away goals by previous finalists Paris Saint-Germain, after missing Robert Lewandowski with injury, in a rematch of the 2020 final.

Chelsea won the title for the second time after defeating City 1–0 at the Estádio do Dragão thanks to a goal by Kai Havertz.

Additionally, English clubs have initially qualified for the Intercontinental Cup but withdrew from participation, namely Liverpool in 1977 and Nottingham Forest in 1979.