History of the European Cup and UEFA Champions League

The Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones, or "South American Championship of Champions", kicked off in 1948 after years of deliberation and organisation and set into motion the antecedent of the Copa Libertadores.

Wolves played a series of friendlies against foreign opposition such as Racing Club of Argentina, Spartak Moscow of the Soviet Union, among others, before meeting Honvéd of Hungary in a game televised live on the BBC.

[11] This era culminated in the famous 1960 European Cup final, at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland, where Real Madrid obliterated Eintracht Frankfurt of West Germany 7–3 in front of BBC and other Eurovision television cameras and a crowd of 127,621.

Real Madrid's domination was ended by their biggest domestic rivals, Barcelona, in the first round of the 1960–61 competition, Barça continued on to the final at the Wankdorf Stadion in Bern, where they were defeated (3–2) in a close game by Benfica.

This team, captained by the impressive Mário Coluna, were joined by the legendary Eusébio during the following 1961–62 season, where they defended the trophy after beating Real Madrid 5–3 in the final at the Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam.

In 1967, Celtic became the first team in Northern Europe to win the competition, coming back from 1–0 down after a Sandro Mazzola penalty to beat Internazionale 2–1 in the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, with goals from Tommy Gemmell and Stevie Chalmers.

In 1968, ten years after the Munich air disaster, Manchester United became the first English team to win the competition, defeating Benfica in the final 4–1 after extra time at Wembley Stadium in London.

In 1970 Feyenoord of Rotterdam were the first Dutch outfit to collect the European Cup after defeating Glasgow Celtic the tournaments only coin toss finalists 2–1 after extra time.

Led by Franz Beckenbauer, and also starring Sepp Maier, Gerd Müller, Uli Hoeneß and Paul Breitner, the German club not only emulated Ajax's trio of victories but was unmistakably inspired by the beacon of "Total Football".

In its first final, Bayern triumphed over Atlético Madrid in a replayed match, the first of the two games ending up in a draw following a late equalizer from Hans Georg Schwarzenbeck, the second one resulting in a 4-0 hammering in Brussels.

The next year, Forest beat Hamburg at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium by the same scoreline to defend the trophy successfully in 1980 and remain the only side to win the competition more times (twice) than their own domestic league (once).

As Roma's Bruno Conti prepared to take his kick, Grobbelaar walked towards the goal smiling confidently at the cameras lined-up behind, then proceeded to bite the back of the net, in imitation of eating spaghetti.

Milan were the underdogs, with two key defenders forced to sit out, but coach Fabio Capello spurned the traditional Italian caution of catenaccio and led them to a rout of Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team".

Ajax, in turn, reached the next final in 1996, but fell to Juventus of Ciro Ferrara, the 1993 winner Didier Deschamps, Paulo Sousa and the notable offensive trio composed by Alessandro Del Piero, Fabrizio Ravanelli and the 1992 finalist Gianluca Vialli after a penalty shoot-out.

With referee Pierluigi Collina signalling three minutes of stoppage time, the English club sent everyone forward (including Schmeichel) for a David Beckham corner, and were rewarded when substitute Teddy Sheringham turned home the equaliser after Ryan Giggs mis-hit a shot at goal.

Just over a minute later, another Beckham corner again provided the danger as Sheringham headed it on to fellow substitute Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who flicked out a boot to send the ball into the roof of the net and win the European Cup for Manchester.

This time, it involved two of Europe's most successful clubs, with six-time European champions Milan facing four-time winners Liverpool in one of the most dramatic finals in the competition's history.

Vladimír Šmicer's long-range drive made it 3–2 just two minutes later and, on the hour mark, Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso completed the comeback by converting the rebound from his saved penalty kick to make it 3–3.

That proved crucial as they moved on to a penalty shoot-out where Liverpool triumphed 3–2 and captured their fifth European Cup victory and as five-time winners earned the honour of keeping the trophy.

Arsenal succeeded in holding off Villarreal (including a Jens Lehmann save of a late penalty from Juan Román Riquelme) to a 0–0 draw which put them through to final.

Arsenal took the lead from a Sol Campbell header in the 37th minute and held it for most of the second half, with substitute keeper Manuel Almunia tipping away a shot by Eto'o.

The second leg at the San Siro, however, was a one-sided affair with Milan outclassing Man United from the start and winning 3–0 thanks to goals from Kaká, Clarence Seedorf and Alberto Gilardino, and thus setting up a revenge meeting with Liverpool in the final.

Liverpool scored late on through Dirk Kuyt, giving the Reds hope of another amazing comeback but to no avail, and Milan were European champions for a seventh time.

United took the lead midway through the first half when Cristiano Ronaldo's header met Wes Brown's cross and bounced into the bottom left-hand corner of Petr Čech's goal.

In the second round of sudden death, Ryan Giggs successfully converted his penalty before Edwin van der Sar won the Champions' League for United by saving Nicolas Anelka's effort.

The knockout stage resumed in August, with remaining second leg round of 16 games being played behind closed doors at their respective home stadiums as part of the season restart.

Quarter-final and semi-final matches were played in only one leg at the Estadio Jose Alvalade and Estádio da Luz over the course of about two weeks, following the teams' completion of their respective domestic seasons.

UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin and several delegates threatened to expel the clubs joining The Super League when Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid were in the semi-finals.

The Milan clubs later followed suit with Atlético Madrid also withdrawing; Andrea Agnelli, chairman of Juventus and vice-chairman of The Super League, conceded that the project would not proceed.

Heading into the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid were not considered heavy favorites with all eyes on PSG, who had assembled a super team by acquiring Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, and Gianluigi Donnarumma in the offseason.