How easy is it to overturn a three-goal deficit in European football? | OneFootball

There are few things in football more exciting than a good comeback, and European football has given us some of the most memorable sporting comebacks in history.

Manchester United fans continue to reminisce over that magical night in Barcelona in 1999. One of the peaks of Liverpool’s history came in the 2005 Champions League final, when they washed away AC Milan’s 3-0 lead in the space of seven minutes.

However, there is a reason why these stories are so special, and that is because they’re rare. These comebacks don’t come about often.

As mentioned above, Liverpool pulled off one of the most memorable comebacks of all time 18 years ago. Now, they find themselves in a similar situation.

Having raced into a 2-0 lead in their round of 16 tie against Real Madrid, the Reds collapsed and ended up on the wrong side of a 5-2 scoreline.

They now travel to the home of Europe’s most successful club, needing to win by at least three goals to stand any chance of progressing.

But how often does this sort of thing happen in European football? Let’s take a look.

We’ve gone through the knockout results of every UEFA competition in history (European Cup/Champions League, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/Europa League, Europa Conference League, European Cup Winners’ Cup, Intertoto Cup and UEFA Super Cup).

Of these results, there were 57 examples of a team progressing after losing the first leg by three or more goals.

European football first began in the 1955/56 season, meaning that these types of comebacks happen just under once per season on average. Based on this, Liverpool may take some hope.

However, many of these comebacks happened during European football’s earlier days. In fact, just 11 teams have overturned a three-goal first-leg deficit since 2000.

To make things even more daunting for Liverpool, they must do it away from home. Only one team has done this before in the history of European football.

That team was Dinamo Bucuresti in their 2009/10 Europa League play-off tie against Slovan Liberec. After being penalised with a 3-0 defeat for crowd trouble in their home leg, the Romanian side scored three in Liberec before winning the subsequent penalty shootout.

Other teams have come close in the past. Tottenham Hotspur were 3-0 down on aggregate at half-time in their semi-final clash with Ajax in 2019, and they managed to turn it around.

However, that came with the help of away goals – a rule which is no longer in operation, and likely wouldn’t favour Liverpool in this instance anyway.

Los Blancos themselves very nearly gave up a 3-0 first leg lead against Juventus in 2018, when the Bianconeri levelled the tie at the Bernabeu Stadium.

But, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo had the last laugh, netting a crucial injury-time strike to send his side on their way to the next round.

So….yeah, Jurgen Klopp does not have an enviable task on his hands. We’ve come to the groundbreaking conclusion that Real Madrid will probably make it through to the quarter-finals.

But anyway, here are our results (teams in bold progressed to the next round).

European Cup/Champions League

1958/59 Preliminary round – Schalke 5-5 KB 1963/64 Preliminary round – Jeunesse Esch 5-4 Haka1965/66 Quarter-finals – Partizan Belgrade 6-4 Sparta Prague1970/71 Semi-finals – Panathinaikos 4-4 Red Star Belgrade (evidence suggests Red Star players may have been bribed)1974/75 Second round – Saint-Etienne 6-5 Hajduk Split1975/76 Second round – Real Madrid 6-5 Derby County1985/86 Semi-finals – Barcelona 3-3 IFK Goteborg1988/89 First round – Werder Bremen 5-3 BFC Dynamo1988/89 Second round – Galatasaray 5-3 Neuchatel Xamax1992/93 First round – Leeds United 3-3 Stuttgart (Leeds were awarded a 3-0 second leg victory after Stuttgart fielded ineligible players)1993/94 First round – Copenhagen 4-3 Linfield1997/98 Second qualifying round – Paris Saint-Germain 5-3 Steau Bucuresti (Steau Bucuresti were awarded a 3-0 first leg victory after PSG fielded an ineligible player)1999/2000 Second qualifying round – Widzew Lodz 4-4 Litex Lovech2003/04 First qualifying round – Tirana 3-3 Dinamo Tbilisi 2003/04 Quarter-finals – Deportivo La Coruna 5-4 AC Milan2014/15 Third qualifying round – Celtic 4-4 Legia Warsaw (Celtic were awarded a 3-0 second leg victory after Legia Warsaw fielded an ineligible player)2016/17 Round of 16 – Barcelona 6-5 Paris Saint-Germain2017/18 Quarter-finals – Roma 4-4 Barcelona2019/19 Semi-finals – Liverpool 4-3 Barcelona

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/Europa League

1960/61 First round – Belgrade XI 6-6 Leipzig XI1964/65 First round – Kilmarnock 5-4 Eintracht Frankfurt1966/67 Second round – Dinami Pitesti 5-4 Toulouse1966/67 Semi-finals – Dinamo Zagreb 4-3 Eintracht Frankfurt1967/68 Second round – Hibernian 6-4 Napoli1969/70 Second round – Ujpest 5-5 Club Brugge1971/72 Second round – Lierse 4-4 Rosenborg1975/76 Second round – Club Brugge 4-3 Ipswich Town1976/77 Quarter-finals – AEK Athens 3-3 Queens Park Rangers1977/78 Third round – Barcelona 3-3 Ipswich Town1978/79 First round – Red Star Belgrade 6-6 BFC Dynamo1978/79 Third round – Dukla Prague 5-4 Stuttgart1982/83 Second round – Bordeaux 5-4 Hajduk Split1984/85 Second round – Partizan Belgrade 6-6 Queens Park Rangers1984/85 Third round – Real Madrid 6-4 Anderlecht1985/86 Third round – Real Madrid 5-5 Borussia Monchengladbach1987/88 Second round – Sportul Studentesc 3-3 Brondby1987/88 Third round – Club Brugge 5-3 Borussia Dortmund1987/88 Third round – Panathinaikos 7-6 Budapesti Honved1987/88 Final – Bayer Leverkusen 3-3 Espanyol1990/91 Third round – Bologna 3-3 Admira Wacker2000/01 First round – Wisla Krakow 5-5 Zaragoza2001/02 Qualifying round – Elfsborg 5-3 Narva Trans2001/02 Third round – Lyon 4-4 Club Brugge2009/10 Play-off round – Slovan Liberec 3-3 Dinamo Bucuresti (Slovan Liberec were awarded a 3-0 first leg victory due to crowd trouble)2013/14 Quarter-finals – Valencia 5-3 Basel

European Cup Winners’ Cup

1961/62 Preliminary round – Leixoes 7-6 La Chaux-de-Fonds1963/64 Quarter-finals – Sporting CP 6-4 Manchester United1963/64 Quarter-finals – MTK Budapest 4-3 Celtic1978/79 Second round – Barcelona 3-3 Anderlecht1980/81 First round – Carl Zeiss Jena 4-3 Roma1984/85 Quarter-finals – Rapid Wien 5-3 Dynamo Dresden1989/90 First round – Grasshopper 4-3 Slovan Bratislava1994/95 Qualifying round – KF Tirana 4-4 Fandok Bobruisk 1995/96 Second round – Parma 4-3 Halmstad

Intertoto Cup

1964/65 Final – Polonia Bytom 5-4 SC Leipzig1966/67 Semi-finals – Eintracht Frankfurt 7-5 Zaglebie Sosnowiec1999 Second round – Varteks 3-3 Brann