home
Education
Football winning streak. Victorious tread

Football winning streak. Victorious tread

22.08.2023

29 - Benfica (Portugal) 1971-73
The Portuguese hold the European record, which they set in the early 70s. The 29-win streak began at the end of the 1971/72 gold-winning season for the Eagles and continued for most of the next. At the end of the 1972/73 season, Benfica became the first club not to suffer a single defeat in the Portuguese championship. Eusebio, who shone in those years, later noted the contribution of English coach Jimmy Hagan: “He liked discipline. All the players thought that his training was incredibly exhausting, but as soon as the team began to win, we realized that it was worth it. He gave us additional strength, and therefore We won three championships in a row during that period."

28 - Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 2006-07
Eduardo, Luka Modric and Vedran Corluka grew up in a team that was unrivaled in Croatia. The defeat of Istra on November 8, 2006 with a score of 5:1 marked the beginning of a winning streak, which was interrupted only on September 23, 2007, when the Zagreb team lost to Varteks (now Varazdin) - 3:4. On the eve of that meeting, Dynamo coach Branko Ivankovic said: "We have a great team, and Dynamo are a great club. We are going to win the 29th match in a row and repeat Benfica's record so that the current generation of Dynamo will take its rightful place in the history of the world football". It must be embarrassing.

Celtic Favorites

25 - Celtic (Scotland) 2003-04
With 25 wins in a row between 16 August 2003 and 29 February 2004, Celtic set a new record in British football. During this period, Martin O'Neill's team scored 86 goals, winning the championship and the Scottish Cup. A worthy end to Henrik Larsson's last season as part of the Celts! defender Johan Mjelby. - If the team was drawn to win, then it is difficult to stop it. Especially when you have guys like Henrik, Chris Sutton and John Hartson in your lineup, scoring goals just for fun."

25 - Dynamo Tirana (Albania) 1951-52
Dynamo was born in 1950 and won four championships in a row. In the middle of this successful period, the team was marked by a long winning streak. It began on April 18, 1951 in a match with Pune, and ended on June 1, 1952 in a goalless draw in a duel with the same opponent. Dinamo, having won the national championship 18 times, is in second place in the list of the most titled Albanian clubs, but after being relegated from the elite in the 2011/12 season, the team from Tirana is in the second division.

24 - Red Star (Serbia) 2015-16
Between two draws, July 21, 2015 with Radnička (1:1) and April 2, 2016 with Vojvodina (0:0), Miodrag Bozovic's team crushed everyone who got in their way in the Serbian Super League. Overall, Belgrade have won 24 matches in a row, including both derbies against Partizan. "Any adventure like this is exciting and we enjoyed it as long as it lasted. Our streak has come to an end, but these things are inevitable," said Bozovic.

23 - Malmö (Sweden) 1949-50
The golden season of 1948/49 was crowned with five victories at the finish line, and the campaign for a new championship title began by defeating Elfsborg (2: 0) on June 31, 1949. After that, "Malmö" did not lose points until May 14, 1950, when they played away with AIK.

©Getty Images

22 - PSV (Netherlands) 1987-88
Having taken a running start in the final five matches of the 1986/87 season, in the next campaign, PSV did not leave the opponents a chance even despite the departure of Ruud Gullit. Hans van Breukelen, Ronald Koeman, Eric Gerets, Berry van Arle, Jan Heintze, Ivan Nielsen, Søren Lerby, Gerald Vanenburg, Wim Kieft and the experienced Willy van de Kerckhof, under the guidance of Guus Hiddink, who was still understanding the intricacies of the coaching profession, were a team to resist it was useless. On January 16, 1988, the winning streak of Eindhoven was stopped by Twente, who achieved a draw with a score of 2: 2. This, however, did not prevent PSV from winning the championship and the Dutch Cup, as well as the European Cup.

22 - "Kyapaz" (Azerbaijan) 1997-98
The team of Mehman Allahverdiyev of the 1997/98 season remains the only one who managed to win the Azerbaijani championship without a single defeat. For 10 months, until September 23, 1998, "Kapaz" did without point losses at all. However, it will be important to note that two of the 22 victories are technical.

19 - Bayern (Germany) 2013-14
18 - Hafnarfjordur (Iceland) 2004-05
17 - Olympiakos (Greece) 2005-06, 2015-16
17 - Steaua (Romania) 1988
17 - Dynamo Bucharest (Romania) 1988
17 - Internazionale (Italy) 2006-07
16 - "Valur" (Iceland) 1978
16 - Barcelona (Spain) 2010-11
16 - APOEL (Cyprus) 2008-09
15 - Benfica (Portugal) 1963
15 - Real Madrid (Spain) 1960-61
15 - Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) 1999-00
15 - Bangor City (Wales) 2010

Celtic Favorites

©Getty Images

Not everyone knows how to win, but winning for a long time is a unique skill that gives incredible pleasure. "SE" has found 10 striking examples of the longest series of victories in European football championships.

29 wins
Tournament: Portuguese top division
Series duration: April 9, 1972 to April 1, 1973

In the 60s and 70s, Benfica was the most monster club. This Goliath has made it to the European Cup finals five times and won two of them. In two decades, the Eagles won gold 14 (!) times in Portugal. The team where Eusebio shone was on the shoulder of any records, and the curse of Bela Guttman seemed like stupid superstition. Moreover, it did not work in smooth championships and could not prevent Benfica from setting a unique achievement - 29 wins in a row in the Portuguese championship. The long triumphant march lasted almost a year - at the end of the 1971/72 season, the Eagles won 6 matches, and then they gave out a crazy championship in 1972/73 - 28 wins with two draws. One of them interrupted the super series - on April 1, 1973, Porto forward Flavio Minuan equalized the score in the match with Benfica four minutes before the end of normal time and suspended the long peppy march of Lisbon.

28 wins
Tournament: Croatian First League
Series duration: November 8, 2006 to September 23, 2007

Mandzukic, Modric, Eduardu, Corluka - the leaders of Dinamo Zagreb in the mid-noughties have made excellent careers in strong European championships. There is nothing surprising in the fact that a team with such a set of young talents in the domestic championship smashed everyone left and right. The winning streak began in the 2006/07 season, continued in the next championship, did not lose for a long time, but Dynamo failed to reach the Benfica record. They knew about the Portuguese achievement, they dreamed of surpassing it, but the modest Vartex ruined everything. In a fiery match, the team from Varazdin snatched victory from the local grandee - 4:3.

28 wins
Tournament: Hungarian Championship
Series duration: from season 1930/31 to season 1932/33

Ferencvaros.

From those Hungarian championships there are not even normal calendars with dates left, but quite a lot is known about the exploits of Ferencváros. These dashing guys won the league in the 1931/32 season with a fantastic record - 22 wins in 22 matches, 105 goals scored and 18 conceded. And the overall winning streak stretched over three long seasons.

22 wins
Tournament: Dutch championship
Series duration: April 26, 1986 to January 17, 1988

Guus Hiddink showed his first coaching miracle to the world in Eindhoven. He came to PSV 10 rounds before the end of the 1986/87 season and not only managed to overtake Ajax in the gold race at the finish line, but also launched a long winning super streak. To six wins in the spring of 1987, the red-whites added 16 victories the next season and won the gold of the local championship without any problems, and also took the Dutch Cup and the Champions Cup.

19 wins
Tournament: German Bundesliga
Series duration: October 19, 2013 to March 29, 2014

Pep Guardiola started the Bavarian part of his coaching career not so festively - with a defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup. However, after a couple of friendly matches, everything returned to normal: the Bavarians won against Chelsea in the battle for another Super Cup - the European one - and began to smash everyone in the Bundesliga. By the end of October, Robben, Muller, Mandzukic and company forgot not only about defeats, but also about draws. By the end of March, Bayern had already secured the Bundesliga title and allowed themselves to relax a little, interrupting a long streak - a draw with Hoffenheim stopped the counter at 19 wins.

17 wins
Tournament: Italian Serie A
Series duration: from October 25, 2006 to February 28, 2007

This Inter series is a direct consequence of Calciopoli. By the end of the summer of 2006, Serie A had been turned into scorched earth - Juventus were relegated to the lower division, Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina started the season with negative points handicaps. Spared from competitors, “Inter” flew the whole long distance in the same breath – only one defeat in the entire championship and a chic long 17-match winning streak from mid-autumn to the end of winter.

16 wins
Tournament: spanish example
Series duration: from March 2, 2016 to September 21, 2016

Last year's record "Real" can be called a series named after Zidane. A great player but completely unknown coach took over from a failed Rafa Benitez in January and turned the Royal Club into a winning machine in a couple of months. True, even a long streak of 12 wins at the finish line did not allow Barcelona to catch up. Madrid were compensated by beating Atlético in the Champions League final and succeeded on all fronts the following season - for the first time in 5 years they took gold examples and will again play in the decisive match for the main European Cup. And the leader of the "Royal Club" Cristiano Ronaldo after the completion of the club season will have a chance to develop success in the Portuguese national team at the Confederations Cup.

16 matches
Tournament: spanish example
Series duration: from October 16, 2010 to February 12, 2011

Another record by Pep Guardiola. In the 2010/11 season, his Barcelona came close to winning three competitions before losing to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. But the Champions League and gold examples have not gone away from the Catalans. The Spanish Championship is sometimes called a "tournament between two clubs". This is not always the case, but in that draw, Barcelona and Real Madrid were indeed head and shoulders above all rivals. Even a long 16-match winning streak did not allow the Catalans to run far - in the final table they broke away from Madrid by only 4 points - 96 to 92.

14 wins
Tournament: English Premier League
Series duration: February 10, 2002 to August 24, 2002

It is now Arsenal fans who demand the resignation of Arsene Wenger and wince painfully when they see the number four, but at the beginning of the 2000s everything was different. They prayed for the French coach and counted not the points separating from getting into the Champions League, but trophies and victories. At the end of the 2001/02 season, the Gunners won 13 matches in a row and became champions of England for the second time under Wenger. The winning streak continued into the next season, however, only one match was added to it.

13 wins
Tournament: Russian Premier League
Series duration: from March 15, 2014 to August 17, 2014

Leonid Slutsky. Photo by Alexander FEDOROV, "SE"

The Russian championship winning streak record belongs to CSKA. In the spring of 2014, Leonid Slutsky won 10 matches in a row and took gold from the astonished Zenit. With the victory over the blue-white-blue and started a long record series of the army team. It also ended symbolically - with a defeat from Spartak.

"Spartak Moscow)

Season: 1994
Win-win streak: 12 matches
Who stopped: Spartak (Vladikavkaz) - 0:1

The unbeaten run of 12 matches mentioned above was given out by Spartak Moscow in the third draw of the Russian championship, which, like the two previous tournaments, they won. Wards of Oleg Romantsev excellently started the defense of the title, scoring ten victories with two draws in the starting segment of the championship. However, the 13th round turned out to be really unlucky for the red-whites. The strongest Russian team of the 90s model unexpectedly stumbled in Vladikavkaz, where they lost with a minimum score to the local Spartak. This defeat remained the only one for the Muscovites that season.

A noteworthy detail of the game in North Ossetia is the fact that the best sniper of the capital team Vladimir Beschastnykh did not enter the field from the first minutes. Before the match with Vladikavkaz Spartak, the forward of the Russian national team scored ten goals in 12 league matches. Immediately after the disastrous match, Beschastnykh moved to Werder Bremen, and for the rest of the tournament, none of his former partners managed to surpass the number of goals he scored.

"Spartak Moscow)

Season: 2000
Win-win streak: 10 matches
Who stopped:"Saturn" - 0:2

At the beginning of the second millennium, Moscow "Spartak" won its eighth gold awards, which became the penultimate for the "people's team" to date. The final success was largely based on a confident spurt at the beginning of the championship, which resulted in nine wins and one draw. In the starting rounds, only Lokomotiv managed to give battle to the future victor, taking away two points from the red-and-whites. In early April 2000, an incredible number of spectators came to watch the capital derby - 65,000. However, unfortunately, the match ended in a goalless draw.

The team of Oleg Romantsev was defeated in the 11th round of the Premier League. The offender was the Moscow Region team - Ramensky Saturn, which beat the most titled club in the country with a score of 2: 0.

Lokomotiv (Moscow)

Season: 2002
Win-win streak: 10 matches
Who stopped:"Wings of the Soviets" - 0:1

During the spring segment of the Premier League, the railway workers created a solid groundwork for themselves, which eventually helped the team of Yuri Semin first reduce the definition of the champion to a golden match with CSKA, and then win the first title in Russian history. In the first ten rounds, Lokomotiv left the field eight times as a winner, and stumbled in the game against Krylya Sovetov. The “locomotive” rushed to Samara as the sole leader, but they failed to break the resistance of the owners. Moreover, the “wings”, thanks to the efforts of the current head coach of Zenit-2, Vladislav Radimov, scored the only goal in the meeting. And this result is worth a lot, since the defense of the railroad workers was debugged to the barracks, as evidenced by only 14 goals conceded in 30 matches.

Lokomotiv (Moscow)

Season: 2005
Win-win streak: 20 matches
Who stopped: Rubin - 1:3

Lokomotiv, having won its second league title in the 2004 season, was considered one of the main contenders for gold in the next tournament. In fact, the “railroad workers” faced a turning point, during which Yuri Semin, after almost 19 years (with some interruptions) of work for the benefit of the red-greens, accepted an invitation to lead the Russian national team. For a long time, Loko did not notice the absence of the main creator of victories in the recent history of the club. Under the leadership of Vladimir Eshtrekov, the team confidently held the lead in the table of ranks for 16 rounds. Loko's unbeaten starting streak was 20 matches: 12 wins with eight draws. However, the strongest impression was made by the number of goals conceded by Sergei Ovchinnikov in this segment - there were only six of them.

The defeat that broke Lokomotiv happened in the capital of Tatarstan, where Rubin loaded three goals into the undisputed leader's goal. The red-greens managed to retaliate one ball, but the guests were not capable of more. In addition, Dmitry Sychev was seriously injured in Kazan, after which the promising forward never returned to his previous level.

In the rest of the season, Lokomotiv won only two victories, drew eight times and suffered another fiasco - this time from Torpedo (0:3). The confused advantage was only enough for the bronze medals of the Premier League. It is worth noting that Lokomotiv entered the history of domestic football as the first team that started with an unbeaten streak of ten or more meetings, but did not win the championship title at the end of the season.

Zenit (St. Petersburg)

Season: 2010
Win-win streak: 23 matches
Who stopped: Spartak (Moscow) - 0:1

This season, the team from the banks of the Neva was headed by the Italian specialist Luciano Spalletti, who managed to get a golden double with Zenit on the domestic arena on the first try. And the triumphal campaign began with an impressive 23-match unbeaten streak, containing 17 wins and six draws. Blue-white-blue looked so powerful and solid in the course of the distance that experts seriously started talking about a season-long unbeaten streak. The Russian giant failed to repeat the achievement of the London Arsenal of the 2004 model. In the postponed match of the 16th round, Zenit misfired, losing on the road to Spartak Moscow with a minimum score. The only goal in the match was scored by Dmitry Kombarov from the 11-meter mark at the end of the meeting. True, at the end of the confrontation, they discussed not an interrupted series of St. Petersburg, but a skirmish between the head coach of the red and white Valery Karpin and the midfielder of Zenit Igor Denisov.

Nevertheless, neither the defeat from Spartak nor the subsequent failure in the game with CSKA prevented Zenit from confidently finishing on the first line in the table.

Zenit (St. Petersburg)

Season: 2014/2015
Win-win streak: 12 matches
Who stopped: Terek - 1:3

The debut of the 2014/2015 season "Zenith" was beyond praise. St. Petersburg, led by Andre Villas-Boas, surpassed Rubin Kazan's record for the number of wins in a row in the starting season of the championship, beating rivals in the first eight rounds. Then the blue-white-blues were content with two draws: with Spartak and Krasnodar. And then they left no stone unturned from Mordovia - 5:0, and achieved an advantage in the most important duel against CSKA - 2:1. True, already in the next round, Zenit knew all the bitterness of defeat, losing at Petrovsky to Grozny Terek (1:3). As part of the victors, it is worth noting Ailton, who recorded a double at his own expense, and later became known as a real specialist in St. Petersburg.

This case was the only one when such a long streak without defeat at the start of the season was interrupted in front of its own fans.

1) Celtic: 62 games (1915 - 1917)

Under the leadership of Willy Meili, Celtic had a staggering 62-game unbeaten streak almost a century ago, helping them to 3 straight league titles. It's even more impressive when you consider that in 1916 they once had to play twice in one day: first they beat Motherwell, only to go home and finish Raith Rovers 6-0. Mayley was appointed coach in 1897 and spent 43 years in this post, winning 16 national championships and 14 Scottish Cups.

2) Peñarol: 56 games (1966-1969)

The Uruguayan giants went 56 unbeaten in the late 60s, having won the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup in 1966 by that point. That Copa Libertadores was won after one of the most memorable comebacks in the competition's history: Peñarol was 0-2 down with 25 minutes to go, but they managed to score twice in 6 minutes to celebrate with a 4-2 final score in extra time. They then finished off Real Madrid 4-0 and became world champions. The unbeaten streak eventually ended in September 1969, but before that, Roque Maspoli and Rafael Milans won the national championship twice.

3) Steaua: 104 games (1986-1989)

The Romanians lasted 104 matches without defeat, for 3 whole seasons no one could beat them, and this allowed Steaua to take 3 league titles and the Champions Cup, where in the final they beat Barcelona in Seville on penalties. Regardless of what can be argued about the competitiveness of Romanian football at that time (but not about modern football? - approx. Translator), Angel Yordanescu's team showed their level, reaching the semi-finals of the most prestigious European club championship in 1988 and the final the next year, where they were declassed by the legendary Milan 4-0, which allowed Arrigo Sacchi to take his first European crown.

4) ASEC Mimosas: 108 games (1989-1994)

The Ivorians remained invincible for the whole 5 years, the first 3 of their mentor was the Frenchman Philip Troussier, who then worked in Nigeria, Japan, South Africa and Marseille. With the help of goalkeeper Alain Gouamenet, who later joined Toulouse along with Donal Sieu, Abdoulaye Traore and Basil Kouame, Mimosas won 6 Ivory Coast titles, after which the series ended with a 1-2 defeat by CO Army.

5) Milan: 58 games (1991-1993)

Arrigo Sacchi laid a fine foundation, but Capello never imagined that his life in Milan would begin this way, as he led Milan to victory in Serie A of the 1991-1992 seasons without a single defeat. Their streak eventually ended with the efforts of Parma and Faustino Asprilla in 1993, but that didn't matter - Don Fabio retained the title for another 2 seasons, and climaxed with Barcelona in the Champions League final in 1994, where Milan finished Barça 4- 0. Milan's performance in that match is considered by many to be the best in club football history.

6) Ajax: 52 games (1994-1996)

Van Der Sar, Reiziger, the De Boers brothers, Davids, Seedorf, Rijkaard, Blind, Kanu Overmars, Litmanen (already brought tears to my eyes - translator's note) - Van Gaal's famous line-up has been showing "xy from xy" in Dutch football for the last 20 years. In 1994-1995, they went the entire season undefeated in both the domestic league and the Champions League, where they eventually beat AC Milan in the final thanks to a one-year substitute for 18-year-old Kluivert. They will lose in the final of the next Champions League to Juventus on penalties, after which the exodus of players from Ajax will put an end to one of the greatest teams in the history of European football.

7) Boca Juniors: 40 games (1998-1999)

The Bianchi Boys surpassed Racing's record of 39 games unbeaten, which had stood for 33 years. It happened when Carlos Bianchi led Boca Juniors to a 40-match unbeaten streak that helped them capture 2 league titles along the way. Their series ended with a rout from Independiente. But all this was just a prelude to the greatest period in the history of the team, in which they won 3 of 4 Copa Libertadores and 2 world titles, defeating Real Madrid in 2000 and Milan on penalties in 2003. Boca's current manager Julio Falcioni came close to repeating record with a 33-game unbeaten streak to take the Apertura championship last season. The series ended with a dramatic match in which Boca lost to Independiente 4-5.

8) Arsenal: 49 games (2003-2004)

Wenger's "invincibles" galloped through the 2003-2004 Premier League season and became the first team in a century to go undefeated. They didn't manage to show the same football in the Champions League as Chelsea knocked them out in the quarter-finals, but the backbone of the team, consisting of Saul Campbell, Patrick Wier, Dennis Bergkamp and an electrified Henry, put on some of the best football I've ever seen this English game.

9) Porto: 55 games (2010-2012)

André Villas-Boas must have taken for granted his success as a coach when he moved to Chelsea after leading Porto undefeated and the team winning the Portuguese Championship, the National Cup and the Europa League. The streak started under Jesualdo Ferreira, continued by AVB until he packed his bags for London, and ended under his successor, Vítor Pereira, when Porto lost 1-3 to Gil Vicente. They broke the record of Sir Bobby Robson, who was manager at Porto from 1994 to 1996, when they went 53 games without a defeat.

10) Juventus: 44 games to be continued (2011-)

Juventus became only 3 teams in the history of Italian football to go through a season undefeated, allowing them to win the Scudetto last year. Juventus' excellent form in Serie A has continued this season despite Conte's 10-month ban. Juve also showed character last week with a comeback after a 0-2 win at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea.

Original article: http://www.goal.com/en/slideshow/456