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FourFourTwo
Sport
Tom Hancock

How many Champions League finals have Real Madrid won?

Real Madrid lift the Champions League trophy after winning the 2017/18 Champions League.

Real Madrid will compete in their 18th Champions League or European Cup final when they take on Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on Saturday evening.

Carlo Ancelotti's side won all six of their group stage games before getting past RB Leipzig, reigning European champions Manchester City, and Bayern Munich to book their showdown with Dortmund.

Real Madrid already held the records not just for most appearances in the final of the competition, but for winning it the most of anybody: they hold 14 European crowns, twice as many as the club with the second-most titles, AC Milan.

Real Madrid have a rich history in the competition (Image credit: Getty Images)

Real Madrid visit familiar territory on unfamiliar turf

This is, surprisingly, the first time Real have ever played at Wembley as a neutral venue: their only previous visit was in November 2017 for a group stage game against Tottenham Hotspur, who were then using the national stadium for their home games while their new stadium was under construction.

This year's final will meanwhile be Dortmund's third appearance in the final. They were surprise winners in 1997, when they beat Juventus to claim the trophy, but lost to arch-rivals Bayern in 2013...at Wembley, no less.

Real's record playing at this stage of the competition is rather more extensive. Los Blancos took part in the first five European Cup finals from 1956 to 1960 - and won them all.

Carlo Ancelotti has led Real Madrid to two of their 14 European Cup wins (Image credit: Alamy)

The first saw them win a 4-3 thriller against Reims in Paris, and there were even more goals four years later as they thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 at Glasgow's Hampden Park - with Alfredo Di Stefano scoring a hat-trick and, even more extraordinarily, Ferenc Puskas bagging four goals.

Real's next triumph came in 1966 as they beat Partizan Belgrade 2-1 in Brussels - but that was to be their last success for 32 years.

They ended the drought in 1998, Predrag Mijatovic notching the only goal of the game against Juventus in Amsterdam.

Two years later, Los Blancos defeated Valencia 3-0 in the first final to feature two teams from the same country.

And two years after that, they lifted the famous trophy at Hampden Park again. Zinedine Zidane clinched a 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen with a stunning volley which remains arguably the greatest goal in the history of the competition.

Zidane would go on to coach Real to three more triumphs - which came in succession from 2016 to 2018.

The last of those saw Los Blancos beat Liverpool 3-1 in Kyiv; Gareth Bale bagged a brace after coming on as a substitute, with his first goal a jaw-dropping overhead kick to rival Zidane's effort from 2002.

Real enjoyed Champions League glory during current boss Carlo Ancelotti's first spell in charge, thumping rivals Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra time in the 2014 final in Lisbon.

Ancelotti returned to the club in summer 2021 and immediately won his second Champions League with the club, with Vinicius Junior scoring the only goal in the 2022 final against Liverpool.

More Champions League stories

The best Wembley finals ever

Quiz! Can you name every club to qualify for the Champions League from Europe's top five leagues?

Quiz! Can you name every manager to have managed a team in a Champions League final?

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