{"id":1141690,"date":"2025-09-15T15:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1141690"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:18:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:18:21","slug":"shock-league-title-winners-champions-league-september-2025","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/shock-league-title-winners-champions-league-september-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"From unwanted records to pure football: How 16 shock title winners fared in the Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest complaints about modern football is the predictability of the top leagues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bayern Munich have claimed 12 of the last 13 Bundesliga titles, PSG have taken seven of the last eight Ligue 1 crowns, and in England, the Premier League has been dominated by Manchester City and Liverpool since 2017. Meanwhile, in Spain, only Atletico Madrid have managed to break the Real Madrid\u2013Barcelona stronghold since 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean there haven\u2019t been shocks. Teams from outside the usual set of contenders who have defied all odds to win their league titles. As well as the ecstasy that comes with winning the title, these teams were rewarded for their exploits with a route into the Champions League.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most recent example? Union Saint-Gilloise, who ended a 90-year wait to win the Belgian league title last season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below, we\u2019ve taken a look at 16 outsiders who won their domestic titles and how they managed in the Champions League.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blackburn Rovers (1995)<\/h2>\n

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Bank-rolled by local industrial magnate Jack Walker, Blackburn Rovers went on a spending spree to challenge and beat Manchester United to the Premier League title in 1995. They headed to Europe with their victorious team intact but only managed a win and a draw from their six group games, finishing bottom of Group B behind Spartak Moscow, Legia Warsaw and Rosenborg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

With only title-winners involved, Blackburn’s exit meant the Premier League had no team in the knockout stages of the Champions League, something that has not happened since.<\/p>\n

Nantes (1995)<\/h2>\n

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Jean-Claude Suaudeau initially feared that his side would struggle to stay out of the relegation battle in 1994\/95. Then they surprised everyone, including themselves, to win the Ligue 1 title that season, 10 points ahead of runners-up Lyon.<\/p>\n

A year later they headed into the Champions League and came second in their group behind Greek side Panathinaikos, with two wins and three draws from six games, leaving Porto and Aalborg to founder in third and fourth place, respectively.<\/p>\n

In the quarter-finals, Nantes came up against Group B winners Spartak Moscow and won 4-2 on aggregate to set up a daunting semi-final clash with Juventus<\/strong>. Unfortunately, the Old Lady proved too much for the French side, winning 4-3 on aggregate en route to beating Ajax in the final. But not before Nantes went out in style, winning 3-2 in the second leg at home.<\/p>\n

Kaiserslautern (1998)<\/h2>\n

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Kaiserslautern have been through the ringer in the past 25 years and were relegated from the Bundesliga in 1996. But they were promoted at the first time of asking and went on to win the Bundesliga title upon their return to the top-flight, finishing two points clear of Bayern Munich and securing passage to the Champions League the following year. They didn’t just make up the numbers in Europe either.<\/p>\n

After topping a group that featured former European champions Benfica and a Bobby Robson-managed PSV Eindhoven, they came up against Bayern again in the quarter-finals, losing 6-0 on aggregate<\/strong>. The dream was over but memories remain of how one of the original founding members of the Bundesliga came back from relegation in 1996 to win the German title and take on Europe’s best. These memories are cherished even more given Kaiserslautern’s current position in the third tier of German football.<\/p>\n

Genk (1999)<\/h2>\n

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Just 11 years after being founded in a merger between two other Belgian clubs, Genk secured their first top-flight title, beating Club Brugge and Anderlecht, who were forced to finished second and third, respectively.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, victory only granted the champions a place in the qualification rounds and they never made it to the group stages, losing to Maribor of Slovenia in the second round play-off<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Deportivo de La Coruna (2000)<\/h2>\n

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Spanish football looked set for an exciting new future at the turn of the century as the league title went to a team in the far north-western region of Galicia for the very first time in the competition’s history.<\/p>\n

The Deportivo side that claimed the championship were a cult team featuring the likes of Roy Makaay, Victor Sanchez and Djalminha, and they became something of a bogey side in Europe following the signing of more memorable players such as Diego Tristan.<\/p>\n

After finishing top in both group stages (back when the competition featured two) ahead\u00a0of\u00a0Panathinaikos, Hamburg and Juventus and then Galatasaray, Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, conjuring up 10 points against both sets of teams, they finally lost out to Leeds United, 3-2 on aggregate, in the quarter-finals<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Boavista (2001)<\/h2>\n

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Only the second team to beat the big three – Benfica, Porto and Sporting – to a top-flight title in Portuguese football history, Boavista became champions by just a single point in 2001 playing a feisty, fully-committed style of play that ensured their players won every battle they could out on the pitch.<\/p>\n

Like Deportivo over the border, they had to contend with a format featuring two group stages, finishing as runners-up in their first just behind Liverpool, and ahead of Borussia Dortmund and Dynamo Kiev, but losing out in the second group as they finished third<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Yet there was no shame in the Portuguese minnows falling at that hurdle. With Manchester United and Bayern Munich taking the top two spots, they still managed to record a win and two draws to keep themselves above Nantes for a respectable finish to their European adventure.<\/p>\n