European Cup Trivia

[Alex Anderson]

In my long and lonely travels without any ability to post, I have been loving this thread. Just thought I'd say.

Gawd bless ye for saying son and, to commemorate the occasion of your return, I'll wheel out one my old favourites (as the charge sheet stated me as having said at the urinal ...):

Which two countries are the only countries in European Cup/UCL history to have provided two cities which have each provided two semi-finalists?

Yes - I know - more complicated than ordering a ticket for Malta at Hampden to be collected on the night. But if you sit down with your pint, sink it to below the bottom of the red border round the yellow T, breathe, and look at the question afresh, it's worth it:

There are a few cities across Europe to have provided more than one team to have reached the semis of the European Cup/Champions League. Not necessarily in the same season (though, of course, that's happened too) - just ever. But only two countries are home to two such cities.

Please forgive me if I've already done this one (but some people go on so much about this stuff I've honestly lost track)

You'd definitely remember if you'd tackled it before.

[denishurley]

Steve Finnan ticks that box

Edit: Having played in the fourth tier and winning a medal, not being a country to provide two cities which have each provided two semi-finalists.

[Various Artist]

It's England and Scotland, isn't it Alex?

England: London (Arsenal, Chelsea) and Manchester (Man United, Man City)

Scotland: Glasgow (Celtic, Rangers) and Dundee (Dundee, Dundee United)

[Various Artist]

Took a while but had a sudden flash of inspiration re the last of the quartet, not least due to a suspicion there might just be a Scottish connection creeping in there somewhere in an Alex Anderson quiz question. (Shurely not?)

Thought it had to be Italy (Milan & Rome, or possibly even Milan & Genoa) instead for a bit. Although Milan, Inter and Roma all count for the former, however, Lazio's best is EC/CL quarter-finals – and Genoa's golden age is far too long ago for them to have joined Sampdoria in any runs to the latter stages of the European Cup. Likewise Portugal (Lisbon & Oporto) – although Benfica and Porto are safely in the parade ring, Sporting and Boavista come up one round short as well I believe.

With Everton also having reached an EC QF, vaulting the city of Liverpool too over this rather lower bar of "two different teams in the EC/CL quarter-finals", does that make England and Italy the only nations to have three cities in this category?

I don't think Notts County, Birmingham City, Leeds City or Mickleover Sports (Derby) have ever featured in the European Cup quarters, alas, so I'm fairly sure no country can claim four cities for this achievement.

[Alex Anderson]

I presume Wembley holds the record for two finals held in the shortest space of time (2011 and '13)?

Yup, Denis. Wasn't til the night of the Bayern v Dortmund final in 2013 that I understood why it was back there so quickly - to mark the 150th anniversary of the FA.

And wouldn't it have been much better if those two Wembley hostings had coincided with the two Madrid derby finals two years apart - just to ram home the increasing repetitiveness engendered by monopolisation.

The Old Wembley did not bad either, mind, hosting it three times in an eight year period -1963, 68 and 71 (as well as 78 and 92), as did the Prater/Ernst Happel in Vienna (1987,1990, 1995)

Even if we treat Old Wembley as separate from the new place (which I do), it must have hosted most finals of this comp. I have 1964 taking Vienna's favourite venue to four and the Heysel had 1958, 1966, 1974 and 1985. Bernabeu had it in 1957, 69, 80 and 2010. This is genuinely off the top of the coupon, mind - can think of another with four finals to its name but you can guess it yourselves ... so we'd better wait til ursus is up before spreading this as fact.


I think Satchmo (forgive me if it was someone else) said a few pages back that the Neckar, Stuttgart was the venue with longest space of time between its first two finals: Real beating Stade de Reims there in 1959, then PSV beating Benfica in 1988.

So VfB have lost the final of the UEFA and Cup-Winners' Cup and twice hosted the European Cup final. But won nowt in Europe.

So, excepting any temporary arrangements/residencies, can anyone name the OTHER ELEVEN CLUBS whose ground has hosted the final but they themselves have never won the European champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League?

[Various Artist]

The Old Wembley did not bad either, mind

Do I not like that?

[Alex Anderson]

Piece of cake, VA - Dundee cake, to be exact, for FelicityIGS (in fact - wait a minute - Dundee has the new "V&A" too, doesn't it? ... I need a lie down ...).

And, yup, you're absolutely right that I felt a tad gutted last year when Man City spoiled thirty three years of Scotland having this as its most convoluted of myriad tenuous claims to fame.

As a nation we can throw in Hibs too - Britain's first ever European Cup/UCL entrants and semi-finalists, and London can also throw in Spurs (surely England's Hibs?), losing a last-four hum-dinger to Benfica in 1961-62.

I love it as a question, though, because of the mental gymnastics it puts you through. As you experienced, it's that lovely juicy combo of knowing so much about the topic but being unable to nail down a correct answer.

And also worth mentioning, for Scottish egos, that both Dundee clubs also reached the semis of the Fairs/UEFA - United, of course, going on to the final; Aberdeen reached the semis of the CWC again the season after they won it; The Old Firm have played the semis of all three comps, each reaching the final of two, and Dunfermline reached the Cup-Winners' Cup semis in 69 and Kilmarnock the Fairs Cup semis in 67 ...

But this is a European Cup trivia thread and I'm clearly going off topic because one stolid home win over Malta has us all thinking we're going to really shake them up when ...

[blameless]

name the OTHER ELEVEN CLUBS whose ground has hosted the final but they themselves have never won the European champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League?

Schalke, Roma

[denishurley]

I presume, for the purposes of this question, Wembley doesn't count as the ground of Arsenal or Tottenham?

Edit: Immaterial of course as both won the Fairs/UEFA Cup. Must try harder at being a try-hard.

[ad hoc]

AEK, Hertha Berlin, Sevilla

[Kevin S]

Took a while but had a sudden flash of inspiration re the last of the quartet, not least due to a suspicion there might just be a Scottish connection creeping in there somewhere in an Alex Anderson quiz question. (Shurely not?)

Thought it had to be Italy (Milan & Rome, or possibly even Milan & Genoa) instead for a bit. Although Milan, Inter and Roma all count for the former, however, Lazio's best is EC/CL quarter-finals – and Genoa's golden age is far too long ago for them to have joined Sampdoria in any runs to the latter stages of the European Cup. Likewise Portugal (Lisbon & Oporto) – although Benfica and Porto are safely in the parade ring, Sporting and Boavista come up one round short as well I believe.

With Everton also having reached an EC QF, vaulting the city of Liverpool too over this rather lower bar of "two different teams in the EC/CL quarter-finals", does that make England and Italy the only nations to have three cities in this category?

I don't think Notts County, Birmingham City, Leeds City or Mickleover Sports (Derby) have ever featured in the European Cup quarters, alas, so I'm fairly sure no country can claim four cities for this achievement.

Torino made the second round of the 1976-77 European Cup, which was one round shy of the quarter final, so Turin drops a little short as well.

[Alex Anderson]

Sorry, Denis - nope - few residencies of any ground are truly permanent but I'm not including known temporary arrangements (UEFA have to take that on as a legal term. They must - it's a classic!). Mostly because every team in Austria to have qualified for anything has staged a European game at the Prater.

But mostly I'm just scared now. I've started laying down rules. Things are bad.

NICE, Blameless - two down, nine to go.

(That's "nice" as in "well done". Not OGC Nice, Rangers' first ever opponents in this competition.)

[Alex Anderson]

AEK, Hertha Berlin, Sevilla

This is why I was scared. Correct on the other two, ad hoc but I wasn't going to take AEK - they're "between grounds", are they not. I know them, Pana and Olympiakos always used the Olympic for big European games but they've never been permanent.

So far then we have

AS Roma (1977, 1984, 1996, 2009)
Schalke 04 (2004, Porto v Monaco)
Seville (1986, Steaua v Barca)
Hertha Berlin (2015, Barca v Juve)

At least I think so. I'm scared. WHERE ARE YOU URSUS?! I've gone and started something again ...

[ad hoc]

I believe AEK are semi-permanently in the OAKA (they have plans for a new ground, but, you know, plans, Greece, etc etc)

Feyenoord is another one

[ad hoc]

And Young Boys. That's it. I'm out now.

[ursus arctos]

Paris St Germain
VfB Stuttgart
Schalke 04
Queens Park
Bari

[Wouter D]

Feyenoord is another one

They won the 1969/1970 edition.

[ad hoc]

Thanks. I feel like now I need to back away from the thread. Alex will never let my avatar darken this thread ever again with that level of error

[ursus arctos]

The Paris clubs are actually somewhat interesting.

Racing Matra certainly should count, and the ground was also used by Racing Club, Stade Francais and Red Star for "matchs de gala", though I presume we aren't counting those, lest we count FK Austria and Rapid for the Prater.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

On the two clubs from one city one, is Villareal not all intents and purposes a suburb of Valencia?

[ursus arctos]

It's more a suburb of Castellon de la Plana, which has more than 150,000 inhabitants on its own

[Satchmo Distel]

Alex, yes, I was the fecker who posted about Neckar. We had a discussion (UA and I) about world athletics championships as well, I think, which were held in Neckar (renamed Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion) in 1993. Unfortunately the original stadium was a Nazi build.

[Alex Anderson]

On the two clubs from one city one, is Villareal not all intents and purposes a suburb of Valencia?

This is one I've researched personally, Rogin. Not in any proper, official, actually-look-shit-up-on-the-internet-or-in-a-book way. But I have not only been to the two places in one day but also to see Villarreal in that very competition and, indeed, in the very season and process of making their semi-final debut.

It was an hour on the bus mate. Just a whole lot of orange groves and tile factories. But it was an hour. And on the way back, sobering up, having been charged a few times by mounted Guardia Civil in the alley outside the away section and Kris Boyd having missed an absolute fucking sitter to not put you into the Champions League quarter-finals in the most intense two-legged (football) experience of your club-supporting life, and swapping badges with locals and then suddenly discovering, as your bus has been changed to a smaller-seater than the one you came in on and the driver gets the Guardia Civil to throw off blokes who have to stand because there's FEWER FUCKING SEATS ON THIS BUS THAN THE ONE WE HAD ON THE WAY HERE, that you can speak enough Spanish to shame a native just trying to make a living while a bunch of drunken middle-aged northern Europeans hate him ... it feels more like three hours.

Aye. Flew into Valencia, spent the day there. Bus from Valenica to Villarreal was about an hour. But then, I suppose getting from one end of any major city to the other can take longer.

[Alex Anderson]

Or what ursus said ...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

If there's clear farmland between the two then they are different cities, definitely. My knowledge of the big German conurbations like Rhine Ruhr etc isn't near good enough to know if they effectively count as single cities now either.