FC BATE Borisov

Formed: 1973
Nickname: Zholto-Sinie (Yellow-Blues)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• none

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 7 (2010)
• Belarus Cup: 2 (2010)

History 
• Borisov’s most significant footballing export started life as the team of the BATE factory in 1973 – the initials stand for Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics – playing in the eastern second division of the Soviet-era Belarusian second division, and earning promotion to the top flight in their first season.

• They went on to win the Belarusian top division title at the first attempt too, that 1974 success followed by further titles in 1976 and 1979 as well as the 1976 Soviet Belarus Cup. However the team was disbanded in 1981, with the likes of FC Berezina, FC Avtomobilist, FC Iskra and FC Fomalgaout representing the city in the following years.

• New sponsors revived the club in March 1996 under the leadership of president Anatoliy Kapsky and they swiftly rose from the third division in post-independence Belarus, finishing second when they made their top-division debut in 1998 and winning the first of their two titles under coach Yuri Puntus the following year.

• Puntus oversaw a second title triumph in 2002 but was replaced by Igor Kriushenko ahead of the 2005 campaign; the former BATE reserve coach won the 2006 league and cup double and another title the following season before his assistant Viktor Goncharenko took his place.

• Barely 30 when he took charge, the former BATE defender led the club to three further titles and into the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League and through two UEFA Europa League group stages in subsequent seasons; in 2010/11 they qualified for the spring stages of a UEFA club competition for the first time.

Club records
Most appearances: Dmitri Likhtarovich (317)*
Most goals: Nikolai Ryndyuk (74)
Record victory: BATE 10-0 FC Stroitel (Belarusian second division, 22 October 1997)
Record defeat: BATE 1-7 FC Lokomotiv Moskva (UEFA Cup second qualifying round, 12 August 1999)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=66168/profile/index.html

FC Viktoria Plzeň Profile

Formed: 1911
Nickname: Rudí (Reds)

UEFA club competition honours
• None

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 1 (2011)
• National cup: 2 (2010)

History
• Viktoria were founded on 27 August 1911, losing 7-3 against local rivals FC Olympia Plzeň in their first fixture. They remained an amateur side until 1929, but after turning professional, made their debut in the top division in Czechoslovakia two years later.

• A fourth-place finish in the 1935 season earned Plzeň the chance to compete in the Central European International Cup, where they took on a Juventus team featuring a number of FIFA World Cup winners: they drew 3-3 at home but lost 5-1 in Turin.

• The city famous for its Pilsener beer had to wait over 30 years for another chance to impress in Europe, having beaten FC Spartak Trnava to earn their first major honour, the 1970/71 Czechoslovakian Cup. FC Bayern München proved too hot to handle in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, with Viktoria losing 7-1 on aggregate.

• While Plzeň produced world-class players like midfield general Pavel Nedvěd and the goalkeeper Petr Čech, they regularly saw their top stars leave for the big Prague clubs as the team from Western Bohemia bounced between the top two divisions.

• Pavel Vrba was appointed coach in 2008, and led his side to a 2-1 win against FK Jablonec in the 2009/10 Czech Cup final. The Slovakian was to trump that achievement in the year of the club’s centenary, winning the league title and taking Plzeň into the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Club records
Most league appearances: Vladimír Bína (261)
Most league goals: Vladimír Perk (130)
Record victory: 9-0 against ČSD Plzeň (1952)
Record defeat: 10-1 against AC Sparta Praha (1935)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=64388/profile/index.html

AC Milan Profile

Formed: 1899
Nickname: Rossoneri (Red and Blacks), il Diavolo (the Devil)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, 2007; (1958), (1993), (1995), (2005)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1968, 1973; (1974)
• UEFA Super Cup: 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, 2007; (1973), (1993)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 18 (2011)
• Italian Cup: 5 (2003)

History
• The Milan Football and Cricket Club was founded on 16 December 1899 by a group of English businessmen led by Alfred Edwards. Tyre magnate and club president Piero Pirelli oversaw the construction of San Siro in 1926, but it was not until the 1950s that the Rossoneri began producing results to match that famous stage.

• In 1945 the club changed its name to Associazione Calcio Milan and it brought good luck, the Rossoneri celebrating their first Scudetto in 44 years in 1950/51 with a team led by the ‘Grenoli’ forward line comprising Swedes Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm.

• Five years after a 3-2 extra-time defeat by Real Madrid CF in their first European Champion Clubs’ Cup final, the Rossoneri lifted the continental title after a 2-1 victory against SL Benfica at Wembley in 1963. With Gianni Rivera at the fulcrum Milan continued to pick up silverware, including a second European Cup in 1969, and he was still there when they claimed a tenth Italian title a decade later.

• In the mid-1980s Milan were transformed by Silvio Berlusconi. After appointing the little-known Arrigo Sacchi as coach, Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard helped the Rossoneri win back-to-back European Cups then the 1991/92 Serie A title without losing a game in Fabio Capello’s first season in charge. After losing the 1993 UEFA Champions League final to Olympique de Marseille, Milan demolished FC Barcelona in the showpiece the following year.

• Sacchi protégé Carlo Ancelotti became coach in November 2001 and took Milan to another Scudetto and two UEFA Champions League titles. In 2003 captain Paolo Maldini lifted the European Cup in England 40 years after his father had done the same. Four years later the Rossoneri atoned for their defeat on penalties by Liverpool FC in the 2005 final by beating them in Athens to clinch the trophy for a seventh time. Milan appointed Massimiliano Allegri as coach in 2010 and he enjoyed success in his debut season, securing the Diavolo’s first Scudetto since 2004.

Club records
Most appearances: Paolo Maldini (902)
Most goals: Gunnar Nordahl (221)
Record victory: Milan 13-0 Modena FC (First Division, 4 October 1914)
Record defeat: Milan 0-8 Bologna FC (First Division, 5 November 1922)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=50058/profile/index.html

Borussia Dortmund Profile

Formed: 1909
Nickname: Die Schwarzgelben (The Black-Yellows)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1997
• UEFA Cup: (1993, 2002)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1966
• UEFA Super Cup: (1998)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 7 (2011)
• DFB-Pokal: 2 (1989)

History
• While many German teams were founded as gymnastics clubs, Dortmund were created solely as a football entity in 1909. They enjoyed some good results in the 1930s and 1940s but were unable to escape the shadow cast by arch-rivals FC Schalke 04. In 1947, a memorable 3-2 win in the Westphalia Championship final marked the first time the Black-Yellows had overcome the Royal Blues.

• In 1956, a crowd of 75,000 watched Dortmund win their first German title with a 4-2 defeat of Karlsruher SC in Berlin’s Olympiastadion. BVB defended their crown the following year with a 4-1 defeat of Hamburger SV with exactly the same team as the previous year, a feat never accomplished before or since. Dortmund had to wait for continental success, however, having been knocked out of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup by Manchester United FC in 1956 and AC Milan the following year.

• Dortmund started the inaugural Bundesliga season as German champions after winning their third title in 1963. The club lifted the domestic Cup in 1965 and went on to win their first European silverware the next season when they defeated Liverpool FC 2-1 after extra time to clinch the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. However, a steady decline ensued which included a four-year spell in the 2. Bundesliga from 1972.

• Revived by a 1989 DFB-Pokal Cup victory, Dortmund became a leading force in German football in the mid-1990s. Under the guidance of Ottmar Hitzfeld, BVB won successive titles in 1995 and 1996 having reached the 1993 UEFA Cup final where they lost to Juventus. Hitzfeld’s side sealed a sweet revenge against the Italian giants in the 1997 UEFA Champions League final, triumphing 3-1 in Munich. They followed it up with victory in the European/South American Cup and Dortmund were again Bundesliga champions in 2002, but then endured another fall from grace.

• The club turned to their traditionally strong youth department in the years that followed and coach Jürgen Klopp almost took his side into the European places in his first season, 2008/09. In the following campaign, the Black-Yellows finished fifth and consolidated their position back among Germany’s elite, but it was in the 2010/11 campaign that Dortmund lifted their seventh domestic title. Klopp’s young and exciting side featured stars such as Mats Hummels, Kevin Grosskreutz, Shinji Kagawa and the highly-rated Mario Götze.

Club records
Most appearances: Michael Zorc (463)
Most goals: Alfred Preissler (168)
Record victory: Borussia Dortmund 11-1 DSC Arminia Bielefeld (Bundesliga, 6 November 1982)
Record defeat: VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 12-0 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga, 29 April 1978)

 From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52758/profile/index.html

Olympiacos FC Profile

Formed: 1925
Nickname: Erythrolefki (Red and Whites)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• None

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
League title: 38 (2011)
Greek Cup: 24 (2009)

History
• With a name inspired by the noted aviator Notis Kamperos, Olympiacos were formed by the five-man Andrianopoulos brothers in the small port of Piraeus in Athens on 10 March 1925, and those same siblings went on to form the potent forward line which dominated the fledgling Greek championship in the 1930s.

• The club secured six league titles before the Second World War and enjoyed even better times afterwards, taking seven championship crowns and seven Greek Cups in the 1950s, including three consecutive domestic doubles between 1957 and 1959.

• A comparatively lean period in the 1960s was reversed by ambitious club president Nikos Goulandris, who brought in star names to knock Panathinaikos FC off their perch in 1973, with the first of three straight titles. The second of those crowns was attained thanks to a stunning 102 goals in 34 league outings.

• The success continued into the 1980s until the club faced financial problems. However, the situation was resolved when Socrates Kokkalis, owner of the Olympiacos basketball section, took over in 1992.

• The appointment of Dušan Bajevic as coach in 1996 then helped return Olympiacos to the forefront on the pitch, with a ten-year championship drought ended in 1996/97. That proved to be the first of seven consecutive league titles, eclipsing the club’s Greek record of six successes between 1954 and 1959. Olympiacos’ dominance on the domestic scene has continued throughout the decade, securing 13 championships between 1997 and 2011.

Club records
Most league appearances: Kyiakos Karataidis (363)
Most league goals: Giorgos Sideris (224)
Record victory: Olympiacos 11-0 Fostiras FC (Alpha Katigoria, 1973/74)
Record defeat: Juventus 7-0 Olympiacos (UEFA Champions League, 10 December 2003)

 From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=2610/profile/index.html

Olympique de Marseille Profile

Formed: 1899
Nicknames: Les Olympiens (The Olympians), Les Phocéens (The Phocians), OM

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1993; (1991)
• UEFA Cup: (1999), (2004)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 9 (2010)
• French Cup: 10 (1989)
• League Cup: 2 (2011)

History
• The only French side to have won the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, Marseille were slow burners. Formed in 1899, OM began to make their mark with three French Cup triumphs in four years (1924, 1926, 1927). They turned professional in 1932 and, after winning the cup again in 1935, claimed a first championship title in 1937.

• Another French Cup triumph followed in 1943 and a second title five years later, but the club’s fortunes were in decline despite the presence of all-time leading scorer Gunnar Andersson. Marseille were relegated in 1958/59 and only in 1965, when Marcel Leclerc became club president, did things improve.

• OM returned to the top flight in 1966 and, with Yugoslavia striker Josip Skoblar setting the Stade Vélodrome alight, took French football by storm. They won successive titles in 1970/71 and 1971/72, the latter half of a domestic double, yet by the end of the decade Marseille had lost their lustre and they were relegated in 1980.

• Les Phocéens bounced back under new owner Bernard Tapie and secured another double in 1988/89, embarking on a run of four straight titles between 1989 and 1992. The disappointment of losing in the 1991 European Cup final was forgotten when a side captained by Didier Deschamps beat AC Milan to lift the trophy in 1993, Basile Boli’s goal proving the difference in Munich.

• Celebrations were short-lived. Found guilty of match-fixing, Marseille were demoted to the second tier and stripped of the 1992/93 French title. Though they soon bounced back, major silverware proved elusive. OM reached two UEFA Cup finals but lost both, to Parma FC (1999) and Valencia CF (2004), and it was a similar story in the French Cup finals of 2006 and 2007. The curse was finally lifted in 2009/10 as they followed up their maiden League Cup success with a first title since 1992.

Club Records
Most appearances: Roger Scotti (451)
Most goals: Gunnar Andersson (187)
Record victory: Marseille 19-0 Stade Raphaëlois (French Cup, 29 October 1933)
Record defeat: Olympique Lyonnais 8-0 Marseille (Première Division, 24 May 1997)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52748/profile/index.html

KRC Genk Profile

Formed: 1923

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 3 (2011)

• Belgian Cup: 3 (2009)

History

The club FC Winterslag was founded in 1923 and they became that year a member of the Belgian Football Association that gave it the matricule number 322. On its 35th anniversary the club added the Royal prefix Koninklijke to their name to become KFC Winterslag. In 1972–73 Winterslag reached the second division and they eventually qualified for the 1974–75 Belgian First Division after finishing second in the second division final round. They had taken advantage of the increase in the number of first division clubs (from 16 to 20). The club ended the season in last place but won the second division right after.

KFC Winterslag reached the 5th place in 1981 but two seasons later it was relegated to the second stage after a disappointing last place. That season Standard Liège won the championship on bribery in a match against the club of Waterschei Thor that would eventually merge with the matricule number 322. Following a spell of four seasons in the second division, Winterslag found its place again in the first division by winning the 1987 final round, one point ahead of Tongeren. It finished 15th on 18 but at the end of the season, the club merged with the neighbour club of Waterschei Thor which was playing in the second division since its relegation in 1986.

Valencia CF Profile

Formed: 1919
Nickname: Blanquinegros (The White and Blacks)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2000), (2001)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1980
• UEFA Cup: 2004
• UEFA Super Cup: 1980, 2004

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 6 (2004)
• Spanish Cup: 7 (2008)

History
• On 5 March 1919 a group of footballers gathered in a bar on Calle Barcelona with the aim of creating a football team to replace the long defunct Club Valencia. Valencia CF was born, initially calling a field in Algiros home.

• Regional success brought admission into the Copa del Rey in 1923, the year Valencia moved to Mestalla, and by the end of the 1920s Los Blanquinegros had won promotion to Spain’s second tier. By 1931 they were in the Liga, and though Real Madrid CF proved too strong in the 1934 Copa del Rey final, Valencia did not have to wait long for their time.

• Under charismatic club president Luis Casanova, the 1940s was a golden era for Valencia. Spearheaded by Epifanio ‘Epi’ Fernández and Edmundo Suárez, they returned to Mestalla – largely reconstructed following damage during the Spanish Civil War – with three Liga titles (1942, 1944, 1947) and two Spanish Cups (1941, 1949).

• The gold run dried up, but Alfredo Di Stéfano’s entrance in 1970 changed that as he guided Los Blanquinegros to a last-day Liga triumph in his first season. The arrival of another Argentina-born star, Mario Kempes, at the end of the decade brought more success as El Matador scored the winning goal in the 1979 Copa del Rey final. Twelve months later Kempes missed a penalty in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup showpiece though Valencia nevertheless prevailed against Arsenal FC. Yet by 1986 they were enduring their first season outside the top flight in 56 years.

• Following the 1999 Copa del Rey triumph, the new millennium brought fresh success. Rafael Benítez guided the side to two Liga successes (2002 and 2004) and, having lost successive UEFA Champions League finals (in 2000 to Real Madrid CF and in 2001 to FC Bayern München), a 2-0 victory against Olympique de Marseille secured the 2004 UEFA Cup. Valencia added their seventh Copa del Rey in 2008.

Club records
Most appearances: Fernando Gómez (552)
Most goals: Mundo (206)
Record victory: 8-0 twice, most recently at home against Real Sporting de Gijón (Liga, 29 November 1953)
Record defeat: Sevilla FC 10-3 Valencia (Liga, 13 October 1940)

 

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52268/profile/index.html

Chelsea FC Profile

Formed: 1905
Nickname: The Blues

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2008)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1971, 1998
• UEFA Super Cup: 1998

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 4 (2010)
• FA Cup: 6 (2010)
• League Cup: 4 (2007)

History
• Chelsea are the only side in England who were admitted into the Football League without kicking a ball following their creation. Despite that auspicious start it was not until the 1950s, under former Arsenal FC man Ted Drake, that the west London outfit began collecting silverware. Celebrating their golden jubilee, the newly-nicknamed Blues – they have always worn the colour, though sported a lighter shade until 1912 – claimed the 1954/55 league title with one of the lowest points tallies in English football history.

• The club underwent a transformation in the 1960s as London became the music and fashion capital of the world. They became known as the country’s glamour club, while on the pitch Tommy Docherty’s young team claimed the League Cup in 1964/65 and finished runners-up in the FA Cup two years later.

• Docherty’s replacement Dave Sexton masterminded further successes, beating Leeds United AFC in the 1970 FA Cup final and lifting the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup against Real Madrid CF in another replayed showpiece the following season.

• Anticipating glory days, the club invested heavily in upgrading Stamford Bridge, only to be hit by relegation. Staring bankruptcy in the face, the long-standing Mears family famously sold the club – and its huge debts – to Ken Bates for £1 in 1982. The new chairman eventually restored some glamour by appointing the likes of Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli as manager, the latter guiding the team to UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup glory in 1997/98.

• Financial problems returned, however, and in 2003 Bates sold the club to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. José Mourinho replaced Claudio Ranieri the following year and the side clinched their first championship in 50 years in the Portuguese manager’s first season.

• They successfully defended the title, and only a slip by John Terry in a penalty shoot-out against Manchester United FC denied Mourinho’s successor, Avram Grant, the UEFA Champions League in 2007/08. Carlo Ancelotti then won a league and FA Cup double in his first campaign in charge in 2009/10, only for Abramovich to replace the Italian with FC Porto’s treble-winning coach André Villas-Boas ahead of the 2011/12 season.

Club records
Most appearances: Ron Harris (795)
Most goals: Bobby Tambling (202)
Record victory: Chelsea 13-0 FC Jeunesse Hautcharage (UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, 29 September 1971)
Record defeat: Wolverhampton Wanderers FC 8-1 Chelsea (First Division, 26 September 1953)

 From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52914/profile/index.html

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Profile

Formed: 1904
Nickname: Werkself (Factory XI)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2002)
• UEFA Cup: 1988

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• German Cup: 1 (1993)

History
• In 1903, 170 workers at the Bayer chemical plant signed a petition requesting the foundation of a company sports club; the management acceded to their request the following year and the football division opened in 1907, though they achieved little of note in its early decades.

• Leverkusen were still playing in the second tier of the Regionalliga West when the Bundesliga was founded in 1963 and while they remained an unremarkable side for the next 15 years, they made a siginificant breakthrough when they won promotion to the top division for the 1979/80 season; they have not been relegated since.

• Leverkusen’s first Bundesliga seasons were a struggle, but coach Erich Ribbeck’s arrival in the mid-1980s led to improved results; they competed in the UEFA Cup for the first time in 1986/87 and won the competition the following season, recovering from a 3-0 first-leg deficit against RCD Espanyol to win the trophy on penalties at home.

• Following reunification Leverkusen had great success in nurturing talent from the former East Germany, the likes of Andreas Thom, Jens Melzig and Ulf Kirsten combining with Brazilian stars Jorginho and Paulo Sérgio to establish Leverkusen among Germany’s top sides; they won the 1993 German Cup, beating Hertha BSC Berlin’s reserves 1-0 in the final.

• Leverkusen’s stock rose even higher in the 1990s and early 2000s as they finished second in the Bundesliga three times and under Klaus Toppmöller lost out to Zinédine Zidane’s wonder-goal in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League final; they also reached the German Cup final in the same campaign.

Club records
Most league appearances: Rüdiger Vollborn (401)
Most league goals: Ulf Kirsten (182)
Record victory: FC Stahl Brandenburg 0-11 Leverkusen (German Cup, 13 March 1994)
Record defeat: Hannover 96 6-1 Leverkusen (Bundesliga, 26 March 1988)

 

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=50109/profile/index.html