Top 5 greatest UCL comebacks made in Spain
Can Real Madrid pull off an incredible feat against Arsenal? In their Champions League repertoire they have 15 titles, memorable comebacks and plenty of last-minute winners... but they’ve never managed to overturn a first-leg, three-goal deficit.
To achieve this, they might want to draw inspiration from some of the greatest UCL comebacks by Spanish teams in the knockout stages of club football’s most prestigious competition.
1) Real Madrid 3-0 Wolfsburg
What better way to kick off this list than with Real Madrid themselves, when they were successful in turning around a 2-0 away defeat in Germany back in their 2016 quarter-final. They needed to score three goals and not concede, due to the away goal rule, and they did just that. It only took them 17 minutes to wipe out Wolfsburg’s two-goal advantage, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring both and then completing his hat-trick and the remontada with a free-kick goal in the 77th minute. Madrid would go on to knock out Manchester City in the semis and defeat Atlético de Madrid on penalties in the final to lift their 11th UCL.
2) FC Barcelona 6-1 PSG
Next in line could only be the biggest comeback this competition has ever seen. PSG’s emphatic 4-0 home win in 2017 was supposed to be enough to end the Catalan’s UCL hopes, and few believed in Barça. Yet Luis Enrique always had faith: “If PSG scored four goals against us, we can score six”. Those words weren’t taken too seriously... until Barça were 3-0 up after 50 minutes. The atmosphere at the Camp Nou was buzzing, everyone was ecstatic and the impossible seemed possible. But Cavani’s dagger to the heart ten minutes later meant that the Blaugranas now needed another three strikes because of the away goal rule. Time was running out until the unthinkable happened from the 88th minute onwards. The miracle was pulled off and history was made.
3) Deportivo de La Coruña 4-0 AC Milan
Since 2018 Depor have been lingering in the lower divisions, but back in the days they were quite the team. One of their peak European performances was undoubtedly when they smashed Milan at home in the 2004 quarter-finals, after losing 4-1 in the first leg. They might’ve been intimidated by the likes of Maldini, Pirlo, Gattuso, Kaká or Shevchenko in their first encounter, but they quickly learned from their mistakes. It barely took Deportivo 45 minutes to turn the tables, netting three goals that were enough to see them through, but they made sure to celebrate an epic comeback with a fourth. What a night!
4) FC Barcelona 4-0 AC Milan
Back in 2013, a 2-0 first-leg win for Milan at San Siro in the round of 16 resulted in Barça’s fourth defeat of the season. A strong defensive performance from Massimiliano Allegri’s men, who kept Messi, David Villa and company at bay. But Barça’s collective and individual talent was too much at the time for Milan to hold them back another 90 minutes. Messi’s brace, together with goals from Villa and Jordi Alba, secured Barça's sixth straight quarter-final.
5) FC Barcelona 5-1 Chelsea
When we think of remontadas, it’s usually Real Madrid that comes to mind, but the truth is Barça have pulled off more dramatic comebacks. This time it was in the 2000 quarter-finals, when they conceded three goals in just eight minutes against Chelsea, losing the first leg 3-1, despite being the better side. Back at the Camp Nou, Barça were 2-0 up by half time and on their way to bouncing back until a huge Ruud Hesp mistake put Chelsea ahead again on aggregate. The Catalan team kept pushing until they levelled the tie in the 83rd minute through Dani, and even had a penalty right at the end to finish off the game. But Rivaldo hit the post and the game went into extra time. The Brazilian stepped up again for another penalty, sent it the same way, but this time found the back of the net to complete the comeback, which was later sealed by Patrik Kluivert’s goal in the 104th minute on an unforgettable night. It sent them through to a semi-final against Valencia, where they went on to lose 4-1 in the first encounter, and this time they were unable to pull off a second miracle, winning just 2-1 at home.
