Real Madrid's brutal Champions League record: 11 semi-finals in 13 years

Following their victory over Chelsea (0-2), Real Madrid will contest their 11th Champions League semifinal in the last 13 years. Since 2010, Real Madrid have only missed out on the last four of the competition on two occasions, in 2018-2019, when they lost in the last 16 to Ajax, and 2019-2020, when they were knocked out by Manchester City, also in the last 16.

The other 10 editions had counted on Madrid's presence in the semifinals. In five they were eliminated. In the other five, they reached the final and won it. The first duel of this series was against Pep Guardiola's Barça. Mourinho's team succumbed at the Santiago Bernabéu with a Leo Messi brace and could only manage a 1-1 draw at the Spotify Camp Nou.

A year later, it was Bayern who put them to the sword in a penalty shoot-out (1-3), after the two meetings ended 3-3 on aggregare. Los Blancos would suffer a third elimination the following season at the hands of Borussia Dortmund. The Germans made the 4-1 first-leg win count, with current Barça striker Robert Lewandowski scoring a hat-trick. The 2-0 win in the second leg was not enough for Madrid.

Real Madrid broke the streak under Carlo Ancelotti to win their 10th Champions League title in the 2013-2014 campaign. In the semifinal, they saw off Pep Guardiola's Bayern with a double victory: 1-0 at the Bernabéu and an unexpected 4-0 win at the Allianz.

The following season they again fell by the wayside, losing to Juventus, who won 2-1 in Turin and snatched a 1-1 draw in Madrid.

With Zinedine Zidane on the bench, Real Madrid then won three titles in a row. The 2015-2016 season saw them dispose of Manchester City, with Guardiola on the bench, by holding them to a 0-0 draw at the Ethiad and winning 1-0 at home.

A year later, their victim was Atlético: 3-0 at the Bernabeu and 1-2 at the Vicente Calderon. And the following season, they eliminated Bayern, not without controversy. Los Blancos won 2-1 in Munich, but at the Bernabeu they had the tie lost until the Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai gave a 'little push' by conceding two offside goals to Cristiano Ronaldo, leaving the Bavarians with 10 men due to Arturo Vidal's sending off and letting Casemiro off a red card. An aggregate score of 2-2 and Real Madrid qualified.

Three seasons ago, Chelsea overwhelmed Real Madrid by drawing 1-1 at the Bernabéu and winning at Stamford Bridge with goals from Werner and Mount.

Last year, Real Madrid pulled off a miraculous qualification against Manchester City. The English side won the first leg 4-3, deserving a better scoreline, and went into stoppage time at the Bernabeu leading 1-0 with a Gündogan goal, but then Rodrygo emerged with a brace in the space of a minute. Benzema sealed the win in stoppage time from the penalty spot.

Throughout history, Madrid have played in 32 semi-finals in 68 editions of Europe's top competition, including the European Cup (16) and the Champions League (16). In 15 they were eliminated and in 17 they reached the final.

The data takes on special relevance if we take into account a fact published this Wednesday by colleagues at the newspaper 'As'. When comparing Madrid's record with those of other European giants, only six teams have played in more European Cup/Champions League semi-finals in history than Real Madrid have in the last 13 seasons. They are Bayern Munich (20), FC Barcelona (16), AC Milan (14), Juventus (12), Manchester United (12) and Liverpool (12).

Of the other clubs that have contested the competition throughout its history, none have managed to reach the 11 semi-finals that Real Madrid have reached between the 2010/11 and 2022/23 campaigns.

These are the ten semi-finals played by Real Madrid since 2010. They have qualified for all of them and ended up as champions: