“Welsh champions The New Saints are playing in the Champions League first qualifying round,” notes Ryan Flitcroft. “But has any team from this early in the qualifying stages reached the group or even knockout stages? If so, what is the furthest a team has gone in the competition relative to where they entered it?”
Guto Ifan is quick to tackle this question with a popular answer. “In 2006, Liverpool were possibly the most illustrious name to ever appear in the first qualifying round, having won the previous year’s competition but finishing fifth in the Premier League. At that time the rule that you were automatically in if you were champions did not exist.”
Much to the dismay of many non-Liverpool fans, Uefa gave Rafa Benítez’s side special dispensation to enter the competition at the first qualifying stage. “Liverpool reached the round of 16, so possibly a beatable record. Funnily enough Liverpool played the team mentioned in Ryan’s question, although they were called Total Network Solutions at the time. The aggregate score was a very respectable 6-0, especially considering Benítez put out a strong side in both legs.”
Fred Sullivan has done some serious digging into this question but, first, he points out that Liverpool’s 2005 Champions League win came having entered the competition in the third qualifying round, which means they played a total of 15 matches. “Liverpool’s combination of emotion-driven, European nous and sub-standard league performance means they actually have a decent record of going far in the competition when starting in the early rounds:
2001-02 3rd QR to quarter-finals
2004-05 3rd QR to winners
2005-06 1st QR to last 16
2006-07 3rd QR to final
2007-08 3rd QR to semi-finals
2017-18 Playoff round (essentially the 4th QR) to final
Fred has taken a Marianas Trench-level deep dive on this, going all the way back to the start of the European Cup. “Below is a table showing the best performing team who entered at the first round of games in the European Cup or Champions League, season-by-season. Early on, due to the number of teams it is pretty common that the earliest games were the first round proper so plenty of winners. More recently it’s clear that the smaller teams are effectively kept out of the competition as much as possible with no teams who started on ‘matchday one’ qualifying for the group stage since 2009.” This is the kind of table the Knowledge lives for – and it shows that Dynamo Kyiv are the team to beat, going all the way from the first qualifying round to the 1999 semi-final (14 matches), though Liverpool played the same amount of games in 2005-06 when reaching the last 16.
Season Earliest Round Last Surviving Team Result Games played
1956 1st Round Real Madrid Winners 7
1957 Prelim Round Man Utd Semis 8
1958 Prelim Round Milan Final 9
1959 Prelim Round Stade Reims Final 9
1960 Prelim Round Eintracht Frankfurt Final 7
1961 Prelim Round Benfica Winners 9
1962 Prelim Round Real Madrid Final 9
1963 Prelim Round Milan Winners 9
1964 Prelim Round Internazionale Winners 9
1965 Prelim Round Benfica Final 9
1966 Prelim Round Real Madrid Winners 9
1967 Prelim Round CSKA Red Flag Semis 10
1968 1st Round Man Utd Winners 9
1969 1st Round Milan Winners 7
1970 Prelim Round KB Last 32 4
1971 Prelim Round Austria Vienna Last 32 4
1972 Prelim Round Valencia Last 16 6
1973 1st Round Juventus Final 9
1974 1st Round Bayern Munich Winners 9
1975 1st Round Leeds United Final 9
1976 1st Round Bayern Munich Winners 9
1977 1st Round Liverpool Winners 9
1978 1st Round Brugge Final 9
1979 Prelim Round Monaco Last 32 4
1980 Prelim Round Dundalk Last 16 6
1981 Prelim Round Honved Last 16 6
1982 Prelim Round Dynamo Berlin Last 16 6
1983 1st Round Hamburg Winners 9
1984 1st Round Liverpool Winners 9
1985 1st Round Juventus Winners 9
1986 1st Round Steaua Bucharest Winners 9
1987 1st Round Porto Winners 9
1988 1st Round PSV Winners 9
1989 1st Round Milan Winners 9
1990 1st Round Milan Winners 9
1991 1st Round Red Star Winners 9
1992 1st Round Barcelona Winners 9
1993 Prelim Round Four teams Last 32 4
1994 Prelim Round 10 teams 1st Round 4
1995 Prelim Round PSG Semis 12
1996 Prelim Round Panathinaikos Semis 12
1997 Prelim Round Rosenborg Quarters 10
1998 1st Qual Round Dynamo Kyiv Quarters 12
1999 1st Qual Round Dynamo Kyiv Semis 14
2000 1st Qual Round Skonto Riga & Partizan 3rd QR 6
2001 1st Qual Round Red Star & Zimbru 3rd QR 6
2002 1st Qual Round Levski Sofia & Haka 3rd QR 6
2003 1st Qual Round APOEL & Zeljenicar 3rd QR 6
2004 1st Qual Round Vardar 3rd QR 6
2005 1st Qual Round Gorica & Shelbourne 3rd QR 6
2006 1st Qual Round Liverpool Last 16 14
2007 1st Qual Round Rabotnicki 3rd QR 6
2008 1st Qual Round 5 teams 3rd QR 6
2009 1st Qual Round Anorthosis & BATE Group stage 12
2010 1st Qual Round Sant Julia & Mogren 2nd QR 4
2011 1st Qual Round Rudar Pljevlja & Birkikara 2nd QR 4
2012 1st Qual Round Three teams 2nd QR 4
2013 1st Qual Round F91 Dudelange 3rd QR 6
2014 1st Qual Round Shirak & EB/Streymur 2nd QR 4
2015 1st Qual Round Three teams 2nd QR 4
2016 1st Qual Round Four teams 2nd QR 4
2017 1st Qual Round Four teams 2nd QR 4
2018 1st Qual Round Five teams 2nd QR 4
2019 Prelim Semis Drita 1st QR 4
2020 Prelim Semis Feronikeli 1st QR 4
2021 Prelim Semis Linfield 1st QR 4
2022 Prelim Semis Prishtina 1st QR 4
A bonus lap of grounds seen from parkruns
“To add to the list, the Coldham’s Common parkrun in Cambridge starts and finishes a few hundred metres from United’s Abbey Stadium,” writes Liam Richardson. “The floodlight towers of the stadium are visible from a large percentage of the course, but trees block any view of the stands.” Meanwhile, Rob Dyton takes us down to the south coast. “When working at AFC Bournemouth, I have definitely seen a parkrun go by the Vitality on a Saturday morning,” mails Rob, who will have seen the runners from Kings Park, right next door to the Vitality.
“I’m fairly certain that you can see the Principality Stadium on the Cardiff parkrun,” adds Robert Morgan. “While known mainly for rugby, it’s the former home of the Wales national team, and hosted a number of matches while Wembley was being redeveloped, including the League Cup and FA Cup finals. Oh, and it also hosted the Champions League final in 2017.”
“I reckon the Queens Park parkrun in Glasgow is the one you can see the most grounds from,” suggests Alan Reid. “From the top of the hill you can see a huge swathe of Glasgow and both Celtic Park and Hampden are easily seen. Unfortunately Lesser Hampden (home of Queens Park FC) nestles low behind the tenements of Mount Florida so you can’t see that, and Clyde no longer play at Shawfield (just greyhounds these days). Ibrox should be visible but I always avert my gaze. So that is at least two and probably three.” And Luke Kelly writes: “Are there any stats on professional footballers attending parkruns? Perhaps it’s too public for Premier League players but maybe some lower-league players visit their local parkrun on a Saturday morning? I know Jamie Carragher has been to Crosby.”
Hot dates in football club names
“How did 12 de Octubre Football Club in Paraguay get their name?” asks DW. “A quick Wikipedia search didn’t help me out and it wasn’t the founding date of the club. Any other clubs named after dates, days, etc?”
Here’s Michael Haughey sailing in with the answer … and a few other examples to boot. “12 Octubre football club are named after Columbus Day, the date of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. There are few clubs named after significant dates in a country’s history, including three named after 9 July, Argentinian independence day, in Rafaela, Rio de Torcero and Morteros. Both Portugal and Angola have teams named after international workers’ day, 1 May. Other teams named after dates, apart from Sheffield Wednesday and Abergavenny Thursday, include February 8th and April 25th sports clubs in North Korea, both run by the military, the dates commemorate the founding of the North Korean Army in 1948 and as an anti-Japanese guerrilla army in 1932, respectively.”
Knowledge archive
“We were wondering if anyone had ever committed the unholy trinity of missing a penalty, scoring an own goal and being sent off in the same match?” wrote Richard and Andrew in May 2012.
“Not exactly that, but something very close to that, was achieved by Nigerian Kenneth Omeruo, playing at ADO Den Haag in the Dutch Eredivisie (on loan from Chelsea FC),” noted Stephan Wijnen. “In the game against VVV Venlo in the first half he first scored a goal, a few minutes later he scored an own goal, and in the second half he received his second yellow card and was sent off. VVV went on to win 2-1.”
Can you help?
“Claudio Gentile committed seven fouls during Italy 2-1 Argentina at the 1982 World Cup match, six of them on the great, late Diego Maradona. Has any player ever committed more fouls in a single game?” asks Bogdan Kotarlic.
Last night's France v Iceland match in the women's Euros was a 1-1 draw with the goals in the 1st and 102nd minutes. Is this the longest a team has been ahead in a match and still not won it?
— Andy Brook 🏆 (@andybrook1) July 19, 2022
“Have any players scored at the old and new Wembley stadium? If so, who was the first?” enquires Masai Graham.
Way back in the sixties it was probably the Valiant had a story of a footballer signing for a team on the morning of the match from the opposition, and played that afternoon.
— John Tumbridge (@JohnTumbridge) July 19, 2022
Did this happen and if so who was it
“The German second division kicked off at the weekend and my team SSV Jahn Regensburg scored their first goal of surely many this season after just 15 seconds, which obviously got me wondering: who has taken the least amount of time to score their first goal of a campaign?” asks Ben Clay.
What's the highest recorded temperature on a pitch (or in a city) at kick off in a major match.
— Kevin Dennehy (@KevinDennehyRN) July 19, 2022
• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
