The Biggest Champions League Collapses
Updated October 13, 2026
Updated October 13, 2026
'Remontada'. 'Corner Taken Quickly'. 'Istanbul'. Few events in sport inspire the imagination, or create memorable words and phrases, quite like a Champions League collapse.
Below is my ranking of the five biggest collapses in Champions League history. I've judged them on the size of the lead, how late it went, how good the team blowing it was, and what was on the line. A couple are burned into every fan's memory. A couple have been oddly forgotten, and they deserve a second look.
Quarter-final, second leg, April 10, 2007. Manchester United 7-1 Roma (United won 8-3 on aggregate).
Roma arrived in Manchester holding the advantage. Luciano Spalletti's side had won the first leg 2-1 in Rome, Paul Scholes had been sent off there for two bookings, and Francesco Totti was in the middle of a season that ended with 26 Serie A goals and the Capocannoniere title.
Then the roof fell in. Sir Alex Ferguson gambled on Alan Smith, who hadn't started a Champions League or Premier League game in 14 months after breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle. Michael Carrick curled in the opener on 12 minutes. Before a quickfire double from United through Smith and Rooney opened the floodgates. Seven minutes, three goals, and Roma's away-goal edge was gone.
Cristiano Ronaldo had never scored in the Champions League before that night. He got two, one either side of half-time. Carrick hit a sixth from distance on the hour, Daniele De Rossi pulled one back, and substitute Patrice Evra finished it at 7-1 to secure a record win for United.
So why has it slipped out of the conversation? United lost the semi-final to Milan, so the night never got a trophy attached to it.
Roma, meanwhile, rewrote their own story 11 years later, to the day, when they knocked out Barcelona (more on that at No. 3). It ranks fifth because Roma only led by a goal. But I struggle to think of a team protecting an aggregate lead that's been taken apart this thoroughly.
Quarter-final, second leg, April 7, 2004. Deportivo La Coruña 4-0 AC Milan (Deportivo won 5-4 on aggregate).
Milan were the reigning European champions, and the first leg at San Siro showed why. Walter Pandiani gave Deportivo an early lead, then Milan scored four times in an eight-minute second-half spell through Kaká (twice), Andriy Shevchenko and Andrea Pirlo. 4-1. Tie over.
Javier Irureta didn't see it that way. The Deportivo coach promised to go after the holders like a hurricane, and Pandiani scored again after five minutes at the Riazor. Juan Carlos Valerón, left completely unmarked, headed in a second on 35 minutes. A minute before half-time, Albert Luque surged forwards and drilled a left-footer into the top corner.
This was not a Milan side packed with youth players and journeymen, but rather one of the gratest Champions League sides ever assembled. Maldini, Nesta, Cafu, Pirlo, Gattuso, Kaká, Shevchenko. But they were left floundering in front a bouncing Riazor as Fran, on as a sub, sealed it 14 minutes from time with a shot that deflected off Cafu.
Deportivo became the first team in Champions League history to overturn a three-goal first-leg deficit. Within 20 years Deportivo had plummeted from the dizzying heights of 2004, and were playing in Spain's third tier, yet the walls of the Riazor still echo with the cries of ecstasy heard on that night.
Semi-final, second leg, May 7, 2019. Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona (Liverpool won 4-3 on aggregate).
"Never Give Up." That was the message on Mo Salah's t-shirt, but few inside Anfield truly harbored much hope of a memorable comeback under the Anfield lights.
Barcelona had beaten Liverpool 3-0 at Camp Nou in the first leg, and were good value for it.Lionel Messi was at the peak of his powers, and Liverpool came into the return leg without Mohamed Salah or Roberto Firmino. Divock Origi started up front.
Within 7 minutes, however, there was bedlam. Origi pounced after Marc-André ter Stegen had parried from Henderson. Anfield was shaking, but Barcelona soon steadied the ship, and could easily have gone in level if not for Alisson Becker.
Then came Gini Wijnaldum. Brought on for an injured Andy Robertson and apparently irked by being left out of the starting lineup, the Dutchman scored twice in 122 seconds to send Anfield into delirium. For Barcelona, the 'remontada' was happening. Again.
Then came the moment that defines the whole tie. Trent Alexander-Arnold walked away from a corner, turned back, and fired it low to an unmarked Origi while Barcelona's players were still drifting into position. 79 minutes gone. 4-0.
Left for dead after being dismantled at Camp Nou, The Reds echoed the sentiments of their talisman Salah and refused to be beaten. They would ride this extraordinary wave all the way to their sixth European Cup later that month.
For Barca, meawhile, the inquest was set to begin all over again.
Round of 16, second leg, March 8, 2017. Barcelona 6-1 PSG (Barcelona won 6-5 on aggregate).
PSG didn't just beat Barcelona in Paris. They took them apart. Ángel Di María scored twice, Julian Draxler and Edinson Cavani added the others, and Luis Enrique admitted afterward his side had been at their poorest. No team had ever gone through in a European tie after losing a first leg 4-0.
Barcelona chipped away. Luis Suárez headed in within the opening few minutes. Layvin Kurzawa turned an Andrés Iniesta backheel into his own net before the break, before Messi converted a penalty early in the second half after Thomas Meunier tripped Neymar. Suddenly, there was belief that the almost 100,000 packed into Camp Nou that night could be about to witness something special.
Then the balloon burst. PSG got the goal that should have ended it, and with away goals in play, Barcelona now needed three more. At 87 minutes it was still 3-1.
Then came one of the most extraordinary sequences in the history of the competition.
Neymar's stunning free kick made it 4-1, and the Brazilian star scored a penalty moments later after Marquinhos' clumsy challenge on Suarez.
Despite this, PSG were still heading through, until five minutes into stoppage time, Neymar dropped one into the box and Sergi Roberto stretched out a toe to beat Kevin Trapp. Three goals in the final seven minutes, and the original 'remontada' was complete.
The betting story is wild. Barcelona were +2000 to qualify straight after the first leg and about +700 by kick-off. With 10 minutes left some books had them at +10000, and exchange bettors were matched as long as +34900 late on. Bet365 reported an eight-figure payout. You could make a case for this at No. 1, and I wouldn't argue too hard.
Final, May 25, 2005. Liverpool 3-3 AC Milan (Liverpool won 3-2 on penalties).
Nobody saw it coming. After just 1 minute, it already looked like Milan were set to seal their 7th European title, after Paolo Maldini volleyed a Pirlo free kick past a helpless Dudek. By half time, with Kaka pulling the strings, a Crespo brace seemed to have buried Liverpool's dreams of glory. It was 3-0 to Milan, and the engravers could start etching the Italians' name on the trophy.
But with Liverpool fans still singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' in the stands, and Rafa Benitez making tactical tweaks, the impossible became the unlikely, became the remarkable as Liverpool stormed back in the second half.
Inspirational captain Steven Gerrard headed home Riise's cross on 54 minuted before a long range strike from Vladimir Smicer somehow found its way past Dida. Just four minutes later, Gerrard surged onto a flcik from Baros, only to be fouled by Gattuso. Dida saved Xabi Alonso's penalty , only for Alonso to smash in the rebound. In the space of 6 minutes, a foregone conclusion had transformed into pure theater.
Milan still had chances to win it. With three minutes left in extra time, Jerzy Dudek somehow kept out Andriy Shevchenko twice from point-blank range. In the shootout, Serginho missed, Dudek saved from Pirlo, and then he stopped Shevchenko to send one half of the Ataturk stadium into ecstasy.
For Milan, meanwhile, this was their second collapse in barely a year, after Deportivo. Same manager in Carlo Ancelotti, same spine of Maldini, Nesta, Pirlo and Kaká, same inability to close out a game they owned. Milan may have got their revenge on Liverpool in the 2007 final, but Istanbul never went away.
Real Madrid at Monaco, 2004. The Galácticos won the first leg of the quarter-final 4-2 and Raúl made it 5-2 on aggregate in the second. Ludovic Giuly scored in first-half stoppage time, Fernando Morientes headed in on 49, and Giuly flicked in a third on 67. Morientes was on loan from Real Madrid and scored against his parent club in both legs. Madrid went out on away goals, the night before Milan's meltdown at the Riazor.
Manchester City at the Bernabéu, 2022. Riyad Mahrez's 73rd-minute strike put City 5-3 up on aggregate in the semi-final. Real Madrid hadn't managed a shot on target until Rodrygo scored on 90. He scored again a minute later, and Karim Benzema won and converted a penalty early in extra time. Madrid had been as long as +4500 in-play to progress, but through their typical Champions League dark magic, progress they did.
Bodø/Glimt at Sporting, 2026. The Norwegians had knocked out Inter and then beat Sporting 3-0 at home in the last-16 first leg. In Lisbon, Gonçalo Inácio, Pedro Gonçalves and a Luis Suárez penalty (Sporting's Suárez, not the Uruguayan) dragged it to extra time, and Maxi Araújo and Rafael Nel finished a 5-0 win. Norwegian dreams had been shattered.
The teams on the wrong end of these nights weren't bad. They were Milan with Maldini and Kaká, Barcelona with Messi, and a PSG side that had just put four past Barcelona. Every one of them had the tie in hand, and every one of them let it go. Bodø/Glimt's night in Lisbon proves the list is still growing, and somewhere in this season's knockout rounds another team will walk into a second leg thinking the job's done. History says don't believe them until the final whistle.
