Wolves' formative steps

Wolverhampton Wanderers were a dominant English side in the 1950s, being League champions three times (1953–54, 1957–58 and 1958–59), under the management of Stan Cullis. Wolves also finished League runners-up on five occasions, most recently in 1959–60. In 1954, before anyone had really expanded the borders of domestic football, after recently winning the first division for the first time Wolves thought they would test themselves against Hungarian giants Honved.

At the time, Honved had Ferenc Puskás, who was a star player on the world stage. The match was part of Wolves' series of 'floodlit friendlies' which turned out to be the spark that created the European Cup as it came to be known. Wolves won 3–2, playing under the rare sight of floodlights in England, and it attracted attention all over Europe. The game was also broadcast live on the BBC and would become possibly the moment that the European Cup was truly born.

Wolves had also beaten a Spartak Moscow side earlier in the series, and the Daily Mail crowned them 'champions of the world' after sinking the Hungarians. But Gabriel Hanon, editor of L'Equipe at the time, hit back, saying the English side needed to win in Budapest or Moscow before they could claim that title. Hanon was at Molineux for the match and enjoyed it so much he started a campaign to introduce a competition where Europe's elite clubs would face off against each other regularly.

Early years: 1955–1967

As champions of The Football League in 1954–55, Chelsea were scheduled to become England's representatives in the inaugural European Champions' Cup competition, to be staged the following season. Indeed, they were drawn to face Swedish champions Djurgården in the first round. However, Chelsea were denied by the intervention of The Football League, in particular their secretary Alan Hardaker, who persuaded them to withdraw, insistent that pan-European tournaments are a mere distraction to the English domestic season.^[20][21]

Instead, the 1955–56 league champions, Manchester United, became the first English club to compete in the new tournament, with their manager Matt Busby determined time overcome objections from The Football League. They faced Anderlecht in the preliminary round, winning the first leg 2–0 away from home. Dennis Viollet scored the opening goal, the first for an English club in the European Cup, and he went on to become the tournament's top scorer that season, scoring nine goals. Four goals from Viollet and a hat-trick from Tommy Taylor helped United to achieve a 10–0 second leg victory as they progressed 12–0 on aggregate.^[22] United's first three home ties of the competition were played at Manchester City's Maine Road ground, since the floodlights at Old Trafford were still in the process of being installed and were not switched on until March 1957.^[23] After next eliminating Borussia Dortmund and Athletic Bilbao, United lost to holders Real Madrid in the semi-finals, 5–3 on aggregate.^[22] They did retain their league title however, to ensure their place in the following season's European Cup. They reached the semi-finals again, but after the quarter-final tie eight of their players died in the Munich air disaster, while two of the nine surviving players were injured to such an extent that they never played again.

Tottenham Hotspur reached the semi-finals of the 1961–62 tournament, but were knocked out by Benfica.

The next two seasons were less successful in terms of progress by English clubs. Ipswich Town began the 1962–63 competition with a 14–1 aggregate victory over Floriana (including a 10–0 second leg win), but lost in the first round to AC Milan, who went on to win the final at Wembley. A year later Everton were beaten by another Milan club, Inter, in the preliminary round.

Manchester United win at Wembley: 1967–1976

Wembley Stadium was the venue for two English victories in the European Cup: Manchester United won there in 1968, as did Liverpool ten years later.

Leeds United centre forward Mick Jones was the top scorer in the 1969–70 tournament; his eight goals helped his club to reach the semi-final stage, where they lost to Celtic. Jones scored a hat-trick in Leeds' 10–0 first round first leg win over Lyn Oslo, a match in which his teammate Michael O'Grady had opened the scoring after just 35 seconds, at the time believed to be the fastest goal in European Cup history.^[24] In 1970–71, Everton reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to Panathinaikos on the away goals rule. In the early rounds, Everton had won the competition's first ever penalty shootout when they eliminated Borussia Mönchengladbach.^[25] Arsenal made their first European Cup appearance in 1971–72. They were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Ajax, who went on to win the second of three consecutive European Cups, while Arsenal would not feature in the competition for another twenty years. In 1975, Leeds United faced Bayern Munich, of Germany in the final of the tournament in Paris. The game emerged as one of the most controversial matches in football history as it transpired that match fixing played a part in the latter's 2–0 victory with both goals benefiting from dubious refereeing decisions. Leeds United supporters often sing at both home and away matches proclaiming themselves 'champions of Europe,' after feeling aggrieved by the injustice of that night.

Derby County returned to the competition in 1975–76, but this time were defeated at the second round stage by Real Madrid. A Charlie George hat-trick gave Derby a 4–1 first leg victory, but Madrid progressed thanks to a 5–1 extra time win in the second leg.^[26]

English domination: 1976–1984

Liverpool led the way with domination in the late 1970s and until the mid 1980s. Beating any team out in front of them, they were unstoppable. Whereas the early to mid-1970s had seen three successive European Cup victories each for Ajax and Bayern Munich, the competition was dominated by English clubs in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Between 1977 and 1982, English teams won a record six successive finals. The sequence began when Liverpool, managed by Bob Paisley, beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1 in the 1977 European Cup Final, in what was striker Kevin Keegan's last game for the club.^[27] Keegan's replacement Kenny Dalglish scored the only goal of the 1978 final against Club Brugge as Liverpool became the first English club to retain the trophy.^[28] Meanwhile, Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest had succeeded Liverpool as English champions, and the two teams faced each other in the first round of the 1978–79 European Cup in the first meeting of two English clubs in the competition. Nottingham Forest won the tie on the way to reaching the final, where they beat Malmö 1–0. Forest was the third club to win the tournament at their first attempt, after Real Madrid in 1955–56 and Inter Milan in 1963–64.^[29]

Liverpool was again eliminated in the first round in 1979–80, while Forest retained the trophy, beating Hamburg 1–0 in the final. The following season it was Nottingham Forest's turn to make a first round exit as Liverpool went all the way to the final, where they beat Real Madrid 1–0 to secure their third European Cup under Bob Paisley. Liverpool's Terry McDermott and Graeme Souness were the tournament's joint top scorers, alongside Bayern Munich's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, with six goals apiece.^[30] Liverpool failed to retain the trophy on this occasion as they were beaten in the quarter-finals by CSKA Sofia in the 1981–82 competition. A sixth successive English victory was still achieved however, as Aston Villa, playing in the European Cup for the first time, beat Bayern Munich 1–0 in the final in Rotterdam.^[31] The run of victories by English clubs came to an end in 1982–83 when both Liverpool and Aston Villa went out at the quarter-final stage after losing to Widzew Łódź and Juventus respectively.^[32] In the 1983–84 competition, Liverpool once again reached the final, where they faced Roma in the latter's home stadium, the Stadio Olimpico. The match finished 1–1 after extra time and Liverpool won the subsequent penalty shootout 4–2 to lift their fourth European Cup. It was the first time that the final had been settled by spot kicks.^[33]

Heysel and its repercussions: 1984–1992

Liverpool's participation in the 1984–85 European Cup marked their ninth successive season in the competition. They again made it to the final, but lost out 1–0 to Juventus after Michel Platini scored a second-half penalty. 1985 was the year of the Heysel Stadium disaster, which led to all English clubs being banned from European competitions for the next five seasons. The ban was lifted in 1990, but there was no English representation in the 1990–91 European Cup due to English champions Liverpool being excluded from European competitions for an additional season.

In the 1991–92 season, Arsenal were the first team to represent England in the European Cup after English teams were allowed back in. The Gunners lost out over two legs in the second round to Benfica.

1990s: Champions League introduced

Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored the winning goal for Manchester United in the 1999 Champions League Final.

The 1992–93 season saw the competition rebranded as the UEFA Champions League, a move that formalised the mini-league format that had been introduced the previous year.^[34] After winning the inaugural Premier League title, Manchester United entered the Champions League in 1993–94, the first time in a quarter of a century that they had played in European football's leading club competition. United failed to reach the group stage however, losing out on away goals to Galatasaray following a 3–3 aggregate scoreline in their second round tie.^[35]

A further change to the competition occurred in 1994–95, when the first and second rounds were replaced by four mini-leagues of four teams each, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the quarter-finals.^[36] As one of eight seeded teams, Manchester United were given a bye directly to the group stage, but missed out on the quarter-finals after finishing third, behind Barcelona on goal difference.^[37] In 1995–96, Blackburn Rovers were England's Champions League representatives, but their campaign was not a successful one as they won just one of their six group games and failed to qualify for the latter stages.^[38]

Manchester United's return to the Champions League in 1996–97 was the first of 18 consecutive seasons in which Manchester United qualified to enter the competition. They progressed through the group stages for the first time and went on to reach the semi-finals, losing to eventual winners Borussia Dortmund.^[39] United topped their mini-league in the following season's group stages,^[40] but were defeated by AS Monaco on away goals in the quarter-finals.^[41] Also representing England in 1997–98 were Newcastle United, after the runners-up from Europe's top eight leagues were allowed to enter for the first time.^[42] Newcastle successfully negotiated the second qualifying round, but could only finish third in their group, despite a victory over Barcelona in the opening group game.^[43]

2000s: rise to European dominance and subsequent decline

Premier League teams gradually improved their performance in the Champions League until a peak centred on the 2008 season, followed by a significant decline thereafter. They had no semi-finalists for the first four seasons (1993 to 1996). They then had four semi-finalists (Manchester United in 1997, 1999, and 2002, and Leeds United in 2001) over the next seven seasons (1997 to 2003), one of whom went on to become champions (Manchester United in 1999). They then had four semi-finalists (Chelsea in 2004 and 2005, Liverpool in 2005, and Arsenal in 2006) in the next three seasons (2004 to 2006), with Arsenal going on to be runners-up in 2006 and Liverpool winning in 2005.

English teams then peaked with nine semi-finalists (Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool in both 2007 and 2008, and Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in 2009) in the next three seasons (2007 to 2009), with Liverpool (2007), Chelsea (2008), and Manchester United (2009) going on to be runners-up, and Manchester United going on to win an all-English final against Chelsea in 2008, a year in which none of the four English teams were eliminated by anybody except another English team. Around this time, then-UEFA president Michel Platini began to make statements which resulted in a widespread perception that he was anti-English,^[44] which some attributed to his alleged fear of English domination in European club competition.^[45][46]

However, this dominance did not produce a corresponding number of titles. At its most dominant, from 2007 to 2009, the Premier League had 75% (9 out of 12) of the semi-finalists, 67% (4 out of 6) of the finalists, 100% (3 out of 3) of the runners-up, but only 33% (1 out of 3) of the winners (Manchester United in 2008), with the other two titles going to Milan in 2007 and Barcelona in 2009. And English dominance did not last, with the Premier League managing only two semi-finalists (Manchester United in 2011, and Chelsea in 2012) over the next four seasons (2010 to 2013), although Manchester United went on to be runners-up in 2011, and Chelsea won in 2012. In 2013, no Premier League side reached the last eight for the first time since 1996 (in a time when England were only entitled to one Champions League place compared to 2013's four), only two (Manchester United and Arsenal) made it to the last 16, and Chelsea became the first defending champions to fail to make it past the group stage of the Champions League,^[47] although by finishing third in their group they did manage to qualify for the UEFA Europa League, which they went on to win.

At that time, it was noted that if the decline continued for long enough, it could in theory eventually deprive the Premier League of its entitlement to have four teams in the Champions League each year, which it has had since 2005, but the coefficient tables gave little cause for concern from an English perspective, as all England's relevant coefficients were ahead of fourth-placed Italy's, and this did not change until 2018, when the quotas were adjusted by UEFA to guarantee four Champions League places to each of the top four nations, with those clubs going into the group stage directly rather than having to navigate qualifying rounds.^[48]

Late 2010s and early 2020s: renewed success

The following years would see two all-English finals, as well as Liverpool losing both the 2018 and 2022 finals to Real Madrid. In 2023, Manchester City won the tournament for the third English victory in five years.

English finalists in European Cup and UEFA Champions League

Six English clubs have won either the European Cup or UEFA Champions League. Liverpool have won six times, which is the most of any English club.

English clubs in the FIFA Club World Cup

Year	Club	Progress	Score	Opponents	Venue(s)
2000	Manchester United	Group Stage	N/A	Vasco da Gama, Necaxa, South Melbourne	Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
2005	Liverpool	Runners-up	0–1	São Paulo	International Stadium, Yokohama
2008	Manchester United	Winners	1–0	LDU Quito
2012	Chelsea	Runners-up	0–1	Corinthians
2019	Liverpool	Winners	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Flamengo	Khalifa International Stadium, Doha
2021	Chelsea	Winners	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Palmeiras	Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
2023	Manchester City	Winners	4–0	Fluminense	King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah