The current titleholders missed the chance to break the record for consecutive wins in Europe’s premier cup competition, after sensationally losing at home to Schalke
Real Madrid have dramatically failed to break the record for consecutive wins in the Champions League.
The Spanish outfit went into Tuesday’s last-16, second-leg clash with Schalke at the Santiago Bernabeu on the back of 10 consecutive tournament victories and were expected to have little difficulty in disposing of a side that they had beaten 2-0 in Gelsenkirchen three weeks ago.
However, despite going 3-2 ahead early in the second half through Karim Benzema, after twice coming from behind during the opening 42 minutes, Madrid were sensationally beaten 4-3 after Schalke went within one goal of dumping the reigning champions out of Europe.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men had not failed to win a game in Europe’s premier club competition since losing 2-0 at Borussia Dortmund in their quarter-final second leg last April.
Back-to-backs wins over Bayern in the semi-finals were followed by a dramatic extra-time victory over city rivals Atletico in the Lisbon showpiece in May, before group-stage successes against Basel, Liverpool and Ludogorets (twice each) and last month’s win at Schalke.
However, Wednesday’s surprise setback means that Madrid must remain content with a share of the record for consecutive Champions League wins with Bayern, who racked up 10 victories in a row between April and December of 2013 – a period which took in their Champions League triumph at Wembley under former boss Jupp Heynckes and the start of Pep Guardiola’s current reign.
Barcelona’s nine-match winning streak in 2002-2003 is the third-best run in the competition, while Dortmund racked up eight consecutive victories en route to the trophy in 1996-97 and another Guardiola side (Barca 2011-12) managed seven straight successes.