Longest domestic winning streaks in European football

Real Madrid chasing the longest winning streak of all time×Proofread Real Madrid have been in record breaking form lately. Los Blancos won their 12th league game in a row over the past weekend. It was also their 20th straight victory in all competitions. Ancelotti’s men have scored an astonishing 50 goals in these 12 league games, averaging more than 4 goals per game!But if you were wondering where this feat ranks among the longest domestic winning streaks by European clubs, it does not even make it into the top 10!Real will have to win their next 3 La Liga ecounters to match their own previous best and little known Welsh side Bangor City FC. The Wesh Premier League club started the 2010-11 season with 15 straight victories.Below are some of the other winning streaks of note by European clubs in their respective domestic leagues. Some of these names are sure to be a surprise!

#9 Real Madrid 1960-61: 15

Real Madrid’s next target will be to match their own record of 15 league wins in a row set way back in the 1960-61 season by the team which had 2 of the greatest football players ever to grace the pitch in their ranks. Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas were the chief architects of their 15 consecutive wins in a season which culminated with Real winning their 2nd straight title but failing to get their hands on the European Cup trophy for the first time in 6 years!

Current greats like Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos will be hoping to earn 3 points from each of their next 4 league games when they resume league action after the winter recess and break their own team’s record set more than 50 years ago.

#8 Barcelona 2010-11: 16

At the height of their powers, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side were as close to perfect as a sports team can be. They showcased this superiority over European Football by winning a Spanish record 16 league games in a row on their way to a 3rd straight La Liga crown and their 3rd Champions League victory in 6 years.

The highlight of the 16 game winning streak was a 5-0 mauling of rivals Real Madrid in the El Clasico on 29th November 2010 at the Nou Camp. There was no dearth of scintillating football in display during this 4 month long winning streak as Messi and Co amassed 60 goals on their way to setting the record.

#7 Inter Milan 2006-07: 17

With Juventus relegated and Milan docked 8 points before the season began as a result of the Calciopoli scandal, Roberto Mancini’s Inter started as firm favourites for the Serie A title. What eventually transpired was not just a league championship for Inter but a record shattering domestic campaign.

The Nerazzurri scored a record 97 points in the league, winning the Serie A comfortably with 2nd placed Roma lagging way behind on 75 points. The Inter side led up front by the attacking duo of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Hernan Crespo had locked up the title with 5 games still left to play!

But perhaps the most impressive statistic of all was their run of 17 straight victories during that season which broke the record for most consecutive wins in the Italian top division previously held by Roma (11).

#6 Steaua Bucureti & Dinamo Bucureti 1988: 17

Romanian club Dinamo Bucureti won a combined total of 60 out of the 68 games they played in the league in the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons and lost just one. But they still could not manage to win the league in either of the 2 seasons. That’s because their arch rivals Steaua Bucureti performed even better and won a total of 61 games while remaining unbeaten for 2 successive seasons.

In the midst of their two pronged pursuit for league glory, both clubs went on impressive 17 game winning streaks in the league. No other team in Romania even came close to matching their excellence, with the 3rd place team finishing atleast 20 points behind the champions Steaua in both the seasons (a huge margin considering a win was worth just 2 points back then)

#5 Fimleikaflag Hafnarfjrdur 2004-05: 18

Very few, if any would have heard the name Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjördur outside Iceland. Based in the city of Hafnarfjördur, the team commonly known as FH play their home games in a 6000 capacity stadium and can lay claim to a record none of the 40 teams currently playing in the English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga have attained.

Coached by former Icelandic national team coach Ólafur Jóhannesson at the time, FH went on an 18 game winning streak during 2004-05 spanning 2 consecutive victorious campaigns in the Icelandic league (Úrvalsdeild).

#4 PSV Eindhoven 1987-88: 22

PSV ended the 1986-87 with five straight victories to claim their second consecutive Dutch Eredivisie title. But few expected them to start the subsequent season with 17 league wins on the bounce after losing star player Ruud Gullit to AC Milan for a then world record fee of £6 million and hiring a rookie manager – Guus Hiddink!

Hiddink announced himself as one of the foremost managers of his era by leading PSV to the most successful season in their history till date. Not only did PSV retain the Dutch league title after starting the season with 17 wins, they also lifted the European Cup and the KNVB cup to complete a historic treble.

Wim Kieft led the goal scoring charts with 29 goals for a team which was captained by Belgian great Eric Gerets and also included current Southampton manager Ronald Koeman in its ranks.

#3 Celtic 2003-04: 25

Celtic started the 2003-04 Scottish Premier League season with a dull goalless draw against Dunfermline on 9th Aug 2003. The next time they would drop points would be more than 6 months later in March 2004! During this period, Martin O’Neill’s side created the British record for most league wins a row with 25 successive victories in the SPL, scoring 86 goals in the process.

Celtic scored the most goals (105) and conceded the least (25) on their way to claiming Scottish Premier League title. In the goal scoring department, the team relied mostly on legendary Swedish striker Henrik Larsson, who scored 30 league goals in what turned out to be his final season at Celtic Park before Frank Rijkaard signed him at Barcelona.

#2 Dinamo Zagreb 2006-07: 28

With a young Luka Modric pulling the strings in midfield, Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb went agonisingly close to matching the all time record for most consecutive wins in European league football. During a 10 month stretch from November 2006 to September 2007, Dinamo were victorious in 28 league games in a row. They went on to lift the 2006-07 Croatian League title after amassing 93 points and winning 30 of their 33 games!

Another key contributor during this run was striker Eduardo, whose goal scoring form caught the eye of Arsene Wenger and the Croatian was signed by Arsenal in the summer of 2007.

After they had won 28 on the bounce, DInamo manager Branko Ivankovi tempted fate by saying the following a day before his team would take the field in an effort to match Benfica’s record of 29 uninterrupted league wins:

"We have a great team and Dinamo are a big club. We are going to win that 29th match in a row and equal Benfica's record, so that this Dinamo generation gets a place in world football history"

His side lost 4-3 to NK Varadin a day later which ended the run at 28 wins!

#1 Benfica 1972-73: 29

Led by English manager Jimmy Hagan, Benfica won 28 straight games out of which 23 were in their unbeaten 1972-73 league campaign. During this undefeated campaign, the Lisbon based club scored more than a century of goals and were led in the goal scoring department by Portuguese great Eusebio, who found the back of the net on 40 occasions.

While teams have come close on a couple of occasions, none have been able to match the great Benfica side of the early 70s for consecutive league victories.

Eusebio had great respect for Jimmy Hagan and thought of him as the chief architect for Benfica’s success during this winning run. He said once about Hagan “He liked discipline. All the players thought his training sessions were very hard physically but the team soon began to win matches and we knew it was worth it. He gave us extra strength and that was the reason we won three straight championships in that period”