How many European Cups/Champions Leagues have Barca thrown away?

[Centauri B]

As every cule knows, we have won the biggest club title in European football a total of 5 times (1992, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015) but we have also come very close on a number of occasions, many of which we were favored or even heavily favored to win the whole thing, but did not. From the 1961 final against Benfica in which we took the early lead through Koscis, to the 1975 semi-finals when we largely self-destructed against dirty Leeds United, to the 1986 final in which we couldn't even score a penaldo against Steaua Bucharest, to the 1994 final when Cruyff underestimated AC Milan (!) to 2003 when a seemingly unstoppable team threw away the advantage against Juventus, to Victor Valdes' blunders against Pool & Chelsea, to ref decisions and volcanoes against us in 2010, to rotten luck against Chelsea in 2012, to Atleti catching us cold in two QFs when we had a better team than the Real Madrid that won it in the end, to throwing away 3-goal advantages against AS Roma & Liverpool under the stewardship of GOAT-verde.

So, lets immerse ourselves in counterfactualist speculation. What could have been?

 

[khaled_a_d]

Not that much.
Luck goes both ways, we had many lucky calls in 2009, some "questionable" decisions in our favor in 2006 & 2015 too.
At the end this is football, it is a game of moments and at this top level top teams are very close to each other that fine details usually are very decisive.

 

[Andrew M]

Not that much.
Luck goes both ways, we had many lucky calls in 2009, some "questionable" decisions in our favor in 2006 & 2015 too.
At the end this is football, it is a game of moments and at this top level top teams are very close to each other that fine details usually are very decisive.

Very well said! However, in recent memory the 2012 tournament hurt the most. But Bayern were capable of beating us in that final so who knows if we'd have won. That Chelsea team had a great mentality tbf

Although it's funny to think of all the finals Juve has lost

 

[serghei]

We could have won 4/4 with Pep, and we really were unlucky in 2010 and 2012. We should've done better than 2/4 under Pep. And last year I think we should have won, and threw it away on Anfield like idiots.

So 3 in the last 19 years for me, since 2000.

 

[serghei]

Not that much.
Luck goes both ways, we had many lucky calls in 2009, some "questionable" decisions in our favor in 2006 & 2015 too.
At the end this is football, it is a game of moments and at this top level top teams are very close to each other that fine details usually are very decisive.

2009 semi was plagued by referee errors both ways, with 3 major calls out of 3 going against us on Camp Nou in the 0-0 game. 2015 is one of the cleanest CL campaigns ever possibly by any team (what questionable decisions here, you can't be referring to that lame attempt by Pogba to win a pen in the final?).

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Not that much.
Luck goes both ways, we had many lucky calls in 2009, some "questionable" decisions in our favor in 2006 & 2015 too.
At the end this is football, it is a game of moments and at this top level top teams are very close to each other that fine details usually are very decisive.

2015 was one of a kind win. We beat every champion from other countries. Truly deserved. We were the best team in the world by distance.

 

[Vilarrubi]

2015 was one of a kind win. We beat every champion from other countries. Truly deserved. We were the best team in the world by distance.

Agree, that year we put the “Champions” in “Champions League”.

No questionable decisions, comfortably beat Champions from all the top leagues. GOAT season.

 

[Centauri B]

We could have won 4/4 with Pep, and we really were unlucky in 2010 and 2012. We should've done better than 2/4 under Pep. And last year I think we should have won, and threw it away on Anfield like idiots.

So 3 in the last 19 years for me, since 2000.

I would say that Pep should have won at least one more. But, 4 out of 4 was more than possible. Also, last year it was even more in the bag after the first leg but we defended like a Segunda B team at Anfield.

In times gone by, we lost to Steaua in Seville and could have easily also won in 1975. Leeds & then Bayern were there for the taking, but stupidly going out all guns blazing from the first second at Camp Nou allowed to score the first goal in the 7th minute and then sit back (it was much easier back then to kill a game's momentum, with all of no advantage being played for tactical fouling and back-passing to the keeper's embrace.

 

[barcafan161]

not many really, every team's fans can say they threw away CLs when they lost...you need luck to win CL

 

[Centauri B]

Very well said! However, in recent memory the 2012 tournament hurt the most. But Bayern were capable of beating us in that final so who knows if we'd have won. That Chelsea team had a great mentality tbf

Although it's funny to think of all the finals Juve has lost

All of Barcelona, Juventus and maybe even Man Utd should have had more CLs. Real Madrid, AC Milan and Pool have more than they deserve.

 

[bismp]

I think that out of all the years,the only title we really threw away was in 2010.

In 2012 we were really unlucky against Chelsea,but I am not sure if we could have beaten Bayern in the final.2012 was the end of Pep's Barca,the team wasn't nearly as dominant as before,we struggled against a lot of teams and we even lost La Liga to Mourinho's Real

On the other hand,2010 was in the middle of possibly the greatest 3 year stretch in football history.It is shame we lost to Inter that year,especially because Bayern would probably be a piece of cake for us in the final.If only we had kept Eto'o one more year,instead of signing Ibra...

That said,if we had won in 2010,we would probably never have signed Villa and the team wouldn't probably be nearly as focused in 2011.We would probably experience "2012" one year earlier.So,I guess it is a fair exchange between losing the CL in 2010 and experiencing probably the best season ever in 2011.

 

[khaled_a_d]

2009 semi was plagued by referee errors both ways, with 3 major calls out of 3 going against us on Camp Nou in the 0-0 game. 2015 is one of the cleanest CL campaigns ever possibly by any team (what questionable decisions here, you can't be referring to that lame attempt by Pogba to win a pen in the final?).

Errors went both ways but they had more, although if ours were called it would have been different games, not trying to take anything from our achievement but I am showing other side of arguments. Half of football fans at least think Chelsea deserved that game. And if there is a thread like that in Chelsea forum it will be brought immediately.

2015 was one of a kind win. We beat every champion from other countries. Truly deserved. We were the best team in the world by distance.

2015 is the greatest year for any team in modern history IMO
But even that great team, you will find huge number of Juve fans blame that call against Alves on Pogba for losing (they have an argument it was uncalled penalty, we take the ball and score our 2nd)
So even the greatest year ever, you will always find that moment that could have changed everything.

Again, not trying to take anything from us, but showing that the whole "through it away" can go both way, and to some extent it disrespect other teams.

 

[serghei]

But even that great team, you will find huge number of Juve fans blame that call against Alves on Pogba for losing (they have an argument it was uncalled penalty, we take the ball and score our 2nd)
So even the greatest year ever, you will always find that moment that could have changed everything.

Again, not trying to take anything from us, but showing that the whole "through it away" can go both way, and to some extent it disrespect other teams.

Yea, but fans are like that. You can't give a penalty there because the first to push the opponent is Pogba. So if are to be scrupulous as a ref you give offensive foul first. Besides, Vidal could've easily been sent off in the first half, and we could have received a penalty (as super-soft as the Juve one would've been) for a handball at Litschteiner.

There was no controversy in that match, other than the bitterness of Juve fans for losing yet another final.

Also disagree Chelsea had more ref. errors going their way in the tie. It was about even if you judge them carefully, but it's human nature to complain more about said mistakes when you lose, than when you win. The British media spun that in their favor because in the decisive game in England the ref did favor us more. They conveniently forgot Barcelona had 4 huge ref error (no offside for Eto'o 1 vs 1 with Cech, red card for Bosingwa and penalty for us for a clear shirt pull on Henry in clear goalscoring situation, and a clear 2nd yellow for Ballack not given) against them on Camp Nou, and that Chelsea had their own Ovrebo in that game.

There's a difference between what really happened, and the biased perception of the losing sides.

 

[DonAK]

If Juve fans ever complain about that "penalty" you simply point them to how Vidal wasn't sent off.

 

[KingLeo10]

We should have 7 for sure, maybe 8.

2010 - Iniesta injury, volcano, and refs cost us the Inter game. We dominated them 3 out of the 4 games that season. We'd have easily beaten LVG's Bayern in the final.

2012 - Immensely unlucky against Chelsea. And still it took a Messi pen miss for us to get KO'ed. But even if we got past Chelsea, Bayern at the Allianz would have been a 50/50 tie for me.

2019 - Spurs in the final. If EV doesn't choke at Anfield, it's guaranteed win.

7 CLs in the modern era (since 1990s) would put us on par with RM on count, but ours would be more impressive since each would be a European double (and they have 1 out of 7 of those).