UEFA proclaim Real Madrid as the best team

Real Madrid are the undoubted leaders when it comes to the Champions League, or the European Cup, as it was under its previous guise.

Given the 12 trophies that they have proudly displayed at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, it is a competition that is very much in the club’s DNA and, having collated data from throughout the 62 years of the tournament, statistics do prove that Los Blancos are the top dog when it comes to this particular competition.

Bayern Munich and Barcelona come second to them, while the top 10 is rounded out by Manchester United, AC Milan, Juventus, Benfica, Porto, Arsenal and Liverpool, with Atletico Madrid in 22nd place out of 500 teams.

Real dominate many of the statistics and have, for example, competed in 47 editions of the tournament to date, a considerable way in front of the 36 that Benfica have competed in.

So far, they have played a total of 410 games, winning 245 of them and scoring a staggering 909 goals during that time, with second-placed Bayern on 321 games, with 183 wins and 639 goals in their favour.

Iker Casillas has played 168 games and has no rival in terms of the most appearances in the competition, while he is followed by Xavi and Ryan Giggs.

The only threat to him is Cristiano Ronaldo on 144 games, as he is the only player in the top 10 who is still active.

In terms of goalscorers, Ronaldo does lead that particular area with 106, ahead of his rival Lionel Messi on 94, while Raul is third with 71.

Of the only other active players in the top 10, Karim Benzema is in seventh place with 51 and Zlatan Ibrahimovic lingers just behind on 49.