Season 2019/20. Atalanta (Italy) - quarterfinals
For a long time, the Italian Atalanta lacked stars from the sky in the Italian championship. However, with the arrival of Gian Piero Gasperini, a new chapter opened in the history of the team. Bergamoski, showing beautiful football, took third place in Serie A in 2019 and for the first time in history made their way to the Champions League, and directly to the group stage.
There "Atalanta" also did not get lost and from the second place advanced to the playoffs. However, Gasperini's European Cup campaign began extremely unsuccessfully. In the first round they were defeated by Manchester City, Shakhtar and Dynamo. And in Zagreb, Atalanta conceded four unanswered goals.
However, then the Italian team made an impressive comeback, gaining seven points out of nine possible, and at the last moment moved up to second place in the group.
In the 1/8 finals, Atalanta left no chance for Valencia Denis Cheryshev. In two meetings, the debutant scored eight goals (4: 1, 4: 3) and calmly made his way to the next round.
Only PSG could stop the daring team. Until the 90th minute, Atalanta was leading, but conceded twice in the end and was eliminated from the tournament.
Season 2016 / 17. "Lester" (England) - quarterfinals
In 2016, Leicester wrote a real fairy tale, taking first place in the Premier League. The following season, the team was to make its debut in the Champions League. Before that, the "foxes" took part in European competitions only three times (twice in the UEFA Cup and once in the Cup Winners' Cup).
Before the historic event, the club not only retained all the leaders except N'Golo Kante, who left for Chelsea, but also spent almost € 100 million on transfers.
Helped the team that got into the first basket and a successful draw. Club Brugge, Porto and Copenhagen failed to provide the England champion with a worthy competition. Leicester became the first debutant from Foggy Albion to win the first three matches in the Champions League group stage and the first in history to not concede a single goal in four opening matches. As a result, Claudio Ranieri's wards scored 13 points out of 18 possible and took first place.
In the 1/8 finals, Leicester also faced a completely passable opponent - Sevilla. True, the British team lost the first game in Spain - 1: 2. After that, Ranieri resigned, and his assistant Craig Shakespeare took the place of the Italian.
The change of coach helped, and Leicester won 2-0 at home with goals from Wes Morgan and Mark Albrighton. At the same time, in the end, the guests did not convert the penalty, which could help them restore parity.
But the debutant failed to pass the experienced Atlético in the quarterfinals. In Madrid, Diego Simeone's team won with a minimum score, and in England they took the lead in the middle of the first half. After that the hosts had to score three times, but they distinguished themselves only once and finished their performance in the main European Cup.
Season 2012/13. Malaga (Spain) - quarterfinals
Malaga also managed to reach the quarterfinals in their debut season in the main European Cup in 2013. Moreover, a few years before that, a modest team played in Segunda, and its fans could not even dream of such achievements.
The arrival of the Qatari sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani to the club changed everything. He invited Chilean Manuel Pellegrini to the team as head coach and allocated serious funds for the transfer campaign. The Malaga roster was joined by such players as Nacho Montreal, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Isco, Santi Cazorla and others.
In 2012, the "Anchovies" took fourth place in the Example and for the first time in history made their way to the Champions League. In the playoff round, Pellegrini's charges passed Panathinaikos and ended up in the group stage. In the quartet with Zenit, Milan and Anderlecht, the team scored 12 points without suffering a single defeat, and stepped into the playoffs from the first place.
At the 1/8 final stage, the Spanish team went to Porto. Having been defeated with a minimum score on the road, the Anchovies scored two unanswered goals at home and continued to make history.
But in the quarterfinals, Malaga had to fight with Borussia Dortmund, and this confrontation went down in history. In the first meeting at La Rosaleda, the fans did not wait for the goals. But there were enough of them at Signal Iduna Park. In the 83rd minute, Malaga took the lead 2-1, and the hosts had to score twice to save the season.
In the referee's added time, one of the most incredible comebacks in UCL history took place. In the 91st minute, Marco Reus leveled the score, and in the 93rd minute, Felipe Santana took Borussia into the next stage with a shot from close range. True, the Brazilian was offside, but VAR did not exist then.
The fate of Malaga after an offensive departure from the main European Cup was not the best. The Qatari club owner cut funding more and more, and in 2017 the team flew to Segunda, where they are currently playing.
Season 2005/06. Villarreal - semi-final
The most successful Champions League debut so far is another Spanish team, Villarreal. It is noteworthy that she was also trained by Pellegrini then. The Chilean received the "yellow submarine" in 2004 and immediately won with it the first ever national championship medal - bronze.
In the main European Cup, Villarreal began their journey with the third qualifying round, in which they proved to be stronger than English Everton - 2: 1, 2: 1.
In the group stage rivals Pellegrini's wards got Manchester United, Lille and Benfica. As a result, the pragmatic team managed to take first place in the quartet with a paradoxical difference between goals scored and conceded - 3: 1.
In the playoffs, Villarreal's matches looked much more interesting. In the 1/8 finals, the Spaniards in Scotland broke the world with the Glasgow Rangers - 2: 2. The match in Spain also ended in a draw - 1: 1, and the hosts went further thanks to the away goal rule. It also helped Pellegrini's wards in the quarterfinals in the confrontation with Inter - 1: 2 (away), 1: 0 (at home).
In the semifinals, Villarreal met with one of the strongest teams in Europe at that time - Arsenal. In London, the Spanish team was defeated with a minimum score. The home meeting was heading towards a goalless draw, but in the 90th minute Russian referee Valentin Ivanov awarded a penalty kick to the Londoners' goal. However, Juan Roman Riquelme failed to beat the experienced Jens Lehmann. So Villarreal stopped a step away from the final and missed the opportunity to fight for the title with Barcelona.
Season 2000/2001. Deportivo - quarterfinals
Spanish teams have often made extremely successful debuts in the Champions League, which is confirmed by the example of Deportivo. In 2000, the Galicians for the first time in history took first place in the Example and got the opportunity to start in the main European Cup right from the stage of the first group stage.
Javier Irureta's charges quietly took first place in the quartet with Panathinaikos, Hamburg and Juventus, gaining ten points. Including the Galicians twice drew with the Turin, who eventually finished last.
In the second group stage, Deportivo showed a similar result - ten points in a company with Galatasaray, Milan and PSG. One of the highlights of the entire draw was a strong-willed victory over the Parisians at home. By the 56th minute, the guests were leading - 3: 0, but in the remaining time the hosts scored four unanswered goals, and Walter Pandiani scored a hat-trick.
In the quarterfinals, Irureta's team met with the impudent Leeds who did not recognize the authorities. The first meeting in England ended in a rout for the guests. They conceded three unanswered goals. It seemed unrealistic to play such a handicap.
But Deportivo came close to performing a miracle. At the very beginning of the match, Jalminha converted a penalty, and in the 73rd minute Diego Tristan scored the second goal. At the end of the meeting, the hosts staged a real assault on the opponent's goal, but the "match of life" was played by the Leeds goalkeeper Nigel Martin.
In subsequent years, "Deportivo" regularly took medals in the Spanish championship and even reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2004. However, in the 2010s, the team's results deteriorated sharply, and in 2020, for the first time in 40 years, it flew into the country's third-strongest division.
Season 1999/00. Lazio - quarterfinals
A year earlier, a similar achievement was achieved by another debutant of the Champions League "Lazio". True, it was impossible to call the team inexperienced in terms of European Cup battles. The Romans with Alessandro Nesta, Pavel Nedved, Roberto Mancini, Diego Simeone and Marcelo Salas won two international trophies in 1999 - the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup. Moreover, in the match for the last ward of Sven-Göran Eriksson managed to defeat the current winner of the Champions League "Manchester United".
In the main European Cup, Lazio also started confidently. At the stage of the first group stage, the Romans scored 14 points out of 18 possible, ahead of Dynamo Kiev, Bayer Leverkusen and Maribor.
And victories over such strong teams as Marseille and Milan helped the Romans to take first place in their quartet and in the second group stage. Lazio defeated the French at home - 5: 1, and the current head coach of the team, Simone Inzaghi, designed poker. The decisive victory in London (2: 1) with goals from Inzaghi and Sinisa Mikhailovic.
Only the future finalist of the tournament - “Valencia” by Hector Cooper could stop Ericsson's team. In Spain, Lazio conceded five goals at once and answered them with only two goals. Victory with a minimum score in Rome was not enough to continue the fight for the European Cup. But a month later, Lazio won the Serie A for the first time in history.
Season 1997/98. Bayer - quarterfinals
In the late 90s Bayer was one of the strongest German teams. Leverkusen, under the guidance of young coach Christoph Daum, regularly won Bundesliga medals, and in 1997 they made their Champions League debut.
The first pancake did not come out lumpy for them. Having easily passed Dinamo Tbilisi in the qualifying round, Bayer also performed well at the group stage. Only the away game against Monaco turned out to be frankly unsuccessful for Daum's team. The Leverkusen team conceded four unanswered goals, including the young Thierry Henry who managed to score a double.
But in the matches with inferior in class Lierse and Sporting, the Germans scored 12 points out of 12 possible and, taking second place in the group, made their way to the quarterfinals. And the top scorer of the team was the Brazilian Emerson with four goals.
But “Real” was too strong for “Bayer”, although at home the Leverkusen team managed to impose a struggle on the opponent. Moreover, in the 18th minute, Stefan Beinlich brought the hosts ahead. But in the second half, Christian Karambö equalized the score. In Madrid, the Germans kept their goal intact during the first half of the meeting, but conceded three times after the break.
Four years later, the teams met again, this time in the Champions League final, but even then Real was stronger - 2: 1.
Season 1996/97. Auxerre - quarterfinals
In turn, the modest Auxerre was a significant force in France in the mid-90s. The team, representing a small city of 40,000, finished third in Ligue 1 twice in 1994 and 1995 and reached the 1992/93 UEFA Cup semi-finals.
And in 1996, Auxerre made a golden double and made it to the Champions League. Laurent Blanc, Taribo West and Eric Cantona played in the Burgundians in those years, but her main star was coach Guy Roux, who worked with the team for 40 years and went with him from playing in the lower divisions to winning trophies.
And in the Champions League, the French champion looked decent. The defeat to Ajax (0: 1) in the first match of the group stage did not affect the team's mood. In the next two games against Rangers and Grasshopper, the team scored six points, while Tom Denieu scored three times.
In the second round, Auxerre lost to Grasshopper (1: 3), but with the same score - 2: 1, they beat Ajax with Rangers and took first place in the group.
In the quarterfinals, the Burgundians had the opportunity to get even with Borussia Dortmund, which had defeated the squad in the UEFA Cup semifinals four years earlier.
This could not be done. In Germany, Auxerre was defeated - 1: 3. Lyamushi's goal left the guests with hope for the final success. But Larissa Rikken's ball in Auxerre removed all questions regarding the winner of the confrontation.
In the French championship, the Burgundians did not rise above the third place in the future, and in 2012 they flew to League 2, in which they still play. Guy Ru left the team in 2000, but returned a season later to work with it for another four years.