Manchester City’s 4-0 win over Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday got Pep Guardiola’s side up and running in the Champions League for the season, having been held by Inter on matchday one.

City have become one of European football’s dominant forces in recent times, lifting the Champions League trophy in 2023 as part of a historic treble for the club.

But this week’s trip to Slovakia was not only a maiden victory in the 2024/25 edition, it was also a milestone 25th game unbeaten in the competition stretching back two seasons.

Only one other team in the history of the European Cup or Champions League has achieved that. As chance would have it, that was local rivals Manchester United, between 2007 and 2009.

In the modern era, clubs play more games, so it is naturally easier to put together long unbeaten runs across a shorter period of time. Back when Real Madrid won five European Cups in a row, it only required seven games to be crowned champions – unless a replay or two bumped it up.

But even as five-time back-to-back winners, potential unbeaten streaks for Madrid were truncated by occasional defeats in a two-legged tie, such as against FK Partizan, AC Milan and Rapid Vienna in 1956, Vasas in 1958, Atletico Madrid in 1959, and OGC Nice in 1960.

A more recent Champions League ‘three-peat’ within the last decade also included the odd loss that ultimately didn’t affect their progress or overall success in the competition.

Manchester City’s last defeat in the Champions League came in 2022 at the hands of Madrid. City were famously moments away from reaching the final until two late goals from Rodrygo evened up the aggregate score to force extra-time, before a Karim Benzema penalty sealed a dramatic loss.

But it is now two Champions League seasons unbeaten and counting. City went all the way in 2022/23 without tasting defeat, while they managed to maintain that in 2023/24, despite being knocked out by perennial foes Madrid in the quarter-finals. Both legs of the tie ended in draws and City were ultimately knocked out on penalties, which is not considered a loss.

City have now reached 25 games without defeat at this level, matching what Sir Alex Ferguson’s third great Manchester United team – the Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez era – did 15 years ago.

From a semi-final humbling in the pouring rain at San Siro by Kaka and AC Milan in May 2007, United went through the entire 2007/08 European season unbeaten, culminating in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea in the 2008 final that was decided on penalties, this time in pouring rain in Moscow.

United returned to the final a year later, going through 12 more games unbeaten in 2008/09, but then lost against an ultimately treble-winning Barcelona side in Rome.

Other notable efforts include Ajax going 20 games unbeaten between 1985 and 1995, obviously not across consecutive seasons. Bayern Munich have twice put together 19-game unbeaten runs, almost two decades apart, first from 2001 until 2002 and then again from 2019 until 2021.

For Manchester City, game 26 is against Sparta Prague at the Etihad Stadium on 23 October. Should they avoid defeat in that one, which seems highly likely, the unbeaten record will be theirs alone.

Man Utd & Man City: joint unbeaten Champions League record

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