How many times have AC Milan won the Champions League?

While we all love to see teams considered to be the best in the world face each other in the latter stages, it’s also incredibly exciting to see a team that wasn’t expected to go very far reach the Champions League final.

That is what will happen in the 2022/23 campaign where the Derby de la Madonnina will take place in the semifinal between Inter and AC Milan. The winner will face Real Madrid or Manchester City and, although they will be the least favored, they want to stand up and achieve the feat.

Despite AC Milan being the underdogs to win the competition, they already know what it’s like to win the championship and are one of the most decorated clubs in the tournament’s history.

Winning the European Cup/Champions League seven times is a remarkable achievement for any club, but what makes AC Milan’s record so impressive is that they have won it in four different decades, demonstrating a repeated ability to build elite teams instead of having a decade of dominance.

The first win in the early 1960s came against a generational Benfica team, as evidenced by the fact that Eusebio scored his goal in the Rossoneri’s 2-1 win. Jose Altafini scored both goals for Milan for a team that featured names like Giovanni Trappatoni and Cesare Maldini, Paolo’s father.

A few years later, Milan beat another team led by one of the best footballers of all time: Johan Cruyff. A hat-trick from Pierino Prati and a goal from Angelo Sormani sealed another European Cup for Nereo Rocco’s men.

It was 20 years before Milan were in another Champions League final. Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten each scored two goals to beat Steaua Bucharest in Barcelona. Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta, Franco Baresi, Frank Rijkaard and Carlo Ancelotti started the match, led by Arrigo Sacchi. Gheorghe Hagi was the starter for the Romanian team.

They returned the next season to defend their crown, and the starting eleven against Benfica had only one change from the team that won the previous year. Alberico Evani came on for Roberto Donadoni to help beat Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Benfica 1-0. Frank Rijkaard scored the goal.

The most resounding final victory came in Athens against Barcelona in 1994. The match ended before game time with goals from Daniele Massaro (2), Dejan Savicevic and Marcel Desailly for Fabio Capello’s men. The Barcelona team featured Pep Guardiola, Ronald Koeman, Hristo Stoichkov and Romario and were coached by Johan Cruyff.

Heading into the 2000s, Milan had a chance to beat rival Juventus at Old Trafford, but they needed a penalty shootout to do it. Players like Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf and Rui Costa started with Carlo Ancelotti in charge.

The Rossoneri’s most recent triumph in Europe was in 2007 and it was a job of ‘revenge’. Having been beaten by Liverpool in Istanbul just two years earlier, the two teams met again in the 2006/07 Champions League final.

This time, Athens was the place, the same stadium where Milan had won their fourth trophy. Some Milan fans may have even been relieved when their team failed to take a huge early lead, as the demons of Istanbul may have started to show their faces.

Instead, Filippo Inzaghi put the Serie A team ahead on the stroke of half-time, then added his second with just eight minutes of 90 minutes to play. Dirk Kuyt made things nervous with his goal in the 89th minute, but Milan held their ground and won number seven.

The initial moment of Milan that night was: Dida; Massimo Oddo, Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Marek Jankulovski; Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Massimo Ambrosini, Clarence Seedorf; kaka; Inzaghi.

For its part, Liverpool lined up an eleven made up of: Pepe Reina; Steve Finnan, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger, John Arne Riise; Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano; Jermaine Pennant, Boudewijn Zenden, Steven Gerrard; Dirk Kuyt.