Champions League Group Stage: Past Performances Assessed & Lost Revenue Revealed

The Champions League group stage is nearly upon us, with the first round of fixtures due to take place on 6th September onwards. With that in mind, here at Cheekypunter.com, we decided to take a look at how this year’s Premier League sides competing in Europe’s elite competition (Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham) have fared in the group stage during the last five seasons when they have played Champions League football.

We also analysed some of the big hitters across Europe’s best divisions who have been ever present in the competition for some time to see how English clubs compare. Additionally, we have calculated how much revenue each club has missed out on the last time they competed in the group stage due to empty seats. To do this, we took average attendances across their last three home groups stage games and multiplied the cost of the cheapest available ticket by how many seats were unoccupied during that time.

Here’s how the clubs have performed in the group stage and how much revenue they’ve missed out on…

Group Stage Performance

Bayern Munich’s stats over the last five seasons in the early stages of the Champions League are quite staggering. They top the charts in every department having the most wins (26), the least losses (1), the most goals scored (92) and the best average win percentage with 86.67%. All this meant they have amassed a total of 81 points, which is incredibly impressive from 30 group stage games. The German giants are no strangers to winning the competition either, having gained six CL titles in their history with the latest coming back in 2020.

Manchester City ranked next and despite never winning the competition, they have always reached the latter stages in recent years often easing through the early rounds. They are universally listed across all football betting sites as this years tournament winner favourites (5/2 odds) Pep’s side have won just over 73% of their games, scoring 77 goals and gaining 70 points.

Premier League rivals Liverpool could not match City’s stats, placing fourth with Jurgen Klopp’s side being patchy in group stage games despite making the final of the competition three times in the last five years and lifting the trophy in 2019.

Chelsea ranked seventh winning 60% of their group stage games during their last five Champions League seasons. The Blue’s have never been the best in the early stages, often losing at least once in the group, but have had success in the competition overall, winning the title over Pep’s Man City back in 2021.

Tottenham ranked below their London rivals with a 50% win ratio which was the second worst of the clubs we analysed, with Borussia Dortmund ranking below Spurs. This season marks a return to the competition after a few seasons out of it and fans will be hoping Antonio Conte’s side can go one better than Mauricio Pochettino’s finalists of 2019, where they narrowly lost to Liverpool.

Lost Revenue

With lots of media noise each year around how group stage attendances are often way short of capacity, our research also looked at how much income was lost due to unsold tickets. To do this we took the average attendance figures from the last season each team competed in the Champions League and multiplied the number of empty seats by the lowest-priced ticket.

Here the English sides generally performed better than Europe’s big hitters, losing far less revenue during the early stages of the competition. Barcelona, rank outsiders for this years tournament at 20/1 with Bet365, were way out in front mainly due to having a huge stadium and massive demands from their loyal supporters. The high ticket prices were also a factor, with a group stage ticket costing £56 at the Camp Nou. All that meant they lost nearly £3 million per game during last season’s group stage.

Bayern Munich and current UCL holders Real Madrid didn’t fare much better, each losing around £2.3 million and £2.1 million respectively. Dortmund ranked behind Madrid, but their figures were far more acceptable in terms of losses with just under £1.2 million per match.

Juventus were next and despite having a half-empty stadium, the very reasonable ticket price of £35 meant their total losses per game weren’t too bad, coming in at approximately £782,040. Manchester City were the highest ranked Premier League club when it came to lost revenue, but the reasonable ticket price (also £35) kept the figures down at nearly £300,000 per group stage game.

Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool made up the bottom three, with Spurs missing out on around £230,000 per game thanks to just over 6,000 empty seats. The Blue’s and the Red’s can boast average attendance extremely close to capacity, with around 2,000 each. That coupled with ticket prices of £30 and £37 respectively meant their losses were a fraction of those other clubs on the list at just £76,500 and £63,899 per home game.

For all the best deals on this years tournament check out the latest football betting offers.