Ranking the 7 biggest title collapses in European football

There is nothing quite as exciting as a title race in football. Over the course of a nine-month season, the most enthralling tussles for the trophy are when we see two, sometimes even more, top teams going toe-to-toe and proving inseparable until the final few weeks of the season in which one must emerge victorious.

However, sometimes things pan out a little differently, and we see one team race away early on in the campaign, only for the pressure to get to them towards the end and allow for another team to sneak in and steal the glory. A title race collapse can be a difficult thing for a team to recover from and over the years, there have been many in Europe’s top five leagues: the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1 and Italian Serie A.

Ranking factors

The ranking for this list has been decided based on:

• The highest number of points the team were leading by at one stage in the season
• The scale of the capitulation and final placing
• The size of the club in question
• How impressive their title achievement would have been

7 Bayern Munich

2011/12 season

Bayern Munich are by far the most successful team in German football and have won considerably more Bundesliga titles than any other team. However, the 2011/12 campaign was one that they will have been keen to forget, as they finished second in the league and lost both the DFB-Pokal and Champions League finals.

At an early stage in the league season, the Bavarians held a five-point lead at the top of the table, but they were eventually pipped by Jurgen Klopp‘s Borussia Dortmund side, who did the double over them and won their second consecutive league title by an impressive eight-point margin. Jupp Heynckes’ side bounced back the following campaign, winning the treble and beating BVB in the Champions League final.

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6 Inter Milan

2001/02 season

Despite boasting the likes of Ronaldo, Clarence Seedorf, Christian Vieri and Javier Zanetti in their squad, Inter Milan were enduring a miserable period at the turn of the 21st century and hadn’t won a league title for 12 years. However, it looked like the 2001/02 season was going to be their year after they made a fantastic start to the season and found themselves top of the table on Christmas Day.

Heading into the final day, Hector Cuper’s side were still in first place by a single point, but a dramatic set of circumstances meant that the two teams in second and third, Juventus and Roma, could still pip them to the league title. Inter needed to win away at Lazio to confirm their status as champions, but ended up losing 4-2 and Juventus were able to swoop in and win their 26th Serie A crown.

5 Arsenal

2002/03 season

In 2002, Arsenal were at the peak of their powers under Arsene Wenger and had wrapped up their second double under the Frenchman in the 2001/02 campaign. They went into the 2002/03 season on an unbeaten run of form, which was eventually ended after 30 games by Everton’s 16-year-old Wayne Rooney in October, and found themselves five points clear at the top of the table at the start of March, with nine matches to go.

However, the Gunners would inexplicably win just two of their next seven games and a 3-2 home defeat against Leeds United in early May confirmed that the title would be heading back to Manchester. Undeterred, Arsenal instead used the Leeds defeat as a springboard and would avoid defeat in the league for the next 49 matches and finished as invincible champions in the 2003/04 season.

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4 Monaco

2003/04 season

Monaco narrowly missed out on the Ligue 1 title in the 2002/03 season but looked set to avenge that disappointment in a truly memorable campaign. Under the guidance of Didier Deschamps, the French outfit made a blistering start to the 2003/04 season, and topped the table from the middle of September until the middle of March, having pulled eight points away from second-placed Lyon at one stage.

However, Monaco were also simultaneously embarking on an exciting Champions League campaign, and once they entered the latter stages of the tournament and managed to reach the final after pulling off unlikely victories over Real Madrid and Chelsea, their league form suffered as a result, and they won just three of their last eight Ligue 1 matches, finishing in third place. To make matters worse, the French side were hammered 3-0 in the Champions League final by Jose Mourinho‘s Porto.

3 Manchester United

1997/98 season

Manchester United are the most formidable team in Premier League history, with more titles to their name than any other English team. They had a stranglehold on the competition during the 1990s, and it looked like it was going to be a familiar story in the 1997/98 season when the Red Devils opened up a 12-point gap between themselves and second-placed Arsenal at the start of March, although the Gunners still had three games in hand.

However, United failed to win any of their next three matches, which included a 1-0 home defeat against Arsenal, and that temporary blip in form was all Arsene Wenger’s side needed to nip in ahead of them and seal Premier League glory for the first time. Sir Alex Ferguson‘s men bounced back the following season as they won the first-ever treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League ever seen in England.

2 Real Madrid

2003/04 season

In 2003, the Galacticos era at Real Madrid under the presidency of Florentino Perez was in full swing. Having won the league title in 2002/03, global superstar David Beckham was added to the already overflowing array of talent at the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer window. Carlos Queiroz, who had served as Sir Alex Ferguson’s right-hand man at Manchester United, then became the new manager to replace the outgoing Vicente del Bosque.

To no-one’s surprise, Los Blancos raced ahead in the league and by the end of February, they were eight points clear at the top of the table with 12 matches left to play. However, after unexpectedly losing the Copa del Rey final to Real Zaragoza and then crashing out of the Champions League in equally surprising circumstances against Monaco, Madrid’s form fell off a cliff, and they lost all five of their last league matches, resulting in a lowly fourth place finish.

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1 Newcastle United

1995/96 season

Newcastle United‘s capitulation in the 1995/96 season is a classic tale in Premier League history and is most commonly associated with an infamous rant by manager Kevin Keegan in a post-match interview. The Magpies made a blistering start to the campaign and a 2-1 win over Bolton Wanderers in mid-January allowed them to extend their lead at the top of the table to a staggering 12 points.

However, a poor run of form from late February to early April saw Newcastle lose five out of their eight matches and win just two of them, which allowed Manchester United to make up ground and finally overtake them in mid-March with a 1-0 win over Arsenal. It all culminated in Keegan shouting down the mic after a win away at Leeds, ‘I will love it if we beat them!’ in relation to the Red Devils, after inflammatory comments made by his opposite number, Sir Alex Ferguson. However, Keegan’s wish did not come true and Newcastle’s best chance at a first league title since 1927 did not come to fruition.

Newcastle United
Season	1995/96
Division	Premier League
Final position	2nd
Manager	Kevin Keegan
Highest points lead	12