For the fifth time in 2025, we’re gearing up for a Spanish inquisition with Atletico Madrid heading to north London in Champions League action, and we could continue to make history should we keep up our winning record against sides from Mikel Arteta’s homeland.
We kicked off this season’s European campaign last month with a win in Bilbao against Athletic Club, stretching our victorious run against La Liga’s finest to six in succession – achieving something that no team in Champions League history had done before.
It began when we beat Sevilla home and away in the competition back in 2023, and then in January we ran out 2-1 victors in Girona as we rounded off the league phase. We were then pitted against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals when we picked up a pair of memorable wins – 3-0 in N5 before a late Gabriel Martinelli goal sealed another success at the Bernabeu. Gabi was on target again in September when we beat Athletic Club 2-0 to record another eye-catching success.
| Start | End | Team | Run |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24/10/2023 | Ongoing | Arsenal | 6 |
| 19/10/2021 | 03/05/2022 | Liverpool | 4 |
| 01/11/2016 | 05/04/2022 | Man City | 4 |
| – | – | 15 Teams | 3 |
As well as becoming the first club to have beaten Spanish opposition six times in a row in the Champions League, this streak represents our best run of form against a single nation in the competition. However, when you factor in our entire European history, we are closing in on our eight wins in a row against Swiss opposition, which is our best run of consecutive wins against any nation:
| Start | End | Country | Streak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20/10/1971 | Ongoing | Switzerland | 8 |
| 04/11/1981 | 22/10/2014 | Belgium | 6 |
| 24/10/2023 | 16/09/2025 | Spain | 6 |
| 12/09/2000 | 23/10/2007 | Czech Republic | 5 |
| 07/12/2004 | Ongoing | Norway | 5 |
We are turning the corner when it comes to matches against Spanish opponents, as before this run we had won just 12 times from 37 matches against the Iberian nation. But should we make it seven-straight successes on Tuesday, Spain would be the country we’ve won most European matches against, overtaking French and Italian clubs:
| Nation | Games | W | D | L | W% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 16 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 56.3% |
| Ukraine | 13 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 53.8% |
| France | 34 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 52.9% |
| Greece | 23 | 12 | 3 | 8 | 52.2% |
| Italy | 35 | 18 | 9 | 8 | 51.4% |
| Portugal | 23 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 43.5% |
| Spain | 43 | 18 | 9 | 16 | 41.9% |
| Germany | 40 | 16 | 6 | 18 | 40.0% |
| Netherlands | 22 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 36.4% |
Atletico are one of 12 Spanish teams that we’ve faced in European action, which is more than from any other nation. As well as the sides we’ve beaten on this run, we’ve also locked horns with Valencia, Zaragoza and Barcelona, who all beat us in major finals, plus Deportivo La Coruna, Mallorca, Celta Vigo, Villarreal and Atletico Madrid, who knocked us out of the Europa League semi-final stage in 2019.
When we tackle them on Tuesday, it’ll be just the third time that a club has had to do battle with four different Spanish sides in the same calendar year, following on from Juventus in 2003, while Paris Saint-Germain did so last year, falling to a 2-1 home defeat to Diego Simeone’s side in the last of those.
Hopefully, this time around, recent history will be more favourable than the past, as we look to stretch our streak of Spanish successes.
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