Real Madrid will play their 400th game in the European Cup at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium against Legia Warszawa this evening. The Whites becomes the first team on the continent to reach this milestone. Bayern (313) and Barcelona (280) are the closest to that figure.
The Whites played their first match in the opening edition of the competition. The Swiss side Servette, in September 1955, were the first opponent at the Charmilles Stadium in Geneva (0-2). The fiftieth game came after seven seasons at the Santiago Bernabéu. Anderlecht in the first round first leg (3-3) were the opponents for the madridistas.
The 100th match came on 7 March 1973 against Dynamo Kiev. Real Madrid played the first leg of the quarterfinals in Odessa (0-0). The match will be always remembered for red shirts that Real Madrid played in and the unforgettable performance of goalkeeper García Remón, who after the match was given the nickname The Odessa Cat. On 16 March 1988, and in the first leg of the quarterfinals, match number 150 was played. The game was at home against Bayern Munich (2-0).
The 200th game in the European Cup was also played at the Santiago Bernabéu. Porto were the opponents in the group stage of the 1999/00 season with the home side winning (3-1). Three seasons later, in Athens, against AEK came game number 250. Real Madrid drew the group stage match (3-3) in the 2002/03 season. The 300th game was on 19 September 2007 in the Group Stage and the Whites beat Werder Bremen at home (2-1). Five years later, also in the Group Stage, on 24 October 2012, the team played the 350th game against Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park (2-1).
With the milestone on the card, the European champions had ended their flurry of draws with an emphatic 6-1 LaLiga win over Real Betis at the weekend and Legia Warsaw will be fearful of a similar beating when they travel winless and pointless to the Santiago Bernabeu.
Only four 100 per cent winning records remain in this season’s Champions League and debutants Leicester City are the first to put theirs on the line on matchday three when they host Copenhagen.
At the other end of the spectrum, Dinamo Zagreb and Club Brugge join Legia in searching for their first points.