Winning silverware is all well and good but one of the signs of a truly elite soccer team is simply refusing to be beaten.
The two things normally go hand-in-hand, with some of the generational sides of past years having gone on lengthy unbeaten runs en route to glory. An invincible season is perhaps the mark of true greatness, with plenty of Europe’s top sides having boasted such campaigns.
From the early 20th century to the modern day, these specific squads have written their name into club legend with their stoic displays and resilience.
Here are the 11 longest unbeaten runs across all competitions in European football history.
11. Celtic, 42 matches (2016-2017)
Celtic have enjoyed several lengthy unbeaten runs in their history, but their second-longest came between November 2016 and August 2017 under Brendan Rodgers.
The Hoops went the entire league season without defeat, clinching a domestic treble by lifting both the League Cup and the Scottish Cup. Their streak carried into the following campaign, eventually reaching 42 games before it was halted in Champions League qualifying—by none other than Kazakh side Astana.
Celtic still advanced to the group stage on aggregate, but the loss seemed to open the floodgates in Europe. Rodgers’s side went on to lose five of their six group matches, conceding 18 goals in the process.
10. AC Milan, 42 matches (1991-92)
AC Milan boasted some truly wonderful sides across the 1990s but few matched their sensational 1991-92 team. Having suffered defeat to Bari in May 1991 at the end of a long Serie A campaign, the Rossoneri would then go on a streak of 42 games without tasting defeat.
The Italian giants went the entirety of the 1991-92 league season unbeaten en route to yet another Scudetto, and didn’t taste defeat until April when they lost 1-0 to Juventus in the second leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal.
A team that boasted the likes of Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi in defence, with the Dutch trio of Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten in front of them, it’s hardly surprising that defeats were rare.
9. Ajax, 42 matches (1995-96)
Several of the greats of the Milan side that were so dominant in the early 1990s started their careers with Ajax, and that setup continued to provide the world with exceptional talents throughout the decade.
Their streak of 42 matches unbeaten started at the end of the 1994-95 season—a campaign in which Ajax only lost once in the KNVB Cup—with the likes of Edwin van der Sar, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Nwankwo Kanu and Patrick Kluivert firing the Eredivisie club to Champions League glory at the end of the campaign.
Their run ended in January 1996 after a 1–0 league defeat to Willem II, but that didn’t stop them winning Eredivisie at a canter and reaching another Champions League final—which they lost on penalties to Juventus.
8. Juventus, 43 matches (2011-12)
Having finished seventh in Serie A the season before, the arrival of Antonio Conte as Juventus head coach sparked a revolution in Turin, with the Old Lady going 43 games unbeaten under the Italian tactician.
All but one of those games came during the 2011-12 campaign, with Conte’s side not tasting defeat in the league as they claimed their first title since the 2006 Calciopoli scandal.
Juve’s run would only come to a close on the final game of the campaign, losing 2–0 to Napoli in the Coppa Italia final.
7. Rangers, 44 matches (1992-93)
Rangers’ 44-game unbeaten run took place within the confines of the 1992-93 season.
The remarkable streak began in August and spanned until March, with Old Firm rivals Celtic eventually bringing it to an end. It proved to be a historic campaign for the Gers as they won a famous treble, lifting the Scottish Premiership, Scottish Cup and League Cup with a little help from a rampant Ally McCoist up top.
They beat Aberdeen in both cup finals and toppled them out by nine points in the league, with Walter Smith’s side going unbeaten in the Champions League too despite not making it out of the group stage.
6. Dinamo Zagreb, 45 matches (2014-15)
Croatia’s most dominant-ever side, Dinamo Zagreb were a relentless force in the mid-2010s.
Their 45-match unbeaten run began during the 2014–15 season and continued into the following campaign.
Having won the the league and cup double at the end of the previous year, the capital side’s first defeat of the 2015–16 season came at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League group stage—a chastening 5–0 loss in Bavaria.
5. Rijeka, 45 matches (2016-17)
The only club to interrupt Dinamo Zagreb’s dominance of the SuperSport HNL—Croatia’s top division—between 2005 and 2025 was HNK Rijeka, who pulled it off twice: first in 2016–17 and again in 2024–25.
During their 2016–17 triumph, Rijeka matched Dinamo’s record of 45 games unbeaten, a run stretching across two seasons, before finally falling to Zagreb-based Lokomotiva in the league.
But they finished in style. Just weeks later, Rijeka defeated Dinamo 3–1 in the Croatian Cup final to seal a historic double.
4. Benfica, 48 matches (1963-65)
Until the 2023–24 campaign, Benfica were the side that had set the post-Second World War record for the longest unbeaten run in all competitions within Europe. Their tally reached 48 matches, spanning across two seasons.
The Eusébio-led Benfica won three trophies across the 1963–64 and 1964–65 campaigns, including two Portuguese first division titles and one Taca de Portugal, adding to the success of the two-time European champions from the early 1960s.
3. Bayer Leverkusen, 51 matches (2023-24)
In 2023–24, Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen side not only ended Bayern Munich’s reign of terror in the Bundesliga, they did so by becoming the first side to finish a season unbeaten in the competition en route to their first-ever Meisterschale.
They managed an incredible 51-game unbeaten run across all competitions fueled by late goals and a never-say-die attitude, which included reaching the Europa League final.
However, that’s where their incredible run finished, with a 3–0 defeat to Atalanta in the final keeping them waiting for their first piece of European silverware since 1988.
2. Union Saint-Gilloise, 60 matches (1933-35)
Prior to the Second World War, Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise reached a truly astounding 60 games unbeaten.
They won three first division titles across three campaigns, claiming the country’s most coveted prize in 1933, 1934 and 1935. In that period there was 44 wins and 16 draws before their incredible run was ended on 3 February 1935.
It’s also worth noting that this run came before UEFA competitions were introduced, making it somewhat simpler to stay invincible.
1. Celtic, 62 matches (1915-1917)
Celtic still hold the record for the longest unbeaten run in European football history, and it has stood for well over a century.
Like USG’s, their record only accounts for domestic games with UEFA competitions having not been introduced until after the Second World War.
However, a 62-game unbeaten streak is still remarkable, with the record standing at 66 matches if charity cup clashes are included.
Notable Invincible Seasons Across the World
In 2023-24, Leverkusen added their name to a lengthy list of clubs to have gone invincible throughout a domestic league season, with the likes of Arsenal (2003-04), Porto (2010-11 and 2012-13) and Rangers (2020-21) among the other European sides to have achieved the feat in the 21st century.
However, when looking at Africa, Al Ahly are the kings of invincibility. Since the 1960s, the Egyptian side have finished seven league seasons unbeaten, with Zamalek and Ismaily having also managed to to do so once each in Egypt.
In Asia, Johor D.T. of Malaysia have done back-to-back unbeaten league seasons in 2022 and 2023, completing a domestic treble during both campaigns. While only a 22-game league season, it’s still an impressive record.
Uruguay’s Peñarol are the side to beat in South America, although there have been many seasons in which no team could. They also have seven invincible campaigns under their belt, six of which came in a 26-year period between 1949 and 1975.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Longest Unbeaten Runs in Soccer History.
