Since the expansion of the Champions League, there have been more opportunities for teams in the same league to meet. At its most extreme, two teams from the same league reach the Champions League final. It can be said that this is not only the success of the two teams, but also the success of this league. This is equivalent to saying that the final has not yet started, and the league has already booked the Champions League title in advance.
Since the beginning of the 99-00 season, there have been 8 times in the Champions League.
Theoretically, both teams should be the strongest and deepest in the league, or to put it bluntly, the league directly moved the national derby to the Champions League final.
However, this is not always the case. In fact, 7 of the 8 one-country league wins the Champions League and runner-up of the Champions League are not authentic national derbys.
Let's start with La Liga.
There is no doubt that the national derby in La Liga is Real Madrid against Barca. But somewhat surprisingly, the two teams have never met in the Champions League final. La Liga has won the Champions League and runner-up three times, each time with the participation of Real Madrid, but Barca have never appeared.
The three are Real Madrid vs Valencia in the 99-00 season, and Real Madrid in the 13-14 season and the 15-16 season when Real Madrid collided with Atletico.
Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are Madrid derbys, but not yet national.
Perhaps, everyone is waiting for Real Madrid and Barca to reach the Champions League final and bring the Spanish national derby to the stage of the Champions League final.
Look at the Premier League.
The Premier League has had three such spectacles. But not every time it was a national derby.
If you want to talk about the national derby of the Premier League, it should be Manchester United against Liverpool. First of all, these two teams have won the league in the top two in history, and the Champions League results are also the top two in the English League. Other teams, like Chelsea and Manchester City, have only begun to develop in the past decade.
The three Premier League situations are Manchester United vs Chelsea, Liverpool vs Tottenham Andcher Tottenham and Chelsea vs Manchester City. Interestingly, Manchester United and Liverpool appeared once separately, but they did not meet directly. Chelsea have appeared twice.
Then look at Serie A.
Serie A has only one time to win the Champions League and runner-up, that is, in the 02-03 season, AC Milan vs Juventus.
But that raises a question. AC Milan and Juventus are indeed the strongest teams in Serie A, but the national derby in Serie A is not a showdown between them, but a match between Inter Milan and Juventus.
At that time, there were only two teams in Serie A that had not been relegated, namely Inter and Juventus. Later, Juve experienced the first relegation in the club's history because of the phone gate incident, but they are still the best team in Serie A history, so the concept of the national derby has not changed.
Therefore, the match between Juve and Inter is the most authentic Serie A national derby.
Finally, let's look at the example of the Bundesliga.
In the 12th to 13th season, two Bundesliga teams appeared in the Champions League final, Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund.
This is the authentic Bundesliga national derby.
Bayern are the Bundesliga giants and the best Bundesliga team in the Champions League; Borussia Dortmund have won the Champions League and have done very well in Bundesliga history. Every season in the Bundesliga, before the two teams meet, the media will make a fuss about the Bundesliga national derby. Although they are not as popular as the Spanish national derby in terms of influence, in the Bundesliga, this is the highest standard of confrontation.
Therefore, there is only one case of the 8 times in the history of the Champions League that teams have reached the final, which is the real national derby, that is, Bayern vs. Borussia Dortmund.
Of course, in the future, other leagues will have the opportunity to move their own authentic national derby to the Champions League final. Hopefully, we can see the Champions League final in the future, the confrontation between Manchester United and Liverpool, the match between Inter and Juve, of course, the most desirable thing to see is Real Madrid vs. Barca.