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Winning the domestic league title and cup competitions are great achievements. However, winning a trophy in Europe against other clubs from the continent is quite often the pinnacle of success for any club.
Very few clubs manage to succeed repeatedly in Europe due to the nature of the competitions and the high quality of football in these tournaments. Clubs need to spend well, build an excellent squad and have a manager who can outwit the best managers across the continent. In other words, only 'big clubs' are supposed to do well in Europe.
While some of the biggest clubs across the top leagues in Europe have done well in these competitions, won trophies and generally made it to the latter stages, there are certain big clubs that have underachieved woefully in the continent. These are clubs who have been mightily successful in their own countries and despite having everything in place to have a good crack at European football trophies, have consistently performed below their standards in Europe.
Here is a look at 5 of them:
#5 PSV Eindhoven
The Netherlands is one of Europe's and the world's greatest footballing nations and their league used to be one of the toughest in the continent, even a decade or so ago. While Ajax Amsterdam have been the flag bearers of the league, their fierce rivals and the Netherlands' second most successful club, PSV Eindhoven have consistently been a trendsetter in the league.
However, despite winning 23 Dutch league titles, PSV's record in the European competitions has been nothing but a disappointment.
They won the UEFA Cup back in 1978 and 1988. They won the old European Cup in their greatest ever season when they completed the treble.
However, since the night in Stuttgart in 1988 when Guus Hiddink's team won that trophy, PSV have been pretty poor in Europe. They have had players like Romario, Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Arjen Robben among others as a part of their squad over the years, but could never do much either in the Champions League or the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League).
#4 Rangers
Scottish giants Rangers FC might be in doldrums at this point in time and playing in the second division in Scotland, but they remain the most successful club in the country's history.
Rangers have won the league 54 times, which is a record for any club anywhere in the world. In addition to that, they have won the Scottish Cup (33) and the Scottish League Cup (27), 60 times in total.
However, success in the continent has eluded them and they have nothing to show for their efforts since 1972, when they became the first club from Britain to win a European trophy in the form of the Cup Winners' Cup.
Other than that, Rangers have never really threatened in the Champions League, despite their pedigree as one of the world's biggest clubs. They ended as the finalists of the UEFA Cup back in 2008 and in addition to that, they had two runners-up finishes in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1961 and then again in 1967.
They are, without a doubt, one of the biggest underachievers in European competitions among big clubs.
#3 Olympique de Marseille
It might seem uncharitable to include the only French club to have ever won the UEFA Champions League in this list, but there is no doubt to their underachievement in Europe. Considering their status as one of Europe's best teams during the 1980s and 1990s, Marseille should have done much better in European competitions. They dominated the French league for a considerable period of time and were quite good in the UEFA Champions League during the early 1990s.
They were runners-up in 1991 and two years later in 1993, Marseille beat favourites AC Milan to lift the coveted trophy.
However, since then, they reached the knockout stages of the competition plenty of times and over the years had plenty of notable players in their squad but could never make it big. In 1999, they were runners-up in the UEFA Cup and five years later they ended up on the losing side in the final once again to continue their wretched run in Europe.
#2 Benfica
Having won the old European Cup twice in a row back in 1961 and 1962, Portugal's most successful club, Benfica, were looked upon as a club that was going to win many more of those trophies in Europe.
However, since then, they have failed to win a single European competition in all these years. There is also a theory that says that Benfica's legendary manager Bela Guttman's curse is the reason behind the club's underachievement in Europe.
After helping the club win those two trophies, he requested a raise in his salary but it was turned down by Benfica's management. When he left the club, he is known to have said that Benfica won't be European champions in a hundred years and over the next 55 years, the club have failed to win anything in the continent.
Benfica's underachievement is not down to fundamentally poor football since, after all, they are Portugal's most successful club. In fact, they have reached the European Cup final five times and the UEFA Cup (Europa League) final thrice. However, they have not been able to cross the final hurdle.
They lost the Europa League final again in 2013 and then did the same in 2014 to continue their heartbreaking pattern of losing European finals.
#1 Arsenal
Arsenal are the biggest club in one of Europe's most important city, London, and the 3rd most successful club in English football. However, as far as underachievement in European competition is concerned, then the club is in a league of its own.
The club won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precursor to the UEFA Cup and the Europa League, back in 1970 and ended up as the runners-up in the same competition a decade later.
However, their record in the UEFA Champions League is dreadful for a club of their size and stature.It is particularly appalling considering the fact that until 2016, they had qualified for the competition twenty times in a row. In 2006, Arsenal came closes to winning it but late goals from opponents Barcelona ruined their chances and since then, they have been quite disappointing in the Champions League.
They reached the semi-final in the 2008-09 season but other than that, Arsenal have become infamous for losing heavily to other European giants in knockout games, usually the round of 16.
In the UEFA Cup, they reached the final in 2000 but ended up as runners-up to Turkish side Galatasaray then. Over the years, they have had some of the best players in Europe in their squad and even with a squad that went through the league season unbeaten back in 2003-04, Arsenal could only go as far as the semi-final in the Champions League.
As far as European underachievement is concerned, Arsenal are peerless and it is perhaps time for them to remedy that this season in the Europa League.
