Europe: Unconquered stadiums - the curse of visitors in 2024/25 season
source: StadiumDB.com; author: Miguel Ciołczyk Garcia
Five stadiums of five teams playing in European competitions and a handful of arenas from non-obvious and even exotic leagues. After the autumn round, a small number of clubs on the Old Continent can boast that they have not once lost in front of their home crowd.
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The unexpected undefeated
Not Bernabéu, not Allianz Arena nor Etihad Stadium, but London, Porto, Eindhoven, Glasgow and Piraeus. These are the last five cities that have not been conquered by league, cup or European rivals. Their hosts have not yet lost once in front of their home crowd this season.
Among them Arsenal stands out as the only Big 5 team undefeated at home. The Gunners haven't lost once at Emirates Stadium this season, but they also perform well as guests. Of the 39 points in the Premiership, 21 come from home games and 18 from away fixtures. In the Champions League they won all three matches in front of their home crowd and scored 4 of the 9 points visiting rivals' venues. The last time Mikel Arteta's team was defeated at Ashburton Grove was on April 14, 2024 in a clash with Aston Villa (0:2).
The rest of the teams fell into the strong at home, weak away
pattern. Such is the case for PSV - 7 points in the Champions League playing in Eindhoven, 1 away. In the league, eight wins in a row at Philips Stadion, as guests - 7 and 2 defeats.
A similar record has FC Porto, which is 4th in Liga Portugal away and has earned 1 point in the Europa League. But at Estádio do Dragão the Dragons have won each of their 9 matches in the league and earned 7 points in the UEL.
© Emanuel Rocha | Estádio do Dragão
Partly breaking out of the pattern is Olympiakos, which in the UEL only
scored 5 out of their 9 points at Stádio Georgios Karaiskakis, but in the Superleague Ellada the Greeks hold the leading position due to playing in Piraeus: the balance of 6 wins and 2 draws at home against 4 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats away speaks for itself.
Celtic has the same record in the Premiership in Glasgow as it did as a visitor (8 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses), but in the Champions League it earned 7 out of 9 points at Celtic Park.
© Vic Sharp | Celtic Park (Parkhead)
League fortresses across Europe
Of the 53 UEFA countries' top leagues (teams from Andorra and Liechtenstein play in Spain and Switzerland), 21 clubs have yet to succumb to the visitors. Although many have fought hard to get into the Conference League, defending at least a draw in their own backyard, there efforts were in vain.
Such is the case with 8 teams, the most widely known of which are Austria Vienna, playing at Generali-Arena, and AEK Athens, whose home is the modern OPAP Arena. But even semi-professional HB Tórshavn of the Faroe Islands, whose matches are played at Gundadalur, managed to tie at home in the LK qualifiers and is undefeated at home in the league.
© Jörg Pochert | Gundadalur
The same happened for Croatia's HNK Rijeka, which plays its matches at Stadion Rujevica, as well as Gibraltar's St Joseph's FC (Europa Point Stadium) or Sliema Wander playing at Centenary Stadium in Malta.
Before dropping out of the qualifiers, 2 Luxembourg teams, Differdange 03 (Stade Municipal de Differdange) and Progrès Niederkorn (Stade Jos-Haupert), gave their fans the joy of victory at home. Thanks to their outstanding results at home, they are ranked 1st and 5th in the league, respectively.
© Claude Piscitelli | Stade Municipal de la Ville de Differdange
Teams that have not performed in European tournaments or qualifiers for them, but are still undefeated at home in domestic competition are:
- Rio Ave (Portugal) – Estádio dos Arcos
- Heerenveen (Netherlands) – Abe Lenstra Stadion
- KAA Gent (Belgium) – KAA Gent Arena
- FC Nordsjaelland (Denmark) – Farum Park
- Aarhus GF (Denmark) – Ceres Park
- MŠK Žilina (Slovakia) – Štadión pod Dubňom
- FC Prishtina (Kosovo) – Stadiumi Fadil Vokrri
- FC Bălți (Moldova) – Stadionul Orășenesc
- Beitar Jerusalem (Israel) – Teddy Kollek Stadium
- Aris Limassol (Cyprus) – Alphamega Stadium
- FC Ołeksandrija (Ukraine) – Stadion Nika
- Racing FC Union (Luxembourg) – Stade Achille Hammerel
- Jeunesse Esch (Luxembourg) – Stade de la Frontière
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