Real Madrid is no stranger to the semi-finals, having made 32 appearances since the inception of Europe's premier competition in 1955. Half of those qualifications came in the old-style European Cup and the remaining 16 in the current Champions League. This number is more than any other team, with Bayern Munich coming in second with 20 appearances.
In the Champions League's current format, Real Madrid has made it to the semi-finals 16 times, four more than the closest challengers, Bayern and Barcelona. Out of their 32 semi-final showdowns, they have progressed to the final 17 times, with nine appearances in the European Cup and eight in the Champions League.
Real Madrid's first eight semi-final appearances, from 1956 to 1966, resulted in their qualification for the final each time. It wasn't until the 1967-68 season that they were eliminated from this stage, losing to Manchester United 4-3 over two legs. After that defeat, Real Madrid suffered a spate of semi-final exits, losing six of their subsequent seven European Cup ties at that stage. However, they managed to beat Inter Milan 2-1 on aggregate in the 1980-81 edition before losing to Liverpool in the final.
Between 1996 and 2003, Real Madrid reached the semi-finals in five of their first seven appearances in the new-style Champions League, before failing to progress beyond the quarters in seven successive tournaments. They returned to the final four for the 2010-11 campaign, and they have remarkably progressed to this stage in 11 of the last 13 editions of the tournament, with only a pair of last-16 exits in 2019 and 2020 to Ajax and Man City respectively.
Real Madrid prevailed in only one of their five successive semi-final contests between 2011 and 2015, beating Bayern Munich 5-0 over two legs in 2014. However, they have since come up trumps in four of their last five last-four showdowns.
Real Madrid leads the statistical categories for matches won (27) and lost (22) in European Cup/Champions League semi-finals, as well as scoring (96) and conceding (79) the most goals. Their 6-0 win over Zurich in 1964 remains the biggest margin of victory in a top-level European semi-final. Karim Benzema has scored eight goals at this stage of the competition, second to Cristiano Ronaldo's 13 in the Champions League alone and third to the Portuguese and Alfredo Di Stefano (11) overall.
