AS Roma 2007

Coach: Luciano Spalletti

AS Roma reached the 2006-07 Champions League quarter-finals under coach Luciano Spalletti, memorably losing 7-1 away to Manchester United at Old Trafford in the second leg after having actually won the first leg 2-1 at home, a stunning collapse that remains one of the most one-sided results ever suffered by a major European club in the competition's knockout stages. Francesco Totti, the club's talismanic captain and one of the most beloved one-club players in modern football history, led a squad that had reached the final of the Coppa Italia and pushed Inter close in the Serie A title race that same season, making the Old Trafford scoreline all the more shocking given the team's overall quality and domestic competitiveness. Cristian Chivu and a young Daniele De Rossi anchored the midfield and defence, but nothing in the squad's makeup could explain the scale of the Old Trafford defeat, which Spalletti himself later described as one of the most painful nights of his coaching career. The result is still referenced whenever football conversations turn to the most shocking single-match collapses in Champions League history.