Fifteen European Cups versus seven Europas: how the Bernabéu and the Pizjuán became Spain's two ceilings

Real Madrid have lifted the European Cup fifteen times. Sevilla have lifted the UEFA Cup / Europa League seven times. Add those together and you get twenty-two European trophies between two clubs in one country — more than any other single-fixture pair in football. One has been the definition of continental aristocracy since 1956; the other built, on a tight budget under a single director of football, the most successful Europa League project the competition has ever seen. When they meet in La Liga the gap is real — Madrid lead the all-time series comfortably and have won six of the last seven — but the framing matters. This is the league's elite vs the league's third club of the modern era, and twice, in 2014 and 2016, that distinction was settled by a single trophy on a neutral ground.