Yaya Touré played every minute of Barcelona’s 2-0 win over Manchester United in the 2009 Champions League final. Seventeen years on, his Slovan Bratislava side walked off a 4-0 beating in Austria and into the competition’s record book for the wrong reason.
Tuesday’s defeat to LASK in Linz was Slovan’s 14th straight Champions League main-phase loss, a streak dating back to a two-legged second-round tie against AC Milan in October 1992. It takes the unwanted mark off Marseille, who lost 13 in a row between March 2012 and November 2020.
The all-time European record of 16 consecutive defeats, set by Luxembourg’s Jeunesse Esch in the old European Cup, is now within reach.
Four matches, four thrashings
Touré’s first Champions League campaign in a dugout has produced a record of its own. PSG scored six, Stuttgart three, Roma four, LASK four. Slovan have conceded 17 goals, scored one and taken zero points from the opening four matchdays. No manager had previously lost their opening four Champions League games each by a three-goal margin or more.
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“It’s very difficult, to be honest,” Touré said after the LASK defeat.
“They were more aggressive, maybe we didn’t fight enough, but sometimes you have to just respect it.”
He pointed to a packed fixture list and the fatigue that has built up in a squad playing every two or three days.
Twelve of the 14 defeats have come in the new league-phase format: eight from Slovan’s debut appearance in 2024, four more this autumn. The opening two sit in a different era, 34 years back against Milan.
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From assistant to Champions League dugout
The appointment was unusual from the outset. Slovan handed Touré his first senior head-coaching role in the summer of 2025, a three-year deal after assistant stints in Ukraine, Russia, Belgium and with Saudi Arabia’s national team alongside Roberto Mancini.
As a player, Touré won the 2008-09 Champions League with Barcelona and the 2012 Premier League with Manchester City under Mancini. He made 70 Champions League appearances for Barcelona, Olympiacos and City before retiring in 2020.
Four games into his first season managing at that level, every opponent has beaten him by three goals or more.
Two matches left to avoid Jeunesse Esch
The 43-year-old still has fixtures to come. Slovan host Real Betis and travel to Shakhtar Donetsk before the league phase closes. Two more defeats would leave Touré’s side level with Jeunesse Esch on 16 consecutive European losses.
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