In an alternate history, Barcelona just won the Champions League

Last year, I examined how each year's UEFA Champions League final would've looked if the old format of only the league champions (plus the holders) was in place. The switch was made in 1997-98, and Manchester United was the first non-champion to win the competition a season. The post can be found here.

My formula is to take the team that advanced the furthest in real life and give them the title, with any ties broken by total points in the competition (excluding qualifying rounds).

This year, 5/16 of the participants in the knockout stage had won their league, and would've qualified under the old format. Barcelona advanced the furthest, and in this alternate history would've been crowned champions. Of the other four teams, Basel and Zenit were eliminated in the eighthfinals, while APOEL and Milan made it to the quarters. So the runner up spot comes down to total points, APOEL vs Milan. Both teams had 9 in the group stage and one win the round of 16. However, Milan got a draw against Barcelona in the quarterfinals, while APOEL lost twice against Real Madrid. So it ended up being 13-12 in favor of Milan, making the alternate history final Barcelona over Milan if the rules had never changed.

Here's a list of how the champions would've looked each year under the old formula versus real life. 8/15 years would have the same winner, while only two years would've had the exact same final. However, in terms of the overall amount of wins, there's not too many differences in the total wins for both clubs and countries. Chelsea wouldn't have won this year, but they would've already had a title back in 2007.

Dynamo Kiev winning in 1999 is the biggest difference, while seeing their fellow Ukrainian team Shakhtar as runners up a year ago is surprising too. Kiev and Juventus are the only new winners, while Liverpool is the only real life winner to not win one.

Champions League Finals - Real Life vs Old Format

	Winner		Finalist		Winner		Finalist
1998	Real Madrid	d.	Juventus		Real Madrid	d.	Juventus
1999	Manchester Utd	d.	Bayern Munich		Dynamo Kiev	d.	Juventus
2000	Real Madrid	d.	Valencia		Barcelona	d.	Bayern Munich
2001	Bayern Munich	d.	Valencia		Bayern Munich	d.	Deportivo
2002	Real Madrid	d.	Bayer Leverkusen		Real Madrid	d.	Manchester Utd
2003	AC Milan	d.	Juventus		Juventus	d.	Real Madrid
2004	Porto	d.	Monaco		Porto	d.	Real Madrid
2005	Liverpool	d.	AC Milan		AC Milan	d.	Lyon
2006	Barcelona	d.	Arsenal		Barcelona	d.	AC Milan
2007	AC Milan	d.	Liverpool		Chelsea	d.	Bayern Munich
2008	Manchester Utd	d.	Chelsea		Manchester Utd	d.	Chelsea
2009	Barcelona	d.	Manchester Utd		Manchester Utd	d.	Bayern Munich
2010	Inter	d.	Bayern Munich		Inter	d.	Barcelona
2011	Barcelona	d.	Manchester Utd		Barcelona	d.	Shakhtar
2012	Chelsea	d.	Bayern Munich		Barcelona	d.	AC Milan