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Celta enjoy the high life

Club history: RC Celta de Vigo have established themselves among Spain's leading clubs.

uefa.com looks back at the achievements of RC Celta de Vigo as part of our series of histories of the 18 clubs directly involved in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

Ups and downs
RC Celta de Vigo were founded in 1923 when the city's best two teams, Vigo Sporting and Fortuna de Vigo, merged - the idea being to create a club to compete with Spain's finest. However, Celta are still to win a major trophy and for much of their history have yo-yoed between the divisions. None the less, since their last promotion in 1992, they have established themselves in the top flight and competed domestically and in Europe.

Long wait
During their early years the Galicians performed well in regional tournaments but when the national league was formed in 1928/29, Celta found themselves in the second division. They had to wait until 1936 to win promotion to the División de Honor - and then until 1939 to actually play in it because of the civil war.

First final
Although they struggled initially at the highest level, their 1948 vintage - featuring the country's leading goalscorer in Pahiño - finished fourth in the championship and reached the Spanish Cup final, where they lost to Sevilla FC. Pahiño soon departed for Real Madrid CF, but Celta regrouped in the 1950s and again challenged with an attacking lineup.

Into Europe
By contrast, the 1960s were a depressing decade for the Light Blues as they languished in the second division for ten seasons. However, once restored to the élite, they qualified for Europe for the first time - the 1971/72 UEFA Cup. But in 1975 Celta were again demoted and worse was to come in 1980/81 when they slumped into the third division. It was not until 1992 that coach Txetxu Rojo finally guided them back to the top flight.

Golden period
Rojo then led the club to the 1994 cup final and a penalties defeat by Real Zaragoza. In 1995 there was a scare when they were relegated for administrative reasons - then reinstated - but progress continued, especially in Europe where Celta reached three successive UEFA Cup quarter-finals, beating Aston Villa FC, Liverpool FC, SL Benfica and Juventus FC along the way.

Highest finish
In the third of those campaigns, 2000/01, coach Víctor Fernández also steered the club to their third Spanish Cup final, where Celta again lost to Zaragoza. Miguel Angel Lotina took over in 2002, and in his first season equalled Celta's best-ever league placing of fourth - overhauling Valencia CF in the run-in to clinch a UEFA Champions League berth.