Bayern Munich’s 5 biggest UEFA Champions League wins
Bayern Munich’s 9-2 thumping of Dinamo Zagreb on the opening night of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League saw them become the first team to score nine goals in a single game in the competition, but where does the victory rank in the Bundesliga club’s own record books for biggest results?
The Bavarians stole the show on the opening night of the new league phase in the 2024/25 Champions League with a devastating display at the Allianz Arena. It was 3-0 by half-time after goals from Harry Kane, Raphaël Guerreiro and a maiden European strike by Michael Olise. The Croatian champions briefly rocked the boat with two quick goals after the restart before Vincent Kompany’s men responded in style. Kane bagged three more to finish with four in total and become the leading English scorer in Champions League history, Olise got a second, before Leroy Sané and Leon Goretzka rounded things off. Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala both provided two assists. It finished the second-highest scoring game in Champions League history behind Borussia Dortmund’s 8-4 win over Legia Warsaw in November 2016 and was Bayern’s biggest European victory since a 10-0 thrashing of Anorthosis Famagusta in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup.
2=) Bayern 7-0 Basel
The 2011/12 season may be best remembered for Bayern’s treble failure of finishing as runners-up in the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League – with the latter final even at the Allianz Arena – but it was also the year that ultimately sparked their recent era of dominance. Few games perhaps exemplify that now famous ruthless streak quite like their round of 16 second leg at home to Basel. Having lost the first game in Switzerland 1-0, Jupp Heynckes’ side levelled the aggregate score quickly through Arjen Robben. Thomas Müller, who featured in every single game on this list, then had them ahead before half-time. Mario Gómez followed that with four straight goals past later Bayern and Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer, before Robben wrapped things up with a seventh in the 81st minute. It was the first time in the Champions League era Bayern had won by a seven-goal margin.
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2=) Bayern 7-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
They repeated the feat at the same stage four years later, following up a goalless first-leg draw away at Shakhtar in the round of 16 with another clinical display back in Munich. They were given an advantage when Oleksandr Kucher took down Mario Götze in the box inside three minutes and was sent off and Müller dispatched the resulting penalty. Pep Guardiola’s side would go on to have almost 75 percent possession and 25 shots against the Ukrainian champions, with more goals coming from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribéry, Müller, Holger Badstuber, Robert Lewandowski and Götze to equal the club’s biggest margin of victory in the Champions League at the time.
Without a doubt the most famous result on this list came in August 2020 during the pandemic-enforced finals tournament in Lisbon. Bayern had won every single game so far en route to the quarter-finals – and would go on to win the rest to lift the trophy under Hansi Flick – and had already produced some of their biggest Champions League victories ever back in the group stage (7-2 at Tottenham Hotspur and 6-0 at Red Star Belgrade) before a result for the ages at the Estádio da Luz.
All eight goals were assisted by a different player, with Müller opening the scoring inside just four minutes. A David Alaba own goal moments later levelled things again before Ivan Perišić, Serge Gnabry and Müller again – no player has scored as many Champions League goals against the Catalans as the Raumdeuter, with eight from nine games – made it 4-1 by the break. Luis Suárez hit nothing more than a consolation for Lionel Messi & Co. just before the hour as the Bavarians continued to run riot with four more goals from Joshua Kimmich, Lewandowski and a late brace from Barca loanee Philippe Coutinho. Prior to the Zagreb result, this was the last time Bayern had hit eight in Europe and the last game involving any match in the Champions League to see 10 or more goals. It was also the first time since the 1940s that Barcelona had conceded eight goals or more in any competition.
4) Bayern 7-1 Sporting Lisbon
As mentioned, Müller featured in every game on this list. In fact, this March 2009 encounter was his Champions League debut, which marked with his first goal in the competition. The Zagreb game in 2024 would later be his 152nd in the competition, which is a record for most appearances for a single club in the Champions League. Bayern had already won the first leg of this round of 16 tie 5-0 in Lisbon and would go on to hit seven more for the biggest aggregate win in Champions League history (12-1). Lukas Podolski scored the first two of the evening before a frantic end to the first half with an Anderson Polga own goal, a consolation João Moutinho long-range hit and then Bayern’s fourth from Bastian Schweinsteiger. After Jürgen Klinsmann introduced Müller in the second half, Mark van Bommel and Miroslav Klose both netted before the European debutant rounded things off in the 90th minute.
5=) Roma 1-7 Bayern
Guardiola’s side became the second in the Champions League era to score seven goals away from home when they smashed a Roma side led by Francesco Totti in the 2015/15 group stage. It was 5-0 by half-time after blistering stuff from Robben (twice), Götze, Lewandowski and Müller once more. Gervinho got what barely counts as a consolation after the hour mark, before substitutes Ribéry and Xherdan Shaqiri added a sixth and seventh at the Stadio Olimpico.
5=) Bayern 7-1 Red Bull Salzburg
Want to guess who was on the scoresheet on this famous night in March 2022? Yes, no prizes for knowing it was Müller once again. He got Bayern’s fifth and sixth at the Allianz Arena – either side of Maurits Kjaergaard’s meagre consolation for Salzburg – in a round of 16 second leg that put the relative disappointment of a 1-1 draw in Austria a few weeks prior well behind them. And it all came among a historic night for Lewandowski as he netted a hat-trick inside the first 23 minutes – the earliest anyone had ever done so in a Champions League match, and with just 11 minutes between his first and third goals. Gnabry got the fourth before half-time for Julian Nagelsmann’s side, with Lewandowski later teeing up Sané for the seventh of the evening.
Bayern’s biggest wins in other competitions
Bundesliga
Bayern 11-1 Borussia Dortmund – 27 November 1971
Bayern 9-0 Kickers Offenbach – 13 March 1984
Bayern 9-0 Tennis Borussia Berlin – 10 September 1976
Bayern 8-0 Darmstadt – 28 October 2023
Bayern 8-0 Schalke – 18 September 2020
Bayern 8-0 Hamburg – 25 Februar 2017
Bayern 8-0 Hamburg – 14 Februar 2015
Bayern 9-2 Hamburg – 30 March 2013
DFB Cup
Waldberg 1-16 Bayern – 15 August 1997
Bremer SV 0-12 Bayern – 25 August 2021
Hannover II 0-10 Bayern – 10 August 1976
Bayern 11-2 Blau-Weiß Berlin – 6 August 1988
Östringen 1-10 – Bayern – 25 August 1979
Bayern 10-1 Unterboihingen – 18 December 1976
European Cup/UEFA Cup
Bayern 10-0 Anorthosis Famagusta – 28 September 1983 (UEFA Cup first round, second leg)
Bayern 9-0 Omonia Nicosia – 24 October 1972 (European Cup last 16, first leg)
Bayern 8-0 Mjondalen – 14 September 1977 (UEFA Cup first round, first leg)
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