Top 10 Bundesliga wins vs. English clubs in Europe
Bayern Munich can add another big English scalp to their collection as they take on Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League. Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig and Borussia Mönchengladbach have also enjoyed famous nights against teams from England over the years.
bundesliga.com looks at the top 10 wins for German sides against their English rivals.
Manchester United 0-1 Borussia Dortmund
1996/97 UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg
Dortmund have been fortunate enough to pack their trophy cabinet with numerous honours in Germany and Europe, but there is little more precious to the club than the time they lifted the biggest honour the continent has to offer in 1997.
United - eager to claim their first Champions League under Alex Ferguson - represented a massive hurdle to surmount in the last four for Ottmar Hitzfeld's men. Going to Old Trafford with a narrow 1-0 first leg lead left their hopes of making a final in the balance.
Lars Ricken grabbed an early away goal to fuel Dortmund's dreams, and heroic rearguard action saw them keep out the hosts - thanks to Jurgen Kohler clearing an Eric Cantona shot away from the goal line and the steel of BVB's super Scot in midfield, Paul Lambert.
Two goals from Karl-Heinz Riedle then sent Dortmund on the way to a 3-1 win over Juventus in the final in Munich to deliver one of the greatest nights in the club's history.
Tottenham Hotspur 2-7 Bayern Munich
2019/20 Champions League group stage
Bayern love a north London rout, with Spurs this time on the receiving end of a Bavarian battering in 2019.
Things had started so well for the hosts, too, as former Bayer Leverkusen man Heung-min Son opened the scoring after just 12 minutes, but it took Joshua Kimmich only three minutes to respond with an excellent equaliser. Robert Lewandowski had Bayern in front on the stroke of half-time, before Serge Gnabry ran riot.
His first was a sublime solo effort, the second a well placed finish on his 'weaker' left foot as Bayern raced to a 4-1 lead that was highly unlikely to be overturned - even when Harry Kane pulled one back from the penalty spot.
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Any Spurs hopes were soon put to bed by Gnabry as he raced clear to complete a hat-trick, and both Bayern and their rampant Germany international were far from done. A well crafted team goal led to Lewandowski adding a sixth before Gnabry lashed home his fourth of the night - and Bayern's SEVENTH - to wrap up victory. A former Arsenal man, the fact Gnabry buried Spurs so deeply into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium turf made matters even worse for the hosts as north London was well and truly painted red.
Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 Liverpool
2001/02 Champions League quarter-final second leg
Leverkusen fans will look back on the 2001/02 campaign with mixed feelings; ones of great fondness, tinged with heavy, burdensome regret after they finished a point off top in the Bundesliga and reached the finals of the Champions League and DFB Cup - only to lose both.
But, as the old adage goes, life is about the journey and not the destination and Leverkusen had some incredible stops along the way in 2001/02. One of which was their victory over Liverpool at the quarter-final stage of the Champions League.
The first-leg hadn't quite gone to plan as Sami Hyypia - who would go on to end his playing career at the BayArena and take up station in its dugout from 2012-14 - earned the Liverpudlians a 1-0 win at Anfield. But a Leverkusen side featuring the likes of Michael Ballack, Dimitar Berbatov, Lucio, Ze Roberto & Co. were far from out of the contest, as they proved in a thrilling second leg.
Ballack's brace either side of Abel Xavier's effort for the visitors had Leverkusen ahead on the night but still trailing on away goals. Berbatov then climbed off the bench to put the Germans in front in the tie for the first time, but Jari Litmanen pegged them back once more to give Liverpool the advantage with just 10 minutes to go. Klaus Toppmöller's side were not to be denied, however, and up popped Lucio in the 84th minute to fire through the legs of Jerzy Dudek and spark wild scenes of celebration from the home side as they continued their famous march to Glasgow.
Arsenal 1-5 Bayern Munich
2016/17 Champions League last-16 second leg
Arsenal must be sick of the sight of Bayern, with each of the previous three meetings between the two sides ending in 5-1 victories for the Bundesliga giants. All performances have been as dominant as the scoreline suggests, with the start of the trio of comprehensive wins dating back to the group stages of the Champions League’s 2015/16 edition.
That year, the men from Munich had lost the reverse fixture in north London 2-0 just a fortnight before, and revenge was as swift as it was sweet for Pep Guardiola’s outfit. It took just 10 minutes for Lewandowski to open the scoring, before goals from Thomas Müller (two), David Alaba and Arjen Robben - who had famously helped despatch Man United in stunning fashion seven years earlier - made sure of the rout.
Bayern then repeated the trick in the first leg of the pair’s last-16 meeting at the Allianz Arena in 2016/17, with Lewandowski, Müller, Robben and Thiago (twice) all on the scoresheet. The trilogy was then completed with possibly the most impressive of the lot as Bayern again proved their superiority, this time in England’s capital.
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Their passage to the next round may have looked well assured but Theo Walcott’s strike in the 20th-minute was a wake-up call and Bayern resoundingly responded. Lewandowski made the scores level on the night 10 minutes after half-time, leading to another onslaught as first Robben and then Douglas Costa and a late Arturo Vidal double buried Arsenal for a third time in succession and for a humbling 10-2 aggregate victory. The three-part series was relentless from start to finish.
Wolfsburg 3-2 Manchester United
2015/16 Champions League group stage
Excitement was at fever-pitch in Wolfsburg ahead of the club's second appearance in the Champions League in 2015/16. A group stage draw with CSKA Moscow, PSV Eindhoven and United left the Wolves with hopes of progressing to the knockout stages for the first time, but the English side always looked the trickiest challenge along the way.
Despite a 2-1 defeat in Manchester, results had gone well in Wolfsburg's other matches - leaving them top of the group after five games, a single point ahead of United and two clear of PSV. A result at home to the Red Devils on the final matchday was essential.
A helter-skelter encounter ensued between Dieter Hecking's Wolves and a United side coached by former Bayern boss Louis van Gaal. Wolfsburg fell behind early but raced 2-1 in front thanks to goals from Naldo and Vieirinha.
A Josuha Guilavogui own goal levelled the score but the Germans continued to pepper David de Gea's goal, culminating in Naldo - no stranger to dramatic late goals - becoming the big hero of the night as he netted an 84th minute winner and went on to celebrate the resulting group win together with the club's fans in the Nordkurve.
Bayern Munich 4-1 Chelsea
2019/20 Champions League last 16 second leg
Having already outclassed Tottenham in the group stages with 7-2 and 3-1 wins, a supremely confident Bayern under Hansi Flick had no reason to fear Premier League opposition in the first of the 2019/20 Champions League knockout stages.
Two Gnabry goals in a 3-0 win in London put Bayern in a commanding position after the first leg. The world would be a very different place by the return leg, which was held almost six months later behind closed doors in Munich due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was a case of more of the same on the pitch, though, as two goals and two assists from Lewandowski helped Bayern to a resounding 7-1 aggregate win. Weeks later, a 1-0 win over PSG in Lisbon, sealed by Kingsley Coman, gave Bayern their sixth European crown.
RB Leipzig 3-2 Manchester United
2020/21 Champions League group stage
As well as seeing Bayern crowned European champions, the summer of 2020 marked the coming-of-age for Leipzig in continental competition - as the club founded in 2009 reached the last four of the Champions League for the first time.
Die Roten Bullen were typically hungry for more of the same at the start of the 2020/21 Champions League campaign. They would not disappoint.
Leipzig went into the final matchday level on nine points with two other teams in their group - the star-studded duo of PSG and Man United, no less. With only two knockout stage spots up for grabs, that meant United had to be tackled head on in the hope of a result.
Sumptuous volleys from both Angelino and Amadou Haidara within the opening 15 minutes promptly set up a famous night for the club, with Justin Kluivert giving them a 3-0 lead that proved unassailable despite a late fightback from the English side.
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Liverpool
1965/66 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final
Dortmund became the first German team to win a European trophy when they upset Bill Shankly’s Liverpool after extra-time in Glasgow. Willi Multhaup’s side had won their maiden DFB Cup to qualify for the competition, beating Alemannia Aachen 2-0 a year previously.
En route to the Cup Winners’ Cup decider they got past Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals before winning home and away against reigning champions West Ham in the last four. Liverpool, meanwhile, had beaten Celtic in the other semi, and went into the final having already secured the English league title.
Dortmund, though, had four players who would go to that summer’s 1966 World Cup with West Germany - and one of them scored the opener. In wet conditions in front of 42,000 at Hampden Park, Siegfried Held fired in a superb first-time volley from the edge of the area on 61 minutes.
Roger Hunt scored a controversial equaliser seven minutes later, but on 107 minutes Reinhard Libuda produced a moment of magic to win it. Tommy Lawrence raced from his line to deny Held another goal, but the ball broke off the Liverpool keeper to Libuda on the right. From an acute angle and over 30 yards out, he lobbed the ball first-time towards goal. It struck the post and then went in off a Liverpool defender on the line - sparking wild celebrations.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 Manchester City
1978/79 UEFA Cup quarter-finals second leg
Should you mention the 1970s to a Borussia Mönchengladbach fan - of any age - expect a wide grin as they eagerly recall a truly golden decade for the club. The Foals vied for supremacy of the Bundesliga with Bayern at the time and took Europe by storm with swashbuckling football.
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The 1978/79 UEFA Cup would be the last of two continental titles Gladbach claimed during this era. The season was a last dance for legendary coach Udo Lattek, who had led the club to two Bundesliga titles, with key players Jupp Heynckes and Berti Vogts respectively departing during and at the end of the campaign.
The quarter-final was on a knife-edge after a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Maine Road, but trademark attacking play back on home soil saw Gladbach race to an emphatic 3-1 win. A 6-3 aggregate win in an all-German semi-final against Duisburg and narrow 2-1 victory over Red Star Belgrade in the final then took Borussia to glory.
Cologne 8-0 Tottenham Hotspur
1995/96 UEFA Intertoto Cup group stage
Spurs fans that sat through the aforementioned defeat to Bayern will have pointed to this fixture as a case in point that things could - and indeed have - been a lot worse against German opposition.
The Billy Goats put their English visitors to the sword at the then named Müngersdorfer Stadion with an 8-0 win that not only chastened the away team but also helped lead to their suspension from European competition the following season on the basis of fielding what UEFA believed were understrength teams. Albeit, nowadays, this kind of squad rotation is commonplace.
Bruno Labbadia was the chief protagonist in this 22 July 1995 meeting, with the Cologne skipper scoring a hat-trick for his side. Romanian Dorinel Munteanu also struck a brace, as did Anton Polster, while Stefan Kohn completed the rout late on.
Although they advanced to the knockouts, Cologne exited the competition in the last 16. The Billy Goats also came a literal coin toss away from beating Liverpool in the 1964/65 European Cup quarter-finals. The Bundesliga's inaugural winners and England's champions had played out goalless draws over the original two legs before a third match still failed to produce a winner after 120 minutes in which Cologne's Wolfgang Weber played to the end despite breaking his fibula.
There were no penalty shootouts at the time, with UEFA stipulating that a coin toss would decide the winner. Referee Robert Schaut of Belgium didn't have a coin, so used a little piece of wood, with red on one side and white on the other. With the captains by his side and players, media and police forming a crowd around them, he threw the wood, which landed perfectly vertical in the mud. Befitting the tie, it required another throw, which this time fell with Liverpool's nominated red facing up and allowing them to advance.
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