CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
What is the biggest win in the Champions League knock-out stages?
After City’s seven-goal win over RB Leipzig, we take a look at the biggest victories in Europe’s elite club competition.
Manchester City cruised through to the final eight of the Champions League on Tuesday evening, thanks to a stunning 7-0 victory over RB Leipzig.
Erling Haaland made Champions League history with a five-goal haul, while Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne added one apiece to put seven past the German side. After a tight 1-1 draw in the first leg in Leipzig, City booked their place in the quarter-finals with one of the biggest wins ever seen in the knock-out stages of the Champions League.
There have been three other seven-goal winning margins in the Champions League knock-out stages, one of which belonged to City themselves.
- Bayern Munich 7-0 Basel (March 13, 2012)
- Bayern Munich 7-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (March 11, 2015)
- Manchester City 7-0 Schalke (March 12, 2019)
Strangely, all four of the biggest Champions League’s biggest knock-out victories involved a German club. However Bayern Munich were the ones handing out the thrashings against Basel and Shakhtar Donetsk.
What is the biggest Champions League win ever?
While Manchester City and Bayern Munich share the record for the biggest knock-out win in Champions League victory, they were one goal short of the all-time competition record.
In 2007 Liverpool beat Besiktas 8-0 at Anfield, making them the first team in UCL history to win a match by eight goals.
This feat was matched in 2015 when Real Madrid put eight past Malmo on their way to their 11th Champions League title.
City coach Pep Guardiola will hope that his side can build on an imperious showing on Tuesday evening as they look to win the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. With Erling Haaland at the focal point of their attack, few would bet against them going deep in this year’s competition.
Five-goal hero Haaland told reporters after the game that he was delighted with the team’s performance: “Firstly, I’m proud to play in this competition, I love it. Five goals! To win 7-0 is amazing.”
“My super strength is scoring goals. Should I be honest? A lot of goals today, I didn’t think. I was just trying to get it into the back of the net. A lot of it is being quick in the mind and trying to put it where the goalkeeper is not.”