Key Takeaways
In the Champions League, some teams have managed to secure massive away wins, setting stunning records.
Borussia Monchengladbach, Real Madrid, and Liverpool have all emerged victorious with resounding 0-6 or 1-7 wins.
Significant away victories demonstrate the dominance and ability of certain teams to outshine their opponents on the European stage.
No matter what competition of football a team enters, playing away from home is never an easy task. This is especially true in the Champions League, where the level of competitiveness is among the highest in the world. But that doesn't mean that some teams can't inflict devastating blows on their hosts.
In this article, GIVEMESPORT has delved into the annals of European football's greatest competition to find a record of the biggest away victories since 1992 and the famous reform of the Champions League.
Collage of Marcel Desailly, Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard. Related
UEFA Champions League Winners List
Established in 1955, the Champions League is the pinnacle of club football, with every winner writing themselves into history.
|Biggest Away Wins in Champions League History|
|Rank|Match|Date|
|1.|MSK Zilina 0-7 Olympique de Marseille|3rd November 2010|
|2.|BATE Borisov 0-7 Shakhtar Donetsk|21st October 2014|
|3.|NK Maribor 0-7 Liverpool|17th October 2017|
|4.|Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich|14th August 2020|
|5.|Dinamo Zagreb 1-7 Olympique Lyonnais|7th December 2011|
|6.|AS Roma 1-7 Bayern Munich|21st October 2014|
|7.|Rangers 1-7 Liverpool|12th December 2022|
|8.|Legia Warszawa 0-6 Borussia Dortmund|14th September 2016|
|9.|APOEL Nicosia 0-6 Real Madrid|21st November 2017|
|10.|Shakhtar Donetsk 0-6 Borussia Monchengladbach|3rd November 2020|
|---|
10 Shakhtar Donetsk 0-6 Borussia Monchengladbach
2020/21
Borussia Moenchengladbach's Alassane Plea celebrates scoring their third goal
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 3rd November 2020
Venue: NSK Olimpiiskyi
Goalscorers: Alassane Plea (8', 26', 78'), Valeriy Bondar (17', OG), Ramy Bensebaini (44'), Lars Stindl (65')
It has been several years since Borussia Monchengladbach fans last experienced the excitement of the big European nights. A long absence for a club whose last appearance on the continental stage dates back to the 2020/21 season and an elimination by Manchester City in the last 16 of the Champions League.
An edition subsequently won by another English club, Chelsea, but in which the Foals left a lasting impression, finishing second in a group made up of Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk. In fact, it was against the latter opponents that Marcus Thuram's team-mates pulled off an exceptional victory, winning 0-6 on Ukrainian soil.
9 APOEL Nicosia 0-6 Real Madrid
2017/18
Real Madrid’s Luka Modric celebrates scoring their first goal
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 21st November 2017
Venue: GSP Stadium
Goalscorers: Luka Modric (23'), Karim Benzema (39', 45'+1), Nacho (41'), Cristiano Ronaldo (49', 54')
Having missed out on the Champions League for six years now, APOEL Nicosia fans will remember their last appearance in the competition's showpiece event. Despite being drawn in a group containing Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham, the Cypriot club managed to hold off their German opponents on two occasions.
It was a very different fate from that of the English, who won twice by a score of 3-0, or the Spanish, who torpedoed the Thrylos 0-6 at the GSP Stadium. A memory as painful as it is memorable, a tribute to a gala evening against the future European champions.
8 Legia Warszawa 0-6 Borussia Dortmund
2016/17
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 14th September 2016
Venue: Pepsi Arena
Goalscorers: Mario Gotze (7'), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (15'), Marc Bartra (17'), Raphael Guerreiro (51'), Gonzalo Castro (76'), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (87')
Six goals in the first leg, twelve in the return: in 2016, the double-header between Borussia Dortmund and Legia Warszawa in the group stage wrote itself into the history books of the Champions League.
Firstly, because the Germans' 0-6 victory in Poland remains today one of the biggest away wins ever recorded in the competition; and secondly, because no match in the history of the Champions League had been more prolific than the 8-4 scoreline that produced the return leg. Eight years on, that record still stands, although it was almost broken this year in Bayern Munich's 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb.
7 Rangers 1-7 Liverpool
2022/23
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 12th December 2022
Venue: Ibrox Stadium
Goalscorers: Scott Arfield (17') // Roberto Firmino (24', 55'), Darwin Nunez (66'), Mohamed Salah (75', 80', 81'), Harvey Elliott (87')
The relationship between Scotland and England is as rich as it is ancient and tumultuous. And that evening in October 2022 certainly did nothing to ease the tension. Travelling to Ibrox to take on Rangers, still without a win after three games, Liverpool did not hesitate to add insult to injury.
However, the Gers' opener was enough to make them dream of an unexpected triumph. But scoring may also have been the biggest mistake the home side made that night. Mohamed Salah's team-mates needed no more than that to wake up and respond to their opponents by rattling the back of the net seven times. A veritable red storm.
Related
Mo Salah and Harvey Elliott share wholesome moment in Rangers 1-7 Liverpool
Mo Salah and Harvey Elliott shared a wholesome moment as the Englishman's goal was being checked in Rangers 1-7 Liverpool.
6 AS Roma 1-7 Bayern Munich
2014/15
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 21st October 2014
Venue: Stadio Olimpico
Goalscorers: Gervinho (66') // Arjen Robben (9', 30'), Mario Gotze (23'), Robert Lewandowski (25'), Thomas Muller (36'), Franck Ribery (78'), Xherdan Shaqiri (80')
Rome wasn't built in a day, but Bayern Munich certainly destroyed it in an evening. In 2014, Pep Guardiola's men had not travelled to the Italian capital for a sightseeing tour. In front of more than 70,000 spectators at the Stadio Olimpico, the Germans played their football, scoring five goals in the space of 27 minutes to bury any hope of a revival from their opponents.
And with their opponents already stunned, Franck Ribery and Xherdan Shaqiri, who both came on as substitutes, had no choice but to complete their side's work, their pride dented by Gervinho's vain attempt to reduce the deficit.
5 Dinamo Zagreb 1-7 Olympique Lyonnais
2011/12
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 7th December 2011
Venue: Maksimir
Goalscorers: Mateo Kovacic (40') // Bafetimbi Gomis (45', 48', 52', 70'), Maxime Gonalons (47'), Lisandro Lopez (65'), Jimmy Briand (76')
Every football-watcher will remember Olympique Lyonnais in the 2000s. A fearsome team, capable of toppling all the giants of the Continent, which reigned over the French championship for a remarkable eight years.
And although their dominance has waned over the years and the last few years have been synonymous with a period of turmoil, since 2010 the Rhone club has regularly reminded us what a club it once was - just ask Pep Guardiola. One of the most notable examples of this was their crushing victory over Dinamo Zagreb in the group stage of the 2010/11 season, when Bafetimbi Gomis scored four times at Maksimir.
4 Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich
2019/20
Bayern Munich's Philippe Coutinho celebrates scoring their seventh goal with teammates
Stage: Quarter-final
Date: 14th August 2020
Venue: Estadio da Luz
Goalscorers: David Alaba (7', OG), Luis Suarez (57') // Thomas Muller (4', 31'), Ivan Perisic (21'), Serge Gnabry (27'), Joshua Kimmich (63'), Robert Lewandowski (82'), Philippe Coutinho (85', 89')
Unlike each of the matches listed in this ranking, the one between Barcelona and Bayern Munich has the particularity of not having been played in either of the two clubs' respective stadiums. This was due to the coronavirus pandemic, which forced UEFA to organise a Final 8 tournament in Lisbon, Portugal, where the health situation seemed to be the most favourable for holding football matches.
This particular context certainly made the Catalans' heavy defeat all the more memorable in the eyes of observers the world over. Never before in the history of the Champions League had a team conceded eight goals ‘at home’, especially when two of them had been scored by a player on loan to the opposition a few months earlier. It's the kind of memory that will stay with you forever.
3 NK Maribor 0-7 Liverpool
2017/18
NK Maribor's Marcos Tavares in action with Liverpool's James Milner
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 17th October 2017
Venue: Ljudski Vrt
Goalscorers: Roberto Firmino (4', 54'), Philippe Coutinho (13'), Mohamed Salah (19', 39'), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (86'), Trent Alexander-Arnold (90')
Liverpool are definitely a team that likes to travel. Indeed, as impressive as it was, the Reds' emphatic victory over Rangers in 2022 was not the biggest away win recorded by Jurgen Klopp's side. That victory, which had come a few years earlier, during an autumn trip to Slovenia to face the modest club NK Maribor, saw the English side win by a seven-goal margin.
And this time without conceding a single one. It was a display of strength, notably highlighted by double strikes from Salah and Roberto Firmino, that has seen the Liverpudlian club move up to third in our rankings.
2 BATE Borisov 0-7 Shakhtar Donetsk
2014/15
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 21st October 2014
Venue: Borisov Arena
Goalscorers: Alex Teixeira (11'), Luiz Adriano (28', 37', 40', 44', 82'), Douglas Costa (35')
Shakhtar Donetsk may have suffered one of the heaviest home defeats in Champions League history, but they were also responsible for one of the biggest away wins. The 0-7 win at BATE Borisov, the most successful club in the Belarusian league (15), was achieved thanks to the Ukrainian club's Brazilian branch.
The match will go down in history not only for its historic outcome, but also for the performance of Luiz Adriano, who became only the second player in history - alongside Lionel Messi - to score five goals in a single Champions League match. A performance recently emulated by Erling Haaland against RB Leipzig.
1 MSK Zilina 0-7 Olympique de Marseille
2010/11
Stage: Group Stage
Date: 3rd November 2010
Venue: Stadion MSK Zilina
Goalscorers: Andre-Pierre Gignac (12', 21', 54'), Gabriel Henze (24'), Loic Remy (36'), Lucho Gonzalez (52', 63')
A legendary club on the French footballing scene, Olympique de Marseille are still the only French club to have won the Cup with the Big Ears. But that's not the only record they can boast. In 2010, a trip to Slovakia to take on MSK Zilina enabled them to achieve an unprecedented feat.
And not just for a French club, but also for a European one: to become the first team to score seven goals in an away match. Andre-Pierre Gignac (hat-trick), Lucho (brace), Gabriel Heinze and Loïc Rémy are still the main architects of this feat. Straight to the point.
Correct as of 02/11/2024.