15 of the biggest batterings in Champions League history

The Champions League promises to give you the big boys of Europe engaging in a battle of wits and physicality. That can make for engrossing encounters...but sometimes it means you just witness an absolute shellacking, too.

There's been a surprising amount of six- and seven-goal showings over the years, but we've narrowed it down based on the margin of victory, whether it was done in a one-off game or on aggregate, the standard of opposition, and most importantly, which stage of the competition it came at.

Get ready for loads of Bayern Munich, by the way. Oh, and look who's starting us off...

15. Bayern Munich 8-1 Besiktas (aggregate) (Round of 16, February-March 2018)

If it weren't a knockout game, we might not have bothered with this...but scoring eight, even over two legs, merits a mention.

Bayern eased to a five-goal victory at the Allianz Arena in the first leg, with Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski both getting braces and Kingsley Coman getting the other.

A 3-1 victory in Istanbul followed, giving Bayern one of the widest aggregate victories the competition has ever seen.

14. Real Madrid 8-0 Malmo (Group stage, December 2015)

Cristiano Ronaldo (who else?) bagged four in Madrid’s massacre of Malmo in 2015, which set them on their way to an 11th European Cup triumph.

Karim Benzema also helped himself to a hat-trick against the obliging Swedes, who had only narrowly lost to Madrid in the return fixture back in September.

This was the perfect way for Los Blancos to round off the group stage, which preceded victories over Roma, Wolfsburg and Manchester City in the knockout rounds, before a penalty shoot-out success against neighbours Atletico Madrid in the final.

13. Liverpool 8-0 Besiktas (Group stage, November 2007)

The pressure was on Liverpool heading into this group game with Besiktas: the Reds, finalists the previous season, realistically needed a win to keep their chances of progression alive.

They needn’t have worried. Yossi Benayoun’s hat-trick and a double from Peter Crouch helped Rafael Benitez’s men to a stunning 8-0 thrashing of the Turkish outfit, who just couldn’t live with Liverpool’s incisive attacking.

It remains the biggest margin of victory in a Champions League game, with Real Madrid's later effort the only time it has been equalled.

12. Bayern Munich 9-2 Dinamo Zagreb (League phase, September 2024)

You wonder what the bods at UEFA made of it when the very first night of the new format that was meant to make the Champions League more interesting featured one of it's most one-sided scorelines ever.

By the time the Croatian side got their two goals, Bayern already had four of their own. Any fears of an almighty comeback were quickly put to rest as Harry Kane and co decided to return to just pounding the opposition.

The England captain finished the game with four of Bayern's goals - incredibly, three of them were penalties.

11. Bayern Munich 7-1 Red Bull Salzburg (Round of 16 second leg, March 2022)

Red Bull Salzburg had threatened to pull off an upset in the first leg, leading from the 21st minute until Kingsley Coman equalised in the last minute of normal time.

The Austrian outfit got a goal in Munich, too. Unfortunately for them, they had already shipped a futher five by then.

Robert Lewandowski completed one of the Champions League fastest-ever hat-tricks, with just 10 minutes and 22 seconds between his first and his third - two of which came from the penalty spot. There was no looking back from there as Serge Gnabry, Thomas Muller and Leroy Sane got in on the act too.

10. Bayern Munich 7-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Round of 16 second leg, March 2015)

Shakhtar did an excellent job of containing Bayern in the first leg of their round of 16 tie in 2014/15, holding the Bavarians to a 0-0 draw in Lviv.

Yet they couldn’t repeat the feat back in Munich, as two goals from Thomas Muller – including a fourth-minute penalty – helped Bayern to a 7-0 triumph.

That obliteration sent Pep Guardiola’s side through to the semi-finals, where they were well beaten by Barcelona.

9. PSG 7-0 Brest (10-0 on aggregate) (Knockout phase play-offs second leg, February 2025)

Surprise! Not Bayern!

Very much a sign of things to come later in the tournament from one of the most dominant sides the Champions League has ever seen. Yet PSG had struggled through the league phase, but began to hit their stride in the winter and confirmed their credentials by smashing fellow French side Brest to make it into the round of 16.

The Parisians already had a 3-0 lead from the first leg in Guingamp, but showed no mercy at the Parc des Princes regardless. Seven different scorers got on the scoresheet, with four of PSG's goals coming in the space of 16 minutes in the second half.

8. Manchester City 7-0 Schalke (Round of 16 second leg, March 2019)

It's crazy to think that City at one pointed looked in danger of losing this tie. They had thrown away a 1-0 lead in the first half of the first leg to go 1-0 down, and needed late goals from Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling to take a 3-2 lead into the second leg.

If we expected another back-and-forth encounter...well, we didn't get it. City were 3-0 up by the break thanks to a Sergio Aguero double and another from Sane.

Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus all chipped in in the second half - but City ended up going out to Tottenham in the quarter-finals regardless.

7. Manchester City 7-0 RB Leipzig (Round of 16 second leg, March 2023)

Fast forward four years, and they were at it again. Manchester City had been forced to share the spoils 1-1 in Leipzig in the first leg, thanks to some lad called Josko Gvardiol cancelling out Riyad Mahrez's first-half strike.

But there was a real determination about City in the second leg, as exemplified by Erling Haaland plucking the ball out of the net after opening the scoring with a 22nd minute penalty.

Another two minutes later, he had his second. By half-time, it was a hat-trick. Before the hour, Haaland had five, with Ilkay Gundogan scoring in between. Kevin De Bruyne added the seventh in injury time, and City were well and truly on their way to a Champions League triumph that would complete a famous treble.

6. Barcelona 6-1 PSG (Round of 16 second leg, March 2017)

After suffering humiliation in a 4-0 loss in France, Barcelona turned the tables on PSG to advance to the quarter-finals in astonishing circumstances at Camp Nou.

Luis Enrique’s men raced into a 3-0 lead after 50 minutes of this second leg, but a crucial away goal from Edinson Cavani shortly after the hour mark seemed to extinguish their hopes of a turnaround.

Yet the hosts refused to give up and, largely thanks to Neymar’s brilliance, scored three goals from the 88th minute onwards to ensure this game would go down in Barcelona and Champions League folklore.

5. Bayern Munich 12-1 Sporting (aggregate) (Round of 16, February-March 2009)

Ask any Brazilian - carefully - whether a German team slacks off sympathetically when winning. Like Die Mannschaft in the 2014 World Cup semi-final, Bayern Munich just kept going for this – the biggest aggregate margin in Champions League history.

Having won the first leg 5-0 thanks to braces from Franck Ribery and Luca Toni, they drubbed the poor Portuguese 7-1 back in Munich.

Bayern looked unstoppable, but they were hammered 5-1 by Barcelona in the quarter-finals and, struggling in the Bundesliga, parted company with manager Jurgen Klinsmann in April. Jupp Heynckes, as he so often is, was available to step up and temporarily take the reins.

4. Bayern Munich 10-2 Arsenal (aggregate) (Round of 16, February-March 2017)

For seven years in a row in the 2010s, Arsenal were eliminated at the round of 16...which is at least consistent, we guess. Three times in five years, it was Bayern Munich turfing them out at the first knockout stage: on away goals in 2013, 3-1 on aggregate in 2014 and in this 2017 annihilation.

Having lost 5-1 in spectacular fashion in the first leg at the Allianz Arena, the Gunners took a 1-0 lead back at the Emirates. Optimists may even have started to believe a sensational comeback was possible, but Bayern scored five in reply to emulate their first-leg triumph and eliminate their rivals.

Along with their first finish outside the top four in 21 years, the result confirmed Arsenal were well and truly on the decline; they would not return to the Champions League until 2023

3. Manchester United 7-1 Roma (Quarter-finals second leg, April 2007)

Michael Carrick and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored twice as Manchester United recorded their biggest Champions League win with this quarter-final victory over Roma.

The Red Devils, looking to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the first leg, were 3-0 up inside 19 minutes at Old Trafford.

Ronaldo netted either side of the break before Carrick and Patrice Evra completed the rout, with Daniele De Rossi scoring a lovely consolation late on. United, though, were undone by a Kaka-inspired Milan in the last four.

2. Milan 4-0 Barcelona (Final, May 1994)

There's no way we'd have a 4-0 on here otherwise, but come on...it's the final. Plus, Barcelona were the holders and favourites heading into the 1994 showpiece, with Milan perceived to be on the wane after their Arrigo Sacchi-led heyday.

Such predictions proved inaccurate, though, as Fabio Capello’s side produced an uncharacteristic attacking masterclass to romp to the title with what was then the biggest winning margin in a Champions League final.

Daniele Massaro’s double and goals from Dejan Savicevic and Marcel Desailly made the difference, as Pep Guardiola, Romario, Ronald Koeman & Co. slumped to a record defeat.

1. PSG 5-0 Inter (Final, May 2025)

Milan's record for winning the most one-sided final in the history of the competition finally came to an end 31 years later - though it may have taken the edge off that it was Inter on the receiving end of this absolute mauling from a sensational PSG.

The Italian side could not cope for a second with PSG's incisive play, with Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratshkelia running riot against a shell-shocked Inter defence. The scoreline was only 2-0 at the break after goes from Achraf Hakimi and Doue, but there was definite sense more goals were coming if Inter didn't get their act together; they had had just two first-half shots to PSG's 13.

But the one-way traffic continued. Doue got another, Kvaratshkelia made if four, and youngster Senny Mayulu rounded it off just moments after coming off the bench .