Bundesliga
The top 5 wins by German clubs against Real Madrid
RB Leipzig recently became the 12th different German club to beat Real Madrid, with Union Berlin attempting to be the next in 2023/24. No club from outside of Spain has beaten them more times than Bayern Munich, but there’s plenty other defeats in there too.
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bundesliga.com picks out the top five wins by German teams against Real…
Kaiserslautern 5-0 Real Madrid, 1981/82 UEFA Cup quarter-finals second leg
We start with the biggest of the lot – in fact, Los Blancos’ joint-heaviest defeat ever in European competition, matched a few years later by AC Milan. Kaiserslautern went into the second leg of their UEFA Cup quarter-final tie needing to score at least twice to have a chance of progressing after a 3-1 loss in Madrid a fortnight earlier. And it took just 17 minutes for Friedhelm Funkel to bag a brace at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion and level the tie. The visitors then began to implode with two first-half red cards for Isidoro San Jose and Laurie Cunningham.
The Red Devils were finally ahead in the tie on 50 minutes when Hannes Bongartz set off down the left, jinked past a couple of defenders and found the bottom corner. Norbert Eilenfeldt made it 4-0 on the night shortly after, turning in a Reinier Geye cross, before the Spanish side lost a third man with Francisco Pineda dismissed for two quick bookings. With Real heads gone, Geye put away a fifth, leaving goalkeeper Augustin – himself at fault for the opener – with his arms flapping about in dismay as the “Betze Legends” claimed a historic win and 6-3 aggregate victory that dumped Real out.
Hamburg 5-1 Real Madrid, 1979/80 European Cup semi-finals second leg
That trip to Kaiserslautern brought back painful memories and flashes of deja-vu for several of the Real squad. They’d also been to Germany just two years earlier, this time to take on Hamburg in the European Cup semi-finals. Again, the Spanish side held a two-goal advantage (2-0) from the first leg in Madrid, but again they were blown away. Kevin Keegan won an early penalty that Manfred Kaltz dispatched before Horst Hrubesch gave the 62,000 inside the Volksparkstadion something to really shout about when he powered home one of his trademark headers to level the tie inside 17 minutes.
Cunningham would restore Real’s aggregate advantage on the half-hour mark before a sweet Kaltz strike from 20 yards found the far corner against substitute goalkeeper Miguel Angel and a second Hrubesch header had HSV 4-1 to the good on the night and 4-3 in the tie. With the clock ticking, Vicente del Bosque was sent off for the visitors before Caspar Memering tucked home a Hrubesch cutback on 90 minutes to seal a famous victory. HSV would go on to lose the final 1-0 to Nottingham Forest but crowned their golden era a few years later by lifting the 1983 European Cup.
Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Real Madrid, 2012/13 Champions League semi-finals first leg
It actually wasn’t even until 2000 that Real won on German soil against a local team, beating Bayer Leverkusen to end a run of 10 losses and four draws. Los Blancos endured that losing feeling again, this time making it four visits to Dortmund without success and another heavy German defeat. And on this occasion it was all down to one man, Robert Lewandowski. It took him just eight minutes to cause a minor earthquake as the Signal Iduna Park erupted to his touch that turned in a Mario Götze cross from the left.
Cristiano Ronaldo levelled shortly before half-time, but Lewandowski struck again after the restart, controlling a ball in the box from Marco Reus with a spin and poking it beyond Diego Lopez. His hat-trick on 55 minutes was even neater as he dragged the ball away from two Real challenges in the area and hammered home into the roof of the net. He then became the first player to score four goals in a single Champions League semi-final match when he comprehensively dispatched a penalty after Reus was fouled, as Jürgen Klopp’s BVB inflicted Jose Mourinho’s heaviest Champions League loss and put one foot in the Wembley showpiece.
Real Madrid 3-4 Schalke, 2014/15 Champions League round of 16 second leg
Prior to the 2014/15 season, no German team other than Bayern had beaten Real on Spanish soil. Then the Miners of Gelsenkirchen came to the Santiago Bernabeu. Schalke had little to lose after a 2-0 defeat at home in the first leg, so they went for it. Christian Fuchs put them ahead on the night with a drilled effort through Iker Casillas after 20 minutes. Ronaldo levelled shortly after with the first of two headers either side of a strike from ex-Madrid man Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
Karim Benzema looked to have put the tie to bed early in the second half, but Leroy Sane left Real shaking as he announced himself on the international stage with a superb curled effort from the edge of the box past a stranded Casillas. He then had the Madrid defence backtracking as he drove forward to lay off Huntelaar and make it 4-3 on the night to set up a grandstand finish. Unfortunately for Die Königsblauen, they ran out of time and bowed out 5-4 on aggregate, but Schalke go down in history as one of only three teams to win by scoring four goals away at Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Bayern Munich 3-3 Real Madrid (Bayern won 3-1 on penalties), 2011/12 Champions League semi-finals
As mentioned earlier, no club from outside of Spain has beaten Real as often as Bayern. And the Bundesliga’s record champions have enjoyed some big wins, earning them the nickname of La Bestia Negra – the Black Beast, used in Spanish to describe a fierce adversary. They are one of those aforementioned teams to have scored four in a European win at the Bernabeu. One of Real's most humiliating moments also came against Bayern as they were thrashed 9-1 in a pre-season friendly in 1980, with the score 7-0 by half-time. But we’ve gone for both legs of their 2011/12 Champions League semi-final tie here, just because of how thrilling it all was.
The first leg was at the Allianz Arena, which would host that year’s final, and Bayern got off to the perfect start when Franck Ribery reacted quickest at a corner to stab the ball past Casillas. And Bayern - coached by Real's former Champions League-winning boss Jupp Heynckes - were in control until being hit on the counter as Mesut Özil tapped in from close range. Bayern pushed and pushed for an advantage to take to Madrid and got it in the 90th minute when Mario Gomez turned home Philipp Lahm’s low cross. “We’re only halfway there,” Ribery said after the game. And there would be more than two hours of drama still to come…
Back in the Spanish capital, Real were awarded a dubious penalty inside five minutes on a night that would be defined by spot-kicks when David Alaba - himself now of Real - was adjudged to have handled. Ronaldo converted from 12 yards before doubling up and giving the hosts an aggregate lead on 14 minutes. Die Roten went on the attack themselves and would pepper Casillas’s goal for the remainder of the game. They got a penalty of their own before the half-hour mark when Gomez was upended by Pepe, with Arjen Robben dispatching.
With the tie level at 3-3 and no way through Mourinho’s side, it went to a penalty shootout, where Manuel Neuer came to the fore. He saved from both Ronaldo and Kaka down to his right as Alaba and Gomez converted. Sergio Ramos blazed over Real’s fourth before Bastian Schweinsteiger sent Bayern through. “Manuel was fantastic. He saved two penalties and steered the third one over the bar with his eyes,” Heynckes said of Neuer afterwards.