The Madrid-Bayern rivalry: Punches, stamps, a five-year ban and an actual sword (2024)

It’s the most played fixture in European Cup/Champions League history — and meetings between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have rarely been short on drama.

Their first match-up, in the European Cup semi-finals of 1975-76, set the tone. Bayern had won the competition in the previous two years, while Madrid hadn’t lifted the trophy in a decade.

Played in Madrid, the first leg ended 1-1. The home side’s goalscorer, Argentine striker Roberto Martinez, had his nose broken in a challenge, but the 111,000-strong crowd were more annoyed with the refereeing of Erich Linemayr, who turned down two penalty appeals. After his full-time whistle, several fans ran onto the pitch, and one of them punched the Austrian official.

Bayern won the decider 2-0 two weeks later on their way to being crowned European champions for a third season in a row, while Madrid were punished by UEFA the following season by ordering them to play their home matches in continental competition away from the Bernabeu (their home legs in the 1976-77 European Cup took place in Valencia and Malaga, the latter seeing them eliminated by Club Bruges of Belgium).

It would be 11 years before Madrid and Bayern met again in Europe’s top club competition but two ‘friendly’ meetings during the interim further inflamed their rivalry.

In the summer of 1980, Bayern beat Madrid 9-1 in a friendly in Munich. The following year, during an annual pre-season tournament held in Madrid called the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy, Bayern’s players walked off the pitch before half-time in a third-place play-off match against Dinamo Tbilisi, angered by the local referee’s decision to send off Karl-Heinz Rummenigge for supposedly making obscene gestures to the crowd.

All this fuelled animosity towards Bayern in the Spanish press, to the point where they became known as ‘La Bestia Negra’ (the Black Beast) — in contrast to Madrid’s nickname of Los Blancos, inspired by their all-white kit. But things really reached boiling point in another European Cup semi-final meeting in the spring of 1987.

With Bayern having just swept into a 3-0 lead before half-time in the first leg in Munich, Madrid midfielder Juanito was sent off after twice stamping on Lothar Matthaus’ head while the German was lying on the turf.

Paco Buyo, Madrid’s goalkeeper at the time, now describes it as “a fit of madness”.

“It was an unsporting gesture, reprehensible, but this was preceded by a criminal tackle by Matthaus on (Madrid defender) Chendo,” Buyo says. “It was with very bad intentions, and the referee rightly sent Juanito off, but Matthaus should have been sent off as well.”

Later, in a meeting organised by the Spanish sports newspaper AS, Juanito said sorry to Matthaus, who accepted his apology and was for some reason presented with a sword and a bullfighter’s cape. But that did not stop UEFA banning the Spanish player from its tournamentsfor five years.

In the second leg two weeks later, play was delayed for 15 minutes due to the throwing of objects from the crowd. Madrid only managed a 1-0 win, despite Bayern captain Klaus Augenthaler being sent off before half-time for punching home forward Hugo Sanchez. Augenthaler left the Bernabeu pitch making a ‘bull’s horns’ gesture towards the stands. Again Madrid had been knocked out in the last four by Bayern — who this time lost in the final, to Porto.

“It was obviously a provocative gesture,” says Buyo, who was also in goal that night. “It was a way of unbalancing and unsettling us and the fans. We didn’t play them every year, but for us it was a rivalry that had something similar to Madrid-Barcelona. Bayern were one of the strongest teams in Europe.”

The following season brought Madrid’s first knockout success against Bayern, a 2-0 second-leg home victory sealing a 4-3 aggregate win in the European Cup quarter-finals, though they lost in the semis to PSV Eindhoven, who went on to lift the trophy.

But according to Vicente del Bosque — a player for Madrid in those 1976 and 1980 ties against Bayern and later a double Champions League-winning coach with the club and Spain’s manager when they won the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship — a feeling of inferiority compared to their German rivals, a feeling that was “more a reflection of society itself”, only truly began to loosen in the early 2000s.

“There was a time when the Germans seemed superior to us in everything, but by the turn of the millennium football had equalised, society had equalised, and we were capable of winning,” Del Bosque says now.

Looking back to the early spring of 2000 though, there was little evidence of that: Del Bosque was the manager of a Madrid side who lost twice to Bayern in the Champions League’s second group stage, 4-2 at home and 4-1 away.

But in the semi-finals a couple of months later, the sides met again. Del Bosque says this was the tie that “marked a before and after in games against Bayern”, adding, “Madrid then realised that they didn’t need to have any complexes.”

Zinedine Zidane — who would join Madrid the following year as a player and later manage them to three straight Champions League final wins — calls it “(Nicolas) Anelka’s play-off”.

“If there is one Madrid-Bayern encounter that I particularly remember, it’s the semi-final meetings of 2000,” Zidane says. “Madrid weren’t doing well in the league (they finished fifth in La Liga that season) and Anelka wasn’t either. He was out of the team but he got to play in the semi-final, and in both the first leg and the second leg he played very well, scoring crucial goals that sent Madrid through.”

Madrid went on to face Valencia in an all-Spanish final, winning 3-0.

However, the following year Bayern got their own back. They knocked Madrid out of the semi-finals, 1-0 at the Bernabeu and 2-1 at home, en route to the trophy — also beating Valencia (on penalties) in the final.

The clubs met for a third season running in the 2001-02 Champions League, this time in the quarter-finals, with Zidane now on the pitch and with Del Bosque still on the bench. Madrid emerged 3-2 winners on aggregate and, in the final a few weeks later, Zidane’s famous volley sealed a 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen. On the bench that night was Francisco Pavon.

“We usually found out about the Champions League draws when we were training and I remember that we were drawn (together) so often that we laughed and said that it was always the same one,” Pavon says. “At that time, (Bayern) was our benchmark.

“From playing in Germany to playing at home, there was a huge difference. I remember all the games in their old Olympiastadion, in the cold and with the loudspeakers blaring, which they used to put even more pressure on the players. You couldn’t relax.”

Pavon also recalls how, in that 2000-01 semi-final’s second leg in Munich, Madrid made it 1-1 on the night and 2-1 Bayern on aggregate to give themselves hope of an away-goals win, only for the Germans to “put on their overalls” and score again to go through.

There was another damaging defeat for Madrid in Bavaria as Bayern knocked them out on away goals in the 2006-07 Champions League’s round of 16 when the tie finished 4-4 and another at home as the Germans went through to the competition’s 2011-12 final after penalties.

But since then, they have had the upper hand, triumphing over Bayern in the clubs’ last three meetings: in the 2013-14 semi-finals, 2016-17 quarter-finals and in the last four again the following season — each time on their way to winning the trophy.

“The clashes we’ve had with Bayern have always been very nice games,” says Zidane, who was assistant coach under Carlo Ancelotti in 2014 and the manager in 2017 and 2018. “They are the games we always want to play, because Bayern are also competitive — very, very strong.”

In total, Madrid have won 12 matches and claimed seven knockout victories in 26 meetings with Bayern in the European Cup/Champions League. Bayern have won 11 times and on five occasions been the club to progress to the next round. Perhaps unusually, they have never met in the final itself — nor have they met in any other official competition.

Despite the emergence of new major opponents such as Manchester City, Del Bosque does not think Bayern have become anything less of a rival for Madrid.

“City have fallen by the wayside (this season, losing to Madrid on penalties in the previous round) but Bayern are still a great side,” he says. “Madrid seem to come in one point ahead and Bayern have just left their hegemony in the hands of Bayer Leverkusen (who this season have ended their run of 11 Bundesliga titles in a row), but they are very difficult. In any circ*mstances, they are difficult.”

His former midfielder and fellow ex-Madrid coach Zidane shares a similar sentiment.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he says of the first leg in Munich tonight (Tuesday). “It has the status of a European classic.

“But at the same time, Madrid are Madrid…”

(Top photo: Frank Leonhardt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Guillermo began his career covering Real Madrid and the sports industry for Diario AS. He later moved to London and became AS and Cadena Ser correspondent. He has since returned to Madrid and joins us at The Athletic where he will deliver Real Madrid news, interviews, stories, and more.