The Worst Defeats In Champions League History

The Champions League may be the very pinnacle of European football, but mismatches still occur.

Often these are to be found in the group stages, where the reigning champions of Bulgaria or Denmark are flung into the Bernabeu, cast as minnows and subsequently outclassed.

Where possible though, we have omitted such occasions when Goliath swatted aside a plucky David.

Instead, we’ve focused on the times when two behemoths have met, with one ruthlessly dismantling the other against all expectation.

Think the two T-Rexs in Jurassic Park turning on one another, but rather than an almighty scrap ensuing, it is bizarrely one-sided. These are results that shocked a watching continent.

Humiliating Champions League Defeats

If these results tell us anything, it’s that even at the very highest level expensively assembled teams full of household names can spectacularly collapse.

So, without further ado, it is time to count down the 10 most embarrassing defeats in Champions League history – do you agree with our choices?

Liverpool 8-0 Besiktas (2007)

With a team sprinkled with Turkish internationals, Besiktas had beaten Liverpool in the corresponding fixture just two weeks before, the Brazilian forward Bobo scoring a late winner in Istanbul and giving the Black Eagles every chance of qualifying from Group A.

The visitors therefore presumably arrived at Anfield in good spirits, particularly as they topped Super Lig at the time, as per battling it out with their domestic arch-rivals Galatasaray.

Rafa Benitez’s Reds however simply blew them away, committing men forward at every opportunity and not giving an overwhelmed opposition time to settle.

The game was all-but-won by the break with Liverpool two goals to the good. The second half was as brutal a demolition this competition has ever witnessed.

Ryan Babel scored twice. That alone tells a tale.

Manchester United 7-1 AS Roma (2007)

Holding a 2-1 advantage after a very competitive first leg in the Italian capital, Roma headed to Old Trafford in pretty solid form.

They had knocked out Lyon in the round of 16 and looked well-set to reach the last four.

Manchester United, however, had other ideas.

Alex Ferguson’s side mounted a ninety minute assault on the senses, securing a 3-0 lead before the 20-minute mark and adding three more before Roma scored a meaningless consolation in the 69th minute.

The Red Devils were knocked out at the semis by Milan, who went on to beat Liverpool in the final.

Liverpool 2-5 Real Madrid (2023)

A three-goal loss to the defending champions isn’t the heaviest defeat in the Champions League back-catalogue, but the manner of it was alarming.

The Reds were in the midst of a disappointing season, with Europe their best hope of a net gain.

Anfield was in dreamland therefore when Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah put them 2-0 up 14 minutes in, but it all came crumbling down quickly, the visitors converting twice in quick succession.

In the second period Los Blancos found an extra gear as Liverpool’s defence completely fell apart in their biggest match of the season.

Liverpool and Real had formed a rivalry after the Spanish giants twice defeated Jurgen Klopp’s team in a final. This was a cherry atop a two-tiered cake.

Tottenham 2-7 Bayern Munich (2019)

A week is a long time in football. Four months can alter a narrative completely.

On June 1st, Spurs took on Liverpool in the biggest game in their history.

Though admittedly pitched as underdogs in the Champions League final betting, and though ultimately they lost 2-0, it was a statement of the enormous strides the club was making under Mauricio Pochettino.

They were now one of the prominent players on the continental stage.

On October 1st, they were subjected to a 7-2 hammering at the hands of Bayern Munich in the group stage. Reality bit, and bit so hard it drew blood.

Heung-min Son put the Lilywhites ahead 12 minutes in, but Bayern scored four unanswered prior to Harry Kane’s 61st-minute penalty.

FC Hollywood then netted three in five minutes before the final whistle to wrap up a drubbing.

Former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry finished with four goals, rubbing greater salt into some painful Spurs wounds.

Pochettino was sacked a matter of weeks later.

Sporting CP 4-1 Manchester City (2024)

It’s testament to how formidable City have been in recent years, domestically and abroad, that such a fairly routine scoreline could be greeted with collective disbelief.

Some context is necessary here however with Ruben Amorim taking charge of his Sporting side for the last time before heading to City’s arch nemesis Manchester United.

On the night, Viktor Gyokeres fired a hat-trick, he being the number one transfer target of…Manchester United.

These quirks aside, the much bigger story centred on this being City’s third consecutive defeat inside a week, across three different competitions.

Were we witnessing the first stumbles of a falling empire?

The ease in which the Lions roamed through a pedestrian midfield and attacked at will suggested it could be.

Manchester City 7-0 RB Leipzig (2023)

After a competitive 1-1 draw in the first leg, RB Leipzig must have fancied their chances of an upset as the tie headed to Manchester. What followed was capitulation colliding head-on with sheer brilliance.

Erling Haaland effectively wrapped the tie up for Pep Guardiola’s side with a first-half hat-trick.

The Norwegian added two more after the break, becoming the youngest and fastest player to reach 30 goals in the competition.

Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne also got on the scoresheet.

Bayern Munich 9-2 Dinamo Zagreb (2024)

Vincent Kompany has had a clear impact at Bayern Munich and his side have been running riot in the final third, and that was evident in the 9-2 victory over Dinamo Zagreb in the 2024/25 Champions League group stages.

Harry Kane scored four goals on the night, with three coming from the penalty spot as the Bavarians took full advantage of some haphazard defending. It truly was a night to forget for the visiting side at the Allianz Arena.

Things could’ve been even worse for the Croatian side, with the officials ruling two Bayern goals out on the night.

This merciless mauling tied Bayern’s highest ever margin of victory in the Champions League.

Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic (2024)

Celtic were in imperious form going into their Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund but the Scottish champions were outclassed and embarrassed, conceding five goals in the first half.

In doing so, they became the first British club to ship five goals in a single half of a major European match since Cwmbran Town in 1997/98 and Brendan Rodgers had absolutely no excuses for Celtic’s performance on the night.

Karim Adeyemi was a revelation and proved a constant thorn in Celtic’s side, bagging a first half hat-trick in the space of 31 minutes.

One post-match report suggested that Celtic were lucky to only concede seven and this game could’ve hit even greater heights had Dortmund not spurned a number of clear opportunities to add to their sizable tally.

Barcelona 6-1 PSG (2017)

This is precisely the kind of crazy game the live betting market is made for.

After losing 4-0 in Paris, Barca embarked on a mission impossible in this blockbuster last 16 tie, in front of 96,000 supporters who arrived more in vain hope than expectation.

Yet fast-forward to an hour in and that mindset had dramatically altered. Propelled by their glittering front three of Neymar, Suarez and Messi, the Blaugrana were three-up and it was very much game on.

Only then Edinson Cavani put a great big spanner in the works, lashing one in from range. Though heads didn’t drop, the belief did, as the game to-and-froed to its latter stages. With just two minutes left, the hosts needed a further three.

This then was the comeback of all comebacks; it was Man City versus QPR in 2012 on steroids as first Neymar netted from a free-kick before a penalty was awarded – and converted – a minute into added-on time.

With virtually the last kick Sergi Roberto prodded home to prompt wild scenes in Catalonia as a continent’s jaw dropped.

Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich (2020)

Played behind closed doors in Lisbon, we can only imagine what the atmosphere would have been like had this taken place at a packed Camp Nou.

We can only imagine too the odds beforehand in the football betting on the visitors racking up such a cricket score. This quarter-final drubbing after all was the first time Barcelona had conceded eight goals in a match since 1946.

Remarkably, Barca took an early lead through an early David Alaba own goal. Bayern, though, were 5-1 up with half an hour played.

Images of a dejected Lionel Messi are the long-standing memory of this fixture. It was symbolic of how far Barcelona had fallen due to an ageing squad and some poor recruitment decisions.

Bayern ultimately won the competition, and Messi left for PSG 12 months later.

PSV Eindhoven 1-7 Arsenal (2025)

Missing several key attacking players through injury, a trip to the Netherlands was a potential banana skin for Arsenal. PSV Eindhoven weren’t in the best form, but they had knocked Juventus out in the playoffs and drawn away to PSG in the league phase.

What followed was a humiliating defeat to the Dutch giants in front of a frustrated Philips Stadion crowd.

Jurrien Timber, Ethan Nwaneri, and Mikel Merino took the Gunners to a 3-0 lead just after the half-hour mark. A penalty from Noa Lang gave PSV some hope before the break, but Arsenal delivered a scintillating second-half performance, featuring a brace from Martin Odegaard en route to a 7-1 win.