Bayern need inspiration from Champions League history-makers against Man City
If Bayern Munich are to make a remarkable comeback against Manchester City on Wednesday, they may want to look at three dramatic turnarounds from three goals down during the Champions League's storied history.
Thomas Tuchel's side were downed 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium in the first leg of their quarter-final, with Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland on the scoresheet. Some five years have passed since City lost a game by the same scoreline in the competition, with Liverpool recording a 3-0 victory en route to reaching the 2018 final.
Liverpool themselves famously overturned a three-goal deficit the following year as they beat Barcelona in the semis, but the feat has only been achieved three times at an earlier stage. Here, Mirror Football looks back at those instances - as well as one team who came desperately close to joining the club.
Deportivo La Coruna v AC Milan, 2004
The 2003-04 Champions League was full of drama, with Depor at the centre of a great deal of it. The Spanish side were beaten 8-3 by Monaco in the group stage - no fixture in the competition would produce more goals until Borussia Dortmund's 8-4 win against Legia Warsaw more than a decade on - but Javier Irureta's men would end up joining their conquerors in the semi-finals.
After the first leg of their quarter-final, though, Depor's race looked as though it was well and truly run. Walter Pandiani's goal gave them a shock 1-0 lead at the San Siro, only for AC Milan to battle back through goals from Kaka (twice), Andriy Shevchenko and Andrea Pirlo in a devastating 10-minute patch either side of the half-time break.
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Albert Luque helped Deportivo La Coruna stun AC Milan (AFP/Getty Images)Pandiani scored an early opener at the Riazor as well, but this time there was no Milan response. Juan Carlos Valeron made it two and Albert Luque gave them an away-goals lead before half-time, before veteran midfielder Fran added the gloss with a fourth in the second half.
"What I tried is for all the footballers to believe they were capable of defeating Milan," Irureta would later tell Marca. "We managed to create a very large atmosphere of confidence which, together with the desire for revenge for an unfair result in the first leg, ended up being decisive."
Roma v Barcelona, 2018
More than a decade passed before another team repeated Deportivo's feat. We'll have a bit more on that later, for reasons which will become clear, but first let's look at another comeback from a 4-1 first-leg deficit.
Barcelona crushed Roma 4-1 in the home leg of their quarter-final (ANDREU DALMAU/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Barcelona were dominant in the 2017-18 season. Ernesto Valverde's team won La Liga with 93 points, losing just one game all season. Even that defeat came with the title wrapped up - a bizarre 5-4 reverse at Levante in the penultimate week of the campaign.
They looked unstoppable in Europe, too, conceding just twice in eight unbeaten Champions League games ahead of their quarter-final against Roma. Two own goals were accompanied by efforts from Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez, and Edin Dzeko's away goal felt more like a footnote than a warning.
Even now, Roma's comeback is the kind we can scarcely believe. Dzeko's early opener at the Stadio Olimpico might have raised some doubts, but it was still only 1-0 at half-time, only for Daniele De Rossi to fire home a penalty before Kostas Manolas sent the travelling fans into stunned silence in the final 10 minutes.
Kostas Manolas completed a dramatic Roma comeback (Getty Images)“We had only lost one match all season," Valverde reflected the following year. "[It taught us] that you can’t go into a match with your guard down. On the contrary, you have to have your guard up. We are well aware of that [now].”
With that in mind, Barcelona surely knew not to rest on their laurels after a similar first-leg triumph in 2019. Right?
Liverpool v Barcelona, 2019
The first leg of the 2019 semi-final felt a little harsh on Liverpool. The Reds looked good at Camp Nou, but the problem was that Barcelona (a) looked better and (b) had Lionel Messi.
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Lionel Messi scored twice in Barcelona's first-leg victory (Getty Images)Heading into the final 20 minutes, Luis Suarez's goal was the difference and it looked as though there was everything to play for at Anfield. Then Messi scored twice, and there wasn't a great deal the visitors could do about it.
In their 11 Champions League games - including that first leg - Barcelona had gone unbeaten, scoring 26 goals and conceding six. They had lost a couple of times in the league, but by single-goal margins, and hadn't lost by three or more since, well, that Roma game the previous year.
Liverpool weren't at full strength, either, but it didn't matter in the end. Stand-in striker Divock Origi scored inside the first 10 minutes, and a quickfire Gini Wijnaldum double after the break levelled things up on aggregate.
With a little under 15 minutes to go, it looked as though extra-time was on the cards. But then some quick-thinking from Trent Alexander-Arnold and a note-perfect finish from Origi sent Anfield wild.
Divock Origi was Liverpool's unlikely match-winner (Getty Images)"The victory against Barcelona. It was the outstanding moment for sure," Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp told FIFA later that year. "A lot of experts, myself probably included, wouldn't have bet money on us.
"Because being 3-0 down against a team with Messi, Suarez and all those players looks like a death sentence. We didn't believe we'd win, we just knew we had a chance, and we believed in that chance."
Barcelona v Paris Saint-Germain, 2017
Remember when we said we'd, ahem, come back to one of these comebacks. Well, it's because Barcelona's 2017 exploits came after they lost not by three but by four against PSG.
Barca's trip to the Parc des Princes in the round of 16 felt like a changing of the guard. Former Real Madrid star Angel Di Maria scored twice for the Ligue 1 side, with Julian Draxler and Edinson Cavani also on target, to ensure Unai Emery's men had one foot in the quarter-finals.
PSG's 4-0 first-leg advantage looked insurmountable (AFP/Getty Images)If there's one thing we've learned, though, it's that you never write off a team with prime Lionel Messi. Barca had won all three home group games with an aggregate score of 15-0, and they went into the return leg believing a remontada was possible - they had to.
Suarez's third-minute opener was a good start, and it was 3-0 before the hour mark. Thanks to the away goals rule, though, a goal from Edinson Cavani looked to have sent the visitors through - especially when, with less than five minutes of regular time remaining- Barca still needed three more goals.
Even now, it scarcely feels believable. Two goals from Neymar, one from the penalty spot, meant just one more was needed. And it was Sergi Roberto who became Barca's unlikely hero - his effort in the fifth minute of stoppage time was the only goal he scored for the club all season, but few were more precious.
Sergi Roberto broke PSG hearts right at the death (AFP/Getty Images)Ultimately, Barcelona couldn't build on that win and go all the way, with Juventus downing them in the quarter-finals. PSG, meanwhile, responded in the most obvious manner: they smashed the world transfer record to sign Barca star Neymar that same summer, in a bid to ensure the same thing couldn't happen again.
And the nearly-men, Juventus v Real Madrid, 2018
All those comebacks have one thing in common, namely that the team dragging themselves out of the mire were able to call upon a revved-up home crowd. That wasn't the case for Juventus in 2018, but that very nearly didn't matter.
After losing to Real Madrid in the 2017 Champions League final, Juve found themselves taking on the same opponents in the following season's quarter-finals after a narrow victory over Tottenham in the last 16.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice, with Marcelo adding a third after Paulo Dybala was sent off for the Bianconeri. With Zinedine Zidane's side boasting an unbeaten home run in Europe which dated back more than three years, there was little to suggest a comeback was on the cards.
And yet it ever so nearly was. Two goals from Mario Mandzukic and one from Blaise Matuidi helped level things up, and Juve were moments away from forcing extra-time when Mehdi Benatia fouled Lucas Vazquez and Ronaldo - after loud and lengthy protests from Juve - put away the tie-winning penalty.
Gigi Buffon was sent off for his reaction to Real Madrid's late penalty (AFP/Getty Images)“The team gave its all, but a human being cannot destroy dreams like that at the end of an extraordinary comeback on a dubious situation," Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said after the game. “Clearly you cannot have a heart in your chest, but a garbage bin.
"On top of that, if you don’t have the character to walk on a pitch like this in a stadium like this, you can sit in the stands with your wife, your kids, drinking your Sprite and eating crisps. You cannot ruin the dreams of a team.
"I could’ve told the referee anything at that moment, but he had to understand the degree of the disaster he was creating. If you can’t handle the pressure and have the courage to make a decision, then you should just sit in the stands and eat your crisps.”
In the months after the defeat, Juventus took a leaf out of PSG's book by signing the opposition star who masterminded their downfall. However, just like Neymar in Paris, Ronaldo was unable to deliver the Serie A side that elusive Champions League trophy.
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