Man United vs Bayern facts

Manchester United face a Matchday 6 meeting against Group A winners Bayern München with their UEFA Champions League prospects hanging by a thread.

The English club – beaten 4-3 in Munich on Matchday 1 – are bottom of the section on four points, one behind both Copenhagen and Galatasaray, who meet in Denmark in the group's other final-day fixture. United must therefore win and hope the fixture in Copenhagen ends in a draw to overtake both clubs and claim second place.

These teams have nine European Cups between them – Bayern boasting six to United's three – although it is the German side who have fared better in the competition in recent years, claiming their most recent title in 2020; United were last victorious in 2008.

The second of United's triumphs came at Bayern's expense, in perhaps the most dramatic conclusion to a European Cup final, Alex Ferguson's side scoring twice in added time to snatch a 2-1 victory at the Camp Nou.

Bayern have now progressed from their Champions League section in each of the past 16 seasons; by contrast, United have featured in the knockout rounds only once in the past four campaigns.

Previous meetings 

12 matches
2 Man United wins
5 Bayern wins
5 draws
16 Man United goals
20 Bayern goals

The teams shared seven goals in Munich on 20 September, Bayern winning 4-3 with substitute Mathys Tel scoring the decisive goal in the 92nd minute. First-half goals from Leroy Sané (28) and Serge Gnabry (32) put the home side in charge, Harry Kane (53pen) restoring the two-goal cushion after Rasmus Højlund had pulled one back four minutes after half-time. Two late Casemiro goals (88, 90+5) either side of Tel's strike set up a tight finish, but Bayern prevailed.

The German club had been victorious in their previous meeting against United, winning 4-2 on aggregate in the 2013/14 quarter-finals. The first leg in Manchester finished 1-1, Nemanja Vidić's 58th-minute opener for David Moyes' United cancelled out nine minutes later by Bastian Schweinsteiger. Holders Bayern, coached by Pep Guardiola, fell behind to Patrice Evra's 57th-minute thunderbolt in Munich but were level within two minutes through Mario Mandžukić before goals from Thomas Müller (68) and Arjen Robben (76) sealed an aggregate victory.

Bayern also came out on top when the sides met at the same stage in 2009/10. In the first leg, Louis van Gaal's men came from behind to win 2-1 as Franck Ribéry (77) and Ivica Olić (90+2) overturned a first-minute goal by Wayne Rooney.

United raced into a 3-0 lead in the second leg – Darron Gibson (4) and Nani (7, 41) scoring – but were edged out on away goals after Olić (43) and Robben (74) hit back for Bayern. The home side played the last 40 minutes with ten men after Rafael's red card.

Bayern were also triumphant in the clubs' 2000/01 quarter-final, winning 1-0 at Old Trafford on 3 April 2001 thanks to Paulo Sérgio's 86th-minute goal. They ran out 3-1 aggregate winners, with Giovane Elber (5) and Mehmet Scholl (39) striking in the second leg before Ryan Giggs (49) pulled a goal back.

That was a measure of revenge for Bayern's 1999 final defeat in Barcelona when Mario Basler gave them a sixth-minute lead that they held until added time when United substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær so famously turned the game on its head.

The 3-2 win in the 2009/10 quarter-final second leg is United's sole home victory against Bayern; they have drawn three of their other four matches.

Form guide

Manchester United

Record vs German clubs: W16 D8 L10 F65 A43
Home record vs German clubs: W10 D4 L2

United's last home game against a German club brought a 5-0 defeat of Leipzig on Matchday 2 of the 2020/21 Champions League, although a 3-2 Matchday 6 defeat in Germany sent the Bundesliga side into the round of 16 at their expense.

That home win against Leipzig made it 11 matches unbeaten against German teams at Old Trafford (W8 D3), since the 0-1 reverse against Bayern in the 2000/01 Champions League quarter-final first leg (1-3 aggregate).

Matchday 1 made it four defeats in United's last five games against Bundesliga clubs (W1).

This is United's 25th appearance in the Champions League group stage – more than any other English side and three behind the competition record of 28 held jointly by Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The Red Devils last featured in 2021/22, when they finished first in their section ahead of Villarreal, Atalanta and Young Boys only to lose 2-1 on aggregate to Atlético de Madrid in the round of 16 (1-1 a, 0-1 h).

Erik ten Hag's team took part in the Europa League in 2022/23, finishing second in their section behind Real Sociedad and then beating Barcelona (2-2 a, 2-1 h) and Real Betis (4-1 h, 1-0 a) only to be eliminated in the quarter-finals by another Spanish side, eventual winners Sevilla (2-2 h, 0-3 a).

United's only victory in this season's Champions League is a 1-0 home win against Copenhagen on Matchday 3, in which goalkeeper André Onana saved an added-time penalty. Their record otherwise is D2 L2.

United won four of their six home games in last season's Europa League (D1 L1); a 3-2 defeat by Galatasaray on Matchday 2 this season is one of four in their last 24 European matches at Old Trafford, winning 16.

However, that loss on Matchday 2 has made it five defeats in United's last 11 home Champions League games; they have been beaten in seven of the last 15 in the competition at Old Trafford (W7 D1).

Rasmus Højlund has scored five goals in this season's group stage, level with Álvaro Morata and Erling Haaland as top scorer after Matchday 5.

European champions in 1968 – winning at Wembley, the venue for this season's final – 1999 and 2008, United were also Champions League runners-up to Barcelona in both 2009 and 2011, the latter final also held at Wembley.

The Manchester club were third in the Premier League in 2022/23, 14 points behind champions Manchester City, who also beat their local rivals 2-1 in the FA Cup final.

Bayern

Record vs English clubs: W26 D18 L16 F110 A78
Away record vs English clubs: W8 D9 L9

Bayern's 2022/23 European campaign was ended by United's neighbours Manchester City, who were 4-1 aggregate winners in their Champions League quarter-final.

That was Bayern's third defeat in their last eight away games against English clubs (W3 D2).

All three of Bayern's victories in that eight-match sequence have come in London – at Arsenal in the 2016/17 round of 16 second leg (5-1), Tottenham in the 2019/20 group stage (7-2) and Chelsea in the round of 16 first leg in the same campaign (3-0).

The Munich side have featured in the Champions League group stage in every season since 2008/09, reaching the knockout rounds in each one of those campaigns.

Overall, this is Bayern's 27th campaign in the Champions League proper, level with Porto and fewer only than Barcelona and Real Madrid (both 28).

Bayern are unbeaten in a record 39 Champions League group matches (W35 D4) and had won 17 successive group games, also a competition best, before being held 0-0 at home by Copenhagen on Matchday 5.

This season Bayern followed their opening win against United with a 2-1 victory in Copenhagen and then beat Galatasaray in both Istanbul (3-1) and Munich (2-1) before their winning run ended last time out.

In 2022/23, under Julian Nagelsmann, the Munich club became the first team to win all six games in the group stage on three occasions. They finished ahead of Inter Milan, Barcelona and Viktoria Plzeň in Group C before ousting Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 (1-0 a, 2-0 h) only, with Thomas Tuchel having succeeded Nagelsmann, to come up short against eventual champions Manchester City in the quarter-finals (0-3 a, 1-1 h).

Defeat at Manchester City in last season's quarter-final first leg is one of just two in Bayern's last 30 away Champions League matches (W23 D6); they have won 21 of the last 25 outside Munich.

Tuchel's team responded to their Champions League elimination by winning Bayern's 11th successive Bundesliga title, pipping Borussia Dortmund on the final day of the season.

The six-time European champions – who claimed their fifth European Cup in 2013 at Wembley, the venue for this season's final – have been eliminated in the last eight in the last three seasons but have reached the quarter-finals or better in 11 of their last 12 Champions League campaigns, the exception a last-16 elimination by Liverpool in 2018/19.

Links and trivia

Kane joined Bayern in the summer from Tottenham, having become the club's record goalscorer with 280 goals in 435 appearances for the club in all competitions.

Kane's record against United with Tottenham was W6 D3 L10; he scored five goals in those 19 games, including two in Spurs' 6-1 win at Old Trafford on 4 October 2020.

Have also played in England:
Serge Gnabry (Arsenal 2011–16, West Brom 2015/16 loan)
Leroy Sané (Manchester City 2016–20)
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Stoke 2017/18)

Sané's record against United with Manchester City was W4 D1 L2; his only goal came in a 2-0 Premier League win at Old Trafford on 24 April 2019.

Having moved to England at the age of seven, Jamal Musiala was in the Southampton academy in 2010/11 before moving to Chelsea, where he stayed until signing for Bayern in 2019.

International team-mates:
Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford, Mason Mount, Luke Shaw & Harry Kane (England)
André Onana & Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Cameroon)
Diogo Dalot, Bruno Fernandes & Raphaël Guerreiro (Portugal)
Sofyan Amrabat & Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco)

Kingsley Coman scored in France's 4-1 friendly win against Scott McTominay's Scotland on 17 October.

Have played together:
André Onana, Donny van de Beek & Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax 2017–19)
Sergio Reguilón & Harry Kane (Tottenham 2020–22)
Christian Eriksen & Harry Kane (Tottenham 2013–20)

Kane and Eriksen were both key figures in the Spurs side that reached the Champions League final in 2018/19.

Ten Hag was De Ligt's coach at Ajax from 2017 to 2019.

Latest news

Manchester United

United's record in this season's Premier League is W9 L7. They suffered a second defeat in three games on Saturday, going down 3-0 at home to Bournemouth.

That was Bournemouth's first win at Old Trafford, and United's heaviest home Premier League defeat against a side who started the day in the bottom half of the table.

Erik ten Hag's team have lost six of their last 11 home games in all competitions (W5), as many as in their previous 57 at Old Trafford. United have conceded 20 home goals in 13 games this season; they let in 21 in 33 home fixtures in 2022/23 (21).

United have conceded three or more goals in five home games in all competitions this season; they last did so in six games in 1962/63.

A three-game winning streak in the league – with five goals scored and none conceded – was ended by a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle on 2 December.

Newcastle's winner was the first league goal United had conceded in 381 minutes.

Four days later, two Scott McTominay goals earned a 2-1 win against Chelsea at Old Trafford.

United's 33 goals this season have been scored by 15 different players.

McTominay is the team's leading scorer in all competitions in 2023/24 with six goals, one more than Rasmus Højlund and Bruno Fernandes with Casemiro on four.

McTominay has five Premier League goals, two more than Fernandes – only Marcus Rashford, with two, has also scored more than once in the league this season.

The Red Devils have won six of their last nine league games, the exceptions 3-0 home losses against Bournemouth and Manchester City on 29 October and the defeat at Newcastle.

The 3-0 win at Everton on 26 November is the only one of the Red Devils' nine Premier League wins this season by a margin greater than one goal.

Ten Hag's side have won 11 matches in 2023/24, losing 11 including five of the last ten. Their sole draw came at Galatasaray on Matchday 5.

United lost three of their first five league matches for the first time since 1989/90 and, before keeping a clean sheet in a 1-0 win at Burnley on 23 September, had conceded at least twice in four successive Premier League games, equalling United's longest run in the competition from 2001.

Five defeats in their first ten league games was the most United had suffered at that stage of a season since 1986/87, when they were beaten six times.

The Red Devils lost 3-0 at home to Newcastle in the English League Cup fourth round on 1 November. That was United's fifth home defeat of the season – three more than in the whole of 2022/23.

It was also the first time United had lost consecutive home games by three or more goals since October 1962, and the first time they had lost five of the first ten at home since 1930/31.

United lost eight of their first 15 games in a season for the first time since suffering nine defeats in 1962/63.

Jonny Evans returned as a late substitute against Chelsea having not played since going off with a thigh injury early on Matchday 4.

Casemiro started against Newcastle on 1 November having not played since picking up an ankle injury in Brazil's 2-0 defeat against Uruguay on 17 October but was withdrawn at half-time with a hamstring injury that United said will keep him out "for a number of weeks".

Lisandro Martínez was out between 3 and 16 September with an ankle problem and has not played since Matchday 1 due to a foot injury that United confirmed on 29 September will keep him on the sidelines for "an extended period".

Tyrell Malacia has not played this season due to a knee injury.

Christian Eriksen was ruled out for a month after suffering a knee injury in a 1-0 home win against Luton on 11 November.

Mason Mount, whose last appearance also came against Luton, has been sidelined by a calf injury.

Bayern

The Matchday 1 win against Manchester United made Thomas Müller the third player to end on the winning side in 100 Champions League matches, after Cristiano Ronaldo (115) and Iker Casillas (101), whom Müller surpassed with the win against Galatasaray on Matchday 4.

Bayern's unbeaten start to the Bundesliga season (W10 D2) ended in emphatic style on Saturday, when they went down 5-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Munich club have lost only four league matches by four or more goals in the 21st century, two of them against Eintracht – the other another 5-1 loss in November 2019.

Eintracht were 3-0 up after 36 minutes, the earliest three-goal lead against Bayern in the Bundesliga since Werder Bremen in May 2004; they also scored five in the first hour, the first team to do so since Eintracht themselves in a 6-0 win in 1975.

Joshua Kimmich scored Bayern's only goal, his first of the season.

Bayern's Bundesliga game against Union Berlin, scheduled for 2 December, had to be postponed because of heavy snowfall. It has been rearranged for 24 January.

On 24 November Bayern had made it six successive Bundesliga victories with a 1-0 win at Köln.

Harry Kane scored the only goal. He has 18 in his first 13 league games for Bayern, a Bundesliga record; he is also the first Englishman to score 18 Bundesliga goals in a season.

The goal against Köln made Kane the first player to have scored 18 goals in the first 12 matchdays, surpassing the previous record of 17 set by Gerd Müller.

Bayern did not make a single substitution at Köln, the first Bundesliga match in which they used only 11 players since 11 December 2010.

One week after Bayern had prevailed 4-0 at Borussia Dortmund, Kane scoring a hat-trick, they won 4-2 against Heidenheim on 11 November with the striker scoring the first two goals.

Kane has already registered two more goals after 13 Bundesliga matchdays than Niclas Füllkrug and Christopher Nkunku, the leading goalscorers for the whole of 2022/23.

Before the goalless draw against Copenhagen Kane had found the net in seven successive Bayern games, 13 goals in all.

Raphaël Guerreiro, who had been out since 7 October with a thigh injury, returned as a second-half substitute at home to Heidenheim and scored his first Bayern goal to make it 3-2.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting struck Bayern's fourth goal against Heidenheim, making him the only player to have scored against all 18 current Bundesliga teams.

Bayern and Leverkusen both set a new Bundesliga record after 11 matchdays by scoring at least twice in every game. Bayern's run ended in Köln, while Leverkusen made it 12 the following day.

Bayern have 32 points in this season's Bundesliga (W10 D2), four more than after 13 games last season.

On 1 November, for the third time in the last four seasons, Bayern bowed out of the German Cup in the second round, this time with a 2-1 defeat at third tier Saarbrücken.

The defeats by Saarbrücken and Frankfurt and the Matchday 5 draw against Copenhagen are the only games in Bayern's last 12 in all competitions they have not won.

Bayern were 8-0 league victors against Darmstadt on 28 October, Kane scoring another hat-trick.

That was the first Bundesliga match in which three players were sent off in the first half, Bayern losing Kimmich to a fourth-minute red card before the visitors were reduced to nine men.

Bayern scored all eight goals in the second half, only the third time in Bundesliga history a team had achieved that feat.

Against Darmstadt Müller struck his first league goal in 2023/24, making him the first Bayern player to score in 15 Bundesliga seasons.

Bayern's 3-1 victory in Mainz on 21 October was Müller's 323rd, making him the player with the most wins in Bundesliga history. He is now on 326, level with Manuel Neuer.

Jamal Musiala, who scored his first two league goals this season, and Leroy Sané both struck twice against Darmstadt, the latter equalling his personal Bundesliga season best with eight goals. Sané has 11 goals in his last 26 games for club and country although only two in the last 14.

Bayern have scored in all 22 Bundesliga games under Thomas Tuchel. Only two Bayern coaches have had a longer scoring Bundesliga streak at the start of their reign: Pep Guardiola (28 matches) and Julian Nagelsmann (40).

Bayern scored 43 goals in the first 12 matchdays, a new league record. The defeat of Darmstadt was the 200th time they had scored five or more goals in a Bundesliga game.

Bayern lost 3-0 at home to Leipzig in the German Super Cup on 12 August – their only other defeat this season besides the losses to Saarbrücken and Frankfurt.

Musiala came on as a substitute on Saturday, his first game since having to be replaced shortly before the break on Matchday 4 because of a hamstring injury.

Bouna Sarr has been out since 30 November because of a knee injury that required surgery.

Matthijs de Ligt had to be replaced midway through the first half in Saarbrücken because of a knee injury and has missed the last six Bayern games.

On 17 November Musiala finished second in the Golden Boy award 2023 behind Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham.

On 14 November Bayern announced that 17-year-old Australian Nestory Irankunda will move to Munich from Adelaide United in the summer.

Bayern announced on 6 December that Granada's Bryan Zaragoza, who has agreed a contract until 2029, will also move to Munich in summer 2024.

On 28 November Neuer and Sven Ulreich both signed new contracts until 2025.