It was a real goalscoring spectacle, with FC Bayern dazzling up at the Hamburg home of FC St. Pauli on 7 May 2011. On the 33rd matchday of the 2010/11 season, the Munich team went into a goalscoring frenzy and notched up the highest Bundesliga away win in club history. With the 8-1 victory at the Millerntor Stadium, FCB also secured third place in the league and thus Champions League qualification.
Shooting his way to the cannon
Mario Gomez surprised the Pauli defence with his strike to open the scoring.
The game was dominated by the majestic performances of Mario Gómez, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry. Gomez finally came away from the game against St. Pauli with a hat-trick, helping him on his way to winning the top scorer's cannon. The then-Germany striker inaugurated the spectacle in Hamburg. In the tenth minute of the game, the striker was quickest to react when the opposition's defence miscommunicated with one another, scoring to make it 1-0. In the 32nd minute, Daniel van Buyten then showed his aerial prowess when he arrowed Robben's corner into the net - 2-0!
Step by step
At the time, it was Andries Jonker who was the interim Bayern coach in the dugout that day.
The first half of the game did not yet show any signs of a record-breaking feat, or even that the game would reach the goalscoring levels of the highest Bundesliga away win in club history. Shortly after the restart, however, Andries Jonker's team bagged a quick-fire brace. After a perfect pass into the path of Robben, Gomez (52') left Pauli goalkeeper Thomas Kessler with no chance. The game had hardly restarted, before Robben (54') unlocked the hosts' defence again with a one-two pass with Müller and increased the score to 4-0.
Final dash to the record
'Robbery' blew open the floodgates with goals after goals.
But the really big goal show was to follow in the last quarter of an hour. Ribéry (74') made up for his miss by knocking in the rebound to make it 5-0. St. Pauli scored a goal in the 78th minute, but it was nothing more than a consolation. It was in the final phase that FC Bayern really got going: within five minutes, the trio of Robben-Gómez-Ribéry (84'/86'/88') scored three times. The Munich team sped into an 8-1 lead in double-quick time, whilst also sealing Pauli's relegation from the top flight with this historic away win.
Qualification for the Champions League was particularly important this year. After all, FCB's goal was to have a Dahoam final in 2012, and barely a year after the record away win, the Munich team faced Real Madrid in the semi-finals. In this fixture too, Mario Goméz was to score - and it would prove to be an extremely important goal:
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