The Champions League home match against FC Copenhagen on Wednesday night (21:00 CET) is a special one for FC Bayern. The Danish team's first visit to München-Fröttmaning is also the 100th European fixture at the Allianz Arena. In the 18 years or so since its opening, the German record champions' home stadium has become a real fortress.
Premiere against Brugge on 27 September 2005
On 27 September 2005, Oliver Kahn, Michael Ballack and Co played on the European stage at the Allianz Arena for the first time.
It all started with a rather laboured 1-0 victory against Belgian champions Club Brugge on 27 September 2005. That was the first of 73 wins that FCB have collected in 99 games at their 'new' home. In both March 2012 against FC Basel and in March 2015 against Shakhtar Donetsk, the Munich men won 7-0 to register their biggest European victories at the current stadium. FCB fans enjoyed the most successful period between September 2014 and February 2017, when the team set a record in Europe's premier club competition with 16 consecutive UCL home wins.
However, that's by no means the only record that Bayern have set in European competition at the Allianz Arena. Who can forget Roy Makaay's goal after 10.12 seconds against Real Madrid in March 2007 – still the fastest goal in Champions League history – or the 7-1 success against Sporting Lisbon in the 2008/09 round of 16, which completed the biggest aggregate win in the competition's history (12-1)? The Arena faithful have always been guaranteed top entertainment in any case: the home team have scored an average of 2.7 goals per European game.
Champions League final 2025 in Munich
Of course, Bayern have also suffered some painful defeats at their current home – the most notable probably being the penalty shootout loss against Chelsea in the Finale dahoam in May 2012. But the Reds were able to make up for that disappointment a year later with the stunning 4-0 win at home to FC Barcelona in the semi-finals, on the way to the Champions League triumph at Wembley. And there'll soon be an opportunity to rewrite history, with the 2025 UCL final behind staged at the German record champions' home ground. Bayern will be doing everything they can to make sure it's not the first European match not involving FCB at the Allianz Arena.
More facts on the meeting with Copenhagen are here:
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