Manchester City sent a thunderous statement of intent around Europe after Pep Guardiola’s men ruthlessly swatted aside sorry Schlake at the Etihad.
The Citizens, who won the first-leg 3-2, then romped to a sizzling 7-0 win in front of their own fans as they progressed through to the quarter-finals 10-2 on aggregate.
Schalke may not have represented the strongest of opponents, but the manner of the hammering certainly boosts City's own prospects of going all the way this term, especially considering that giants such as Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and PSG have been sent packing, while one of Bayern Munich and Liverpool will join the discarded trio on the scrapheap.
City's 7-0 win was the biggest-ever by an English side in the Champions League knockout stages, as they inflicted the biggest loss of a German side in Champions League history, but where does the victory rank in the competition’s all-time list?*
*For the sake of argument, this only includes matches from the inauguration of the Champions League in 1992.
Liverpool 8-0 Besiktas – November 6, 2007
Two of the most successful European Cup teams of all time sit top of the pile. Liverpool were the first to achieve the 8-0 win when, under the tutorship of Rafa Benitez, they destroyed poor Besiktas 8-0 in 2007. Yossi Benayoun bagged a hat-trick as the rampant Reds conjured up the - then - biggest-ever Champions League win. It’s funny to think that two weeks earlier they lost to the Turkish outfit 2-1.
Real Madrid 8-0 Malmo – December 8, 2015
Real Madrid joined the ‘8-0 Club’ a few years ago when they dismantled Malmo at the Bernabeu, managed by....Benitez who was sacked a month later. Karim Benzema grabbed a hat-trick, only to be outdone by Cristiano Ronaldo who scored four, while Alvaro Arbeloa got the other. Remarkably the latter also played for Liverpool in the aforementioned 8-0 win over Besiktas.
Man City 7-0 Schalke – March 13, 2019
So Man City are (joint) 3rd in the all-time list, having conjured up a 7-0 rout of Schalke last night thanks to a Sergio Aguero brace, followed by strikes from Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, and Gabriel Jesus. "It was a clear result,” said Pep Guardiola, in perhaps the understatement of the year.
However, City aren’t the only side to have recorded a 7-0 win in the competition since 1992...
Juventus 7-0 Olympiakos – December 10, 2003
Arsenal 7-0 Slavia Prague – October 23, 2007
MSK Zilina 0-7 Marseille – November 3, 2010
Valencia 7-0 Genk – November 23, 2011
Bayern Munich 7-0 Basle – March 13, 2012
BATE Borisov 0-7 Shakhtar Donetsk – October 22, 2014
Bayern Munich 7-0 Shakhtar Donetsk – March 11, 2015
Barcelona 7-0 Celtic – September 13, 2016
Maribor 0-7 Liverpool – October 17, 2017
Liverpool 7-0 Spartak Moskva – December 6, 2017
Special Shout Outs
Six games have ended 7-1, while a couple of honourable mentions in terms of goals include Borussia Dortmund’s 8-4 humdinger with Legia Warszawa in 2016, and Monaco’s 8-3 thumping of Deportivo La Coruna back in 2003.
