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New record
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Fourteen wins and counting across all competitions, last Saturday Bayern Munich beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-0 away at Borussia-Park. With that win, Bayern Munich equaled a record set by AC Milan. The Serie A giants started the 1992/93 season with 13 wins across all competitions. Bayern have started the season by winning the Franz-Beckenbauer-Supercup against Stuttgart (2-1), the first round of the DFB-Pokal against Wehen Wiesbaden (3-2), the first three Champions League games, and the first eight Bundesliga games (overview). Then on Wednesday, Bayern Munich beat 1. FC Köln in the DFB-Pokal 4-1 to set a new record.
How do the records compare? AC Milan started the 1992/93 season with a Super Coppa Italia win over Parma (2-1), seven wins in Serie A, three in the Coppa Italia, and three in the UEFA Champions League. Those three games in Europe were two wins over NK Olimpija and one over Slovan Bratislava in the qualification stage of the competition. Indeed, based on goal differential, this Bayern Munich side can already claim the record. While Bayern started this season with a goal differential of 47-9, Milan’s goal difference in 1992/93 was "only' 45-13. With their win over Köln, Bayern's goal differential after 14 games is now 51-10 goals.
“This record did not come by chance,” Bayern midfielder Kimmich said when asked about Bayern equaling Milan's starting record after the win against Gladbach. “It's the reward for hard work.” On Wednesday against Köln in the DFB Pokal, Bayern Munich could set a new record. "We still can't stop and have to keep going,” Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany said when asked about the record. “Wednesday, we have a cup game—it will be a different story,” Kompany said after the Gladbach game and also made it clear that despite the excellent start to the season, Bayern need to remain vigilant. “We can't get too arrogant now; we have to stay calm, work hard, and deliver a result in the next game.” His players listened as they got the win against Köln in the Pokal to set a new record.
A new record? Where does Bayern Munich rank in history
We have already discussed Bayern breaking AC Milan’s record. But we have also cranked the numbers in the Transfermarkt database for historical comparison. Bayern Munich have done it five times, in 2020/21, 2015/16, 2012/13, 1984/85, and 1980/81. On two occasions, in 2021 and 2013, the club would move on to win the treble. But on each occasion, Bayern failed to get off to a long streak of consecutive wins to kick off the campaign. As the graphic below illustrates (tie breaker was goal differential), this season’s Bayern side and the 1992/93 Milan side are head and shoulders above everyone else. On 18 occasions, clubs from the historical top five leagues have started the season with 12 wins in their first 13 games since the establishment of the European Cup in 1955.
So how do Bayern’s and Milan’s 13 wins to start the season stack up to other winning streaks to kick off seasons among the top clubs in Europe’s top five leagues? For that, we also went back to the database to crunch the numbers. The second-longest winning streak to start the season across the top five league teams was 11 wins. Borussia Dortmund managed to do it in 2015/16, and Real Madrid did so in 1968/69 and 1961/62. Four teams started the season with 10 wins across all competitions. Juventus in 2018/19, Manchester City in 2016/17, AS Roma in 2013/14, and Hamburger SV in 2005/06.
