Borussia Dortmund and Legia Warsaw played one of the most remarkable Champions League games in history at the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday night. The match finished 8-4 to the German side, who equalled the Champions League record for most goals in a single game. The 12 goals scored in total on the night was an outright record, while Legia became the first team to score four goals in a game and lose.
Dortmund, boosted by a win over Bayern at the weekend in the Bundesliga, fell behind in the tenth minute before equalising through former Manchester United player Shinji Kagawa after 17 minutes.
A goal frenzy followed, leaving Dortmund 5-2 up after 32 minutes. The madness continued in the second half up until stoppage time when an own goal from Legia's Jakub Rzezniczak finally brought the game to a close.
Dortmund have excelled this season in Europe, and sit top of a group which includes defending champions Real Madrid. How far can they go? To answer that it’s worth looking through the Football archives at how previous teams to score eight times in a Champions League fixture fared in the remainder of the competition.
Real Madrid 8-0 Malmo, December 2015
Spanish giants Real were the most recent side to score eight in a single game. Malmo of Sweden were the unsuspecting victims at the Bernabeu.
Cristiano Ronaldo, the competition’s record scorer, netted four times while Karim Benzema helped himself to a hat-trick.
It was the high point of Rafael Benitez’s brief spell in charge, but Real nevertheless went on to win the tournament under the guidance of Zinedine Zidane. They beat local rivals Atlético in the final.
Liverpool 8-0 Besiktas, November 2007
Amazingly, one of the other two instances of a team scoring eight goals also came with Benitez in charge. Liverpool, finalists in the previous campaign, went into a home game with Turkish side Besiktas needing a win to maintain their hopes of qualification. They secured it in the most emphatic fashion, with midfielder Yossi Benayoun netting a hat-trick.
Peter Crouch and Ryan Babel grabbed two apiece.
Buoyed by that performance, the Reds went on to reach the semi-final, losing out to Chelsea 4-3 on aggregate (after extra time). The Premier League boasted three of the semi-finalists that year, with Manchester United winning the tournament after a gripping penalty shoot-out.
Monaco 8-3 Deportivo, November 2003
The first team to score eight goals in a Champions League game was Monaco, who defeated Spanish side Deportivo 8-3 in a remarkable match. Monaco rushed into a 4-0 lead after just half an hour and never looked back. Croatian striker Dado Prso was the hero with four goals, while Diego Tristan scored twice for the visitors.
Familiar names in the French club’s line-up that night include former Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra and ex-Arsenal defender Sebastian Squillaci.
Monaco were fantastic in the Champions League during the 2003/04 campaign. They beat Real Madrid over two legs in the quarter-final, followed by Claudio Ranieri’s Chelsea in the semis. Porto ultimately defeated them in the final, managed by a brash young coach named Jose Mourinho.
It seems obvious to say after scoring eight goals, but history points to a successful season in the Champions League for Dortmund.
