Bayern Munich v Manchester United: Alpha clubs meet with 1999 a distant memory
Manchester United might be thankful for some respite from the Premier League given their wretched start to the season but a Champions League opening game at Bayern Munich is probably not what the doctor ordered to cure the club’s multiple ailments.
But before we assess the damage – and to ease the mental turmoil of United fans – let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the shared history, links, similarities and differences between two of the heavyweights of European football.
Both clubs are the biggest in their respective countries (and by some distance, in truth). No club is liked and hated more than United and Bayern in England and Germany. No club is more glamorous, or drama-laden (Bayern were once known as FC Hollywood), and most importantly, no club is more successful in domestic competition.
United’s alpha status in the English game may be in name and popularity only in the post-Fergie banter era but Bayern’s status remains and has never been at a higher base – 11 titles in a row is sure to become 12 this season, with Harry Kane and Kim min-Jae supplementing the many players cherrypicked from around the league.
Kane would once have been the type of player Manchester United signed but that did not happen for myriad reasons, while their ability to take the best of the rest in the league a la Keane, Cole, Ferdinand, Rooney et al. has been diminished due to the club’s fall from grace and the financial power of the bulk of the Premier League.
Way back when, most players in England wanted to play for United, with Gordon McQueen’s famous soundbite that “99% of players want to play for Manchester United and the rest are liars” upon joining from Leeds in 1978 largely ringing true. Needless to say, that % is dropping by the day.
It wasn’t until 1998 that the two clubs first met, drawn in a fabled ‘Group of Death’ with Barcelona and Brondby, and then of course in that final in May 1999. United have not played any club more often in Europe since, with this their 12th meeting in the Champions League.
Perhaps that relatively recent clash comes as a surprise given the similarities in the make-up and essence of the clubs and their positions of power in the sport, but their periods of glory and success came at very different junctures, limiting the possibility of continental clashes given only league champions qualified for the old European Cup.
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The connection between the two clubs and cities was forged in the aftermath of the Munich Air Disaster, the darkest day in United’s history (and one not to be compared to the Glazers’ ownership, as one prominent YouTuber once tried to claim.).
A close friendship was formed between United and Bayern in the coming years, and the site of the crash was eventually renamed Manchesterplatz, giving Bavaria a Mancunian touch and a place for travelling fans to visit and commemorate the Babes and all those who lost their lives on that fateful day.
Somehow, Busby and United rose from the ashes to continue their European odyssey, reaching the holy grail 10 years after eight players were killed. The first English club to enter Europe in 1956 and the first to win it all in 1968. Pioneers and trailblazers. It is little wonder that Busby as well as the holy trinity of Best, Law and Charlton have statues at Old Trafford.
After reaching the summit, United fell off at an alarming rate in the years that followed. Busby retired in 1969, returning for a brief stint after his first of many successors failed. Relegation came in 1974, and though United did bounce straight back, they had been usurped by Liverpool as the top team in the country and were left to battle for FA Cups over league titles and European Cups.
Conversely, Bayern’s rise occurred in the exact years United fell off. A first Bundesliga title came in 1968/69 (only their second national title, and just three years after promotion) as Beckenbauer, Muller and Maier kickstarted the club’s domination of Germany. Readers now may be shocked that the club were not originally permitted into the new top flight in 1963 given previously poor league form.
United’s relegation came as Bayern won their first of three consecutive European Cups, and while they would then have a 20-plus-year wait for glory again, they regularly dined at Europe’s top table.
With no games between the clubs, the sole playing link pre-1998 was Mark Hughes, the United legend who once had a stint on loan at Bayern in the 1986/87 season while he was a Barcelona player. His brief Bavarian sojourn saw him famously play for both club and Wales on the same day before making a permanent return to Old Trafford.
Fast-forward to the treble season and they did finally meet, draws in both group games showing how even the two sides then were. Teddy, Ole, Kuffour, Matthaus and all that would of course follow in the Nou Camp final, which took place on what would have been Sir Matt Busby’s 90th birthday in a beautiful twist.
A mini-series between the sides and their friendly managers – Sir Alex and Ottmar Hitzfeld, who had met in 1997 when the Austrian, then in charge of Dortmund, beat United in the semi-final en route to an unlikely final win against Juventus – then ensued.
Bayern invited United to play in their centenary game in the summer of 2000, and then exacted revenge the following season at the quarter final stage (3-1 on aggregate and wins in both legs) on their way to their fourth European crown.
The group stages the following season was the scene of their next meetings, and again spoils were shared in both games, but soon both would stagnate both at home and in Europe, going through periods of transition. For United it was from Keane, Beckham and Van Nistelrooy to Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez while for Bayern, it was from Hitzfeld to Magath to Klinsmann, back to Hitzfeld, and finally on to Louis van Gaal in the space of five years.
Those fallow years saw both hit their then-nadir (United have fallen further since) with Fergie finishing bottom of the groups in 2005/06 and Bayern not even qualifying two years later having finished a now-staggering fourth in the Bundesliga.
Following in Hughes’ footsteps, Owen Hargreaves became the second player to play for both clubs, signing for United in the summer of 2007 after spending his entire career with Bayern. The Canadian-Bavarian-Englishman would soon succumb to dreadful knee issues but his sole season as a regular for United saw him play a pivotal role in their third European Cup success, seven years after he had won ‘Big Ears’ with Bayern – both finals being won on penalties.
Van Gaal’s arrival at the Allianz arena would rejuvenate Bayern, and lead to another quarter-final clash with United in 2009/10. Bayern sneaked through on away goals (4-4 on aggregate) after a pulsating set of games which saw Rooney injure his ankle at his absolute zenith as a player, Rafael sent off and Bayern land somewhat lucky in truth.
That luck ran out in the final as Jose Mourinho’s Inter became the second side to beat Bayern for a treble – the Special One was Van Gaal’s assistant at Barcelona during the 1998/99 group games with United and Bayern and would also replace him at Old Trafford in 2016. 2010 would be the last clash between Fergie and Bayern, but the clubs met again in the year after he retired and in the first of Pep Guardiola’s three seasons in Germany.
David Moyes was no match for him and the 2013 champions, although United did go ahead in both games and Patrice Evra’s goal in the away leg might have led to the best 30 seconds of the Scot’s troubled nine-month reign. Should United have hired Pep to replace Fergie? The timings seem to have been the issue but the succession plan was the first error of countless in the last decade.
Of course, Van Gaal then replaced Moyes, bringing turgid and not total football to Old Trafford, carrying his former comrade Bastian Schweinsteiger over from Bayern in the summer of 2015. Like Hargreaves, Bayern knew when to sell and United fell for another crocked midfielder, this time with no success.
After both men left United in 2016 and 2017 respectively, there were few direct links between the clubs outside of the annual Munich remembrance and a 20-year anniversary game of the 1999 final.
This has changed in the last year, first with the appointment of Erik ten Hag, who was Bayern B manager from 2013-15, working in conjunction with Guardiola. January of this year saw the Dutchman sign Marcel Sabitzer on loan from Bayern, while his former Ajax player Daley Blind surprisingly signed for the Bundesliga champions on a short-term deal.
If Thomas Tuchel allegedly had his way this summer, Scott McTominay could have been the sixth player to play for both clubs and on the home side tonight. It’s difficult to know which set of fans would have been more pleased by that scenario.
The lack of games can be directly connected to the club’s contrasting fortunes, which can also be seen in their ownership and stewardship. How United fans would enjoy the 50+1 model and fan engagement over the silent and disgraceful Glazer regime, which has only got worse in recent months. Fergie also regularly waxed lyrical on Bayern’s structure of former players in charge. A penny for his current thoughts.
Given the injuries, issues and everything else going on at United at the moment, it seems a near-certainty that Bayern will emerge victorious like they have in all but two of the club’s European clashes. Or can United summon the spirit of 1999 and create some more history between these two famous clubs?
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