The only English team to beat Bayern in the Olympic Stadium

Paul Singh 5 years ago 4.8k
Sutton shoots with two Bayern Munich players looking on back in 1993.

It is neither Manchester United, nor Chelsea, nor Manchester City, nor Arsenal, nor Liverpool. The only English team that managed to beat Bayern in more than 30 years at the Olympic Stadium was the Norwich.

If there is a stadium that transports us to the football of the past, that is the Olympic Stadium in Munich. The historic 1972 Olympic Games took place there as did the 1974 World Cup in which Johan Cruyff was within touching distance of getting his only World Cup trophy with the 'Oranje'. 

Bayern and 1860 Munich shared the stadium and the home dressing room and many other sporting competitions with an importante impact on the world of current sport also took place there.

Bayern was basically unbeaten there as Real Madrid are well aware of after suffering countless defeats there as well as the English teams, for whom the Olympic Stadium was a bogey ground

For all except one. Lowly Norwich City who shocked the world of football in the 1993-94 season by knocking out of the favourite for the title in the first round of the UEFA Cup. 

Norwich had finished third in the inaugural edition of the Premier League and was a type of Leicester of that era. The 'Canaries' came without much expectation of doing anything big in the UEFA, and without any pressure. The luck of the draw decided that the powerful Bayern was its first opponent in the UEFA Cup.

A one-sided encounter on paper and with a very clear favourite. "People took for granted that were going to beaten by about 10 goals," recalls Mike Sutton, father of the ex.Norwich striker, Chris Sutton. "Nobody doubted that Bayern knew it was going to be an easy game," adds Jeremy Goss, who played for the English side at the time. 

But the Norwich manager had a secret plan: his team was going to exploit the weakness of their opponent's biggest star, Lothar Matthäus. The German legend had now passed his best and was now a sweeper instead of a midfielder. Norwich knew it and dealt Bayern a severe blow in the Olympiastadion. The 'Canaries' went 0-2 up courtesy of goals from Goss and Bowen and although Nerlinger halved the deficit before the interval, the match ended 1-2. 

As well as Matthäus, other stars of the German national team were playing for Bayern like Helmer and Thon and young promises such as Scholl and Ziege. A great team in which the Brazilian Jorginho and the Colombian, Valencia, but they were unable to turn it around in the second leg (1-1) and ended up being knocked out at the first stage. Knocked out and red-faced

Mentioned in the news story

Bundesliga
Championship
Europa League
Bayern München
Norwich City