The Champions League\u2019s answer to el cl\u00e1sico resumes in Madrid on Tuesday. Real Madrid v Bayern Munich is the most played fixture in European competition: 28 matches and counting, including 13 knockout ties. Here are six of the best.<\/p>\n
1975-76<\/p>\n
Semi-final Bayern won 3-1 on aggregate<\/p>\n
Bayern and Real have never met in a European final \u2013 but that\u2019s only if you take these things literally. In eight of their 13 knockout clashes the winning team became champions of Europe that season. A precedent was set in their first meeting 50 years ago, when Bayern beat Real en route to their third consecutive European Cup.<\/p>\n
Bayern did the heavy lifting with an excellent 1-1 draw at the Bernab\u00e9u. Some laissez-faire defending from Franz Beckenbauer and Udo Horsmann was punished expertly by Roberto Mart\u00ednez, but Bayern\u2019s prolific goal machine Gerd M\u00fcller equalised before half-time. There was much excitement that the game would be watched by \u201c200 million televiewers in 15 countries\u201d. However, a production error meant none of them<\/a> saw M\u00fcller\u2019s goal, only his trademark leaping celebration.<\/p>\n There is footage of a notorious incident at the final whistle<\/a>, when an affronted Madrid fan hared on to the pitch, chinned M\u00fcller as he ran past and then floored the referee, Erich Linemayr, with one punch. A dazed M\u00fcller was carried from the field. Real were banned from European competition for a year; the newspaper Marca said: \u201cUefa has assassinated its own father.\u201d Uefa brought him back to life when they lifted the ban a few weeks later. But Madrid were so irked that they hired a team of private detectives to track down the assailant. A 26-year-old waiter from Madrid was eventually identified.<\/p>\n Franz Beckenbauer is pursued by Madrid\u2019s Camacho and Netzer in the second leg of their European Cup semi-final in April 1976. Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance\/Alamy<\/p>\n By then, Bayern were European champions again. Before the second leg of the semi-final, M\u00fcller had announced: \u201cWe will win 2-0 and I will score my 50th European Cup goal.\u201d His predictions, like his finishing, had an eerie precision. M\u00fcller scored his 50th and 51st European Cup goals<\/a> to settle the tie in the first half. Both goals, one with each foot, were typical M\u00fcller: inelegant, majestic, emphatic. The football world concurred that he was worth every penny of his \u00a31,400-a-week wages.<\/p>\n 1987-88<\/p>\n Quarter-final Real won 4-3 on aggregate<\/p>\n We should probably mention the infamous semi-final of 1987, when Juanito plunged his studs into Lothar Matth\u00e4us\u2019s face<\/a>. But Scott Murray covered that in a typically brilliant piece<\/a> in 2014, and we should feature at least one quarter-final, given that\u2019s where the teams are meeting this year. So let\u2019s move forward 12 months to 1988, and a dramatic twist in the Munich snow<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yep, snow in March. Bayern set about Real from the off \u2013 Roland Wohlfarth hit the bar after 35 seconds \u2013 and scored three goals in nine minutes either side of half-time. It was still 3-0 after 84 minutes when Norbert Eder, who scored the second from a fine Mark Hughes pass, came face to face with Kipling\u2019s other impostor. His blind back-pass was read and punished by the predatory Emilio Butrague\u00f1o.<\/p>\n Real celebrated their away goal wildly and could barely believe their luck when a wildly optimistic and ostensibly harmless free-kick from Hugo S\u00e1nchez slithered under the Bayern keeper, Jean-Marie Pfaff.<\/p>\n Roland Wohlfarth makes it 3-0 at the Olympiastadion in 1988\u2019s quarter-final. Two late Madrid away goals, however, turned the tie around. Photograph: Bongarts\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll win the second leg 8-0,\u201d announced Madrid\u2019s left-winger Rafael Gordillo. He was 25% correct, but a 2-0 win was enough. Milan Jankovic\u2019s deflected shot and a classy volley from M\u00edchel \u2013 made superbly by Gordillo \u2013 finished off Bayern before half-time.<\/p>\n 1999-2000<\/p>\n Semi-final Real won 3-2 on aggregate<\/p>\n At the 1954 World Cup, West Germany lost 8-3 to Hungary in the group stage before turning the tables with a stunning 3-2 victory in the final. The twist went the other way in 1999-2000. Bayern hammered a woebegone Real Madrid<\/a> twice in the second group stage, 4-2 and 4-1, only to lose 3-2 on aggregate to rejuvenated opponents two months later.<\/p>\n Real\u2019s hero was their problem child, Nicolas Anelka. In his first season at Real, he scored only two goals in La Liga and was suspended by the club president after refusing to train. But he returned in time to score a goal in each leg of a heavyweight semi-final. Anelka gave Madrid an early lead in the first leg at the Bernab\u00e9u, which was doubled when Jens Jeremies accidentally ran the ball into his own net.<\/p>\n Bayern started ferociously in Munich, bombarding Real\u2019s teenage keeper, Iker Casillas, and took an early lead through a spectacular volley from Carsten Jancker. But the teams knew an away goal would kill the tie at a stroke, and Anelka scored it with a stunning 31st-minute header. He was 10 yards out, moving away from goal to meet a flat, paceless cross from S\u00e1vio, while being used as an arm-rest by Samuel Kuffour. Yet somehow Anelka managed to twist his neck and slam a back-header into the far corner<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nicolas Anelka celebrates his decisive away goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final Photograph: PA Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n Giovane \u00c9lber gave Bayern hope early in the second half, but they needed two more goals and Real, for whom Fernando Redondo was again outstanding in midfield, saw the job through. It was the first of three successive seasons in which the winner of Bayern v Real went on to win the Champions League.<\/p>\n 2011-12<\/p>\n Semi-final Bayern won 3-1 on penalties (aggregate score: 3-3)<\/p>\n With a weakened Chelsea waiting for the winners, the second leg of this tie felt, wrongly as it turned out, like a de facto final. It was football for grownups between two star-studded sides. Mario G\u00f3mez\u2019s last-minute goal had given Bayern a 2-1 win in the first leg in Munich. The second leg escalated quickly; the tie was level at 3-3 after half an hour. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in the first 14 minutes, a penalty and a nonchalant one-on-one finish, before Real reject Arjen Robben brought Bayern level thanks to a softish penalty.<\/p>\n A high-class, impossibly tense contest was settled by a slightly shambolic penalty shootout. Manuel Neuer made two brilliant saves from Ronaldo, who had scored his previous 25 penalties for Real, and Kak\u00e1. Bayern also missed twice but then Sergio Ramos launched his penalty into orbit and Bastian Schweinsteiger pinged the winning kick.<\/p>\n Bayern Munich came out on top after a somewhat shambolic shootout at the Bernab\u00e9u in 2012. Photograph: Daniel Ochoa de Olza\/AP<\/p>\n