The Super Cup has long been the poor relation of German soccer and therefore has little tradition. Nevertheless, FC Bayern is the record winner with eleven titles. A brief journey through victories, but also defeats.
In 1987, the DFB wanted to establish the Super Cup, and the very first match at Frankfurt’s Waldstadion was a real thriller. Not so much because of Bayern’s 2-1 victory over cup winners HSV, but rather because of the punch that goalkeeper Uli Stein landed on Jürgen “Kobra” Wegmann after his late winning goal. It was an inglorious end for the goalkeeper at the Hanseatic club, which has not won a title since 1987.
The Super Cup remained in place until 1996, when it was abolished for the time being and replaced by formats such as the League Cup as a small tournament. Bayern played in it three more times, but lost twice: in 1989, they lost 3-4 to Borussia Dortmund, with Wegmann, who had transferred to BVB, also scoring here, an early Mr. Super Cup.
A year later, Bayern swept 1. FC Kaiserslautern aside 4-1, but lost 3-1 to Werder Bremen in extra time at their home Olympic Stadium in 1994. In 1997, the first ever clash between FC Bayern and VfB Stuttgart, the league champions against the cup winners, would have taken place, but the competition was suspended. So the eternal southern derby will finally celebrate its Super Cup debut this Saturday.
Guardiola starts with a defeat against Klopp
The match has been a fixture in the DFL calendar since 2010, with Bayern kicking off with a 2-0 win against Schalke, goals: Thomas Müller and Miroslav Klose. Since then, they have always taken part, with the exception of 2011 (winner: BVB) and last year (Leverkusen). Are they also perennial winners? That’s a matter of opinion; the record since 2012 is almost even, with seven wins and five defeats.
The 2-1 win against BVB in 2012 was an important sign that Klopp’s team could be beaten by Bayern after two championship years and the double in 2012. A year later, however, Pep Guardiola suffered a 2-4 defeat against Klopp and Dortmund in his debut. These two giants of German football have met eight times since 2012, with Munich winning five times.
They suffered their two other defeats in 2015 at VfL Wolfsburg and in 2023 at home against RB Leipzig. In Wolfsburg, Xabi Alonso missed a penalty in the shootout after Niklas Bendtner had equalized for VfL in the last minute, while against RB they went down 3-0 thanks to three goals from Dani Olmo on Harry Kane’s brief debut.
