MANCHESTER UNITED’S 12-year record unbeaten run in the Champions League remains intact after Paris Saint-Germain beat Bayern Munich.
The Red Devils went 25 games without loss between September 2007 and May 2009.
They beat Chelsea in the 2008 final for their third European crown and the following year finally lost to Barcelona at the same stage.
It was a stretch that included 15 wins and ten draws, including the one in Moscow as John Terry slipped in the shootout.
Bayern Munich were closing in on matching – and breaking – that 25-match tally.
Since defeat to Liverpool in the round of 16 in 2018-19, the German giants had not suffered defeat in Europe’s elite club competition – until PSG arrived in town on Wednesday night.
The run of 19 matches incredibly included 18 wins and just one draw – a 1-1 stalemate away at Atletico Madrid in the group stages this season which ended their record-breaking tally of 15 successive wins in the tournament.
Among those 18 wins were the 7-2 thrashing of Spurs, the 8-2 humiliation of Barcelona and the 1-0 win over PSG in last year’s final.
This campaign they topped Group A with an aggregate score of 18-5 in their six matches.
But after brushing aside Lazio in the last 16 4-1 away and 2-1 at home, Hans-Dieter Flick’s side, missing the injured Robert Lewandowski, were eventually toppled in the Bavaria snow.
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Kylian Mbappe scored twice either side of Marquinhos’ finish to secure a 3-2 win in the away leg of the mouthwatering quarter-final contest.
This 19-match streak matched Bayern’s own effort from March 2001 to April 2002 – which included a win on penalties in the 2001 final against Valencia.
Ajax also went 19 matches unbeaten between September 1994 and March 1996, lifting Big Ears in 1995.
Three times clubs have gone 16 games without loss.
Barcelona, champions in 2011, managed it from March 2011 to April 2012 under Pep Guardiola.
United won the treble in emphatic fashion when they beat Bayern in the 1999 final – part of the run between March 1998 and September 1999.
Two years later they embarked on another 16-match streak, which ran from October 2002 to October 2003.
That means out of the seven unbeaten runs of 16 or more matches, United’s at the beginning of the 21st century was the only one which didn’t see the team win the Champions League.
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