We look back at the biggest wins in Spain’s La Liga since it began in 1929. It might come as a surprise now, but the two largest victories have both come against Spanish giants Barcelona.
The Biggest La Liga Wins
Athletic Club 12-1 Barcelona: 8 February 1931
Sevilla 11-1 Barcelona: 29 September 1940
Sevilla 10-0 Oviedo: 28 September 1941
Athletic Club 10-0 Celta de Vigo: 11 January 1942
Athletic Club 10-0 UE Lleida: 19 November 1950
Athletic Club 12-1 Barcelona – 8 February 1931
Only one match in La Liga history has seen a side win by an 11-goal margin. That came in February 1931, when Athletic Club enjoyed a phenomenal 12-1 win over Barcelona.
The Basque side were considered the giants of Spanish football before the Civil War in 1936 and at the time they were managed by Englishman Fred Pentland. After winning their first La Liga title in 1929-30, Bilbao sealed a second successive league championship the following season, with this record-breaking victory helping them achieve that feat.
In the 12-1 win, Bata scored seven goals – a record that has only been equalled once in the competition since, by László Kubala in 1952.
Guillermo Gorostiza helped himself to one goal in the rout, which was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of pain inflicted on Barcelona over his career – no player scored as many goals against Barca in La Liga history as he did (24).
Sevilla in the 1940s
Sevilla have only won one La Liga title in their history, with this victory coming in 1945-46. It was earlier in the decade that they entered the history books for two of the biggest wins in La Liga history, however.
They won by a 10-goal margin in consecutive seasons on the opening day – the second of which came just a day away from the one-year anniversary of their first huge win. That would have been some way to celebrate the achievement.
In just the second Spanish top-flight season following the Civil War, Sevilla crushed Barcelona 11-1 on 29 September 1940 – then almost exactly a year later in 1941, they sealed another 10-goal win, this time at home to Oviedo.
Athletic Again
The 1940s not only saw Athletic Bilbao return to the top of La Liga with a 1942-43 title win, but it also saw them hand out yet another thrashing a season before their championship victory.
They defeated Celta de Vigo 10-0 in January 1942 and then repeated the feat to start the following decade – 10-0 against UE Lleida in November 1950.
Both victories saw the legendary Telmo Zarra involved in multiple goals. He was a part of the attacking trio considered one of the best in La Liga history: Zarra, Panizo and Gaínza. The 10-0 win over Celta saw Zarra score four times, while in the 1950 victory over Lleida, he went two better with a six-goal haul.
The end of the 1950-51 campaign saw Zarra pick up the Pichichi award as La Liga’s top scorer with an impressive tally of 38 goals. It wasn’t until 1989-90 that this tally was equalled by a player in a La Liga season, with Real Madrid’s Mexican star Hugo Sánchez also scoring 38 times. Since then, only Lionel Messi (twice), Cristiano Ronaldo (twice) and Luis Suárez have scored more goals in a Spanish top-flight season.
The Biggest La Liga Away Wins
Las Palmas 0-8 Barcelona: 25 October 1959
Almería 0-8 Barcelona: 20 November 2010
Córdoba 0-8 Barcelona: 2 May 2015
Deportivo de La Coruña 0-8 Barcelona: 20 April 2016
Barcelona might be the side to have suffered the two biggest defeats in La Liga history, but they have tried their best to make amends with the four biggest away wins in the competition.
Barcelona have won 8-0 away from home on four occasions since La Liga began in 1929, with three of those coming since 2010.
The first occasion of a side winning an away game by eight goals in La Liga came with Barcelona’s trip to Las Palmas in October 1959. Barca, led by Helenio Herrera, were helped by a hat-trick from Luis Suárez (the Spanish one) and this victory helped them secure a consecutive league title and their eighth overall in La Liga history.
November 2010’s 8-0 win came under the leadership of Pep Guardiola and was a warning for Real Madrid. This rout came just nine days before their famous 5-0 win over their rivals led by José Mourinho. Obviously, the warning was ignored. Lionel Messi scored one of his 36 La Liga hat-tricks in this victory, while Bojan Krkić scored twice.
Barcelona’s two most recent 8-0 wins in La Liga both came under Luis Enrique and less than a year apart.
In May 2015, they enjoyed a Matchday 35 victory against Córdoba, just a month before they completed their second treble in their club history in Berlin with a win over Juventus. Uruguayan Luis Suárez scored a hat-trick in the Córdoba game but went one better in April 2016 at Riazor with four of Barcelona’s eight goals in the 8-0 win over Deportivo de la Coruña. Those goals contributed 10% of his season total, as Suárez picked up the 2015-16 Pichichi with 40 goals.
The Biggest La Liga Wins This Century
Almería 0-8 Barcelona: 20 November 2010
Barcelona 8-0 Osasuna: 17 September 2011
Real Madrid 9-1 Granada: 5 April 2015
Córdoba 0-8 Barcelona: 2 May 2015
Real Madrid 10-2 Rayo Vallecano: 20 December 2015
Deportivo de La Coruña 0-8 Barcelona: 20 April 2016
Those three Barcelona away wins between November 2010 and April 2016 form three of the six biggest wins in La Liga this century, but they also added an 8-0 home win to the mix.
In September 2011, Barca enjoyed an eight-goal rout of Osasuna at Camp Nou. Surprise, surprise, Lionel Messi was among the goals again, this time netting three times with another two contributed by striker David Villa.
Real Madrid are responsible for the other two La Liga victories by a margin of eight goals in the 21st century.
Carlo Ancelotti led Real to a 9-1 win over Granada in April 2015 at the Santiago Bernabéu – just weeks before the Italian left the club as manager. Cristiano Ronaldo scored five goals in the win – one of only two occasions that the Portuguese scored as many as five goals in a single match across his professional career, with the other coming in La Liga for Real in 2015 against Espanyol.
Just eight months after their 9-1 win over Granada, Real Madrid scored 10 goals in a league game – this time against Rayo Vallecano in a 10-2 victory.
Rafa Benitez was just six months into his role as Real Madrid manager, as he saw two of his players score a hat-trick – Gareth Bale (four goals) and Karim Benzema (three), with Ronaldo helping himself to a brace.
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