Messi versus Bayern in 2015, Müller versus Barcelona in 2013.Composite: Guardian Picture DeskAlexander AbnosWed, December 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM UTC·10 min readThis was the matchup Thomas Müller wanted.
“My history with [Messi] forces me to hope for a final against Miami,” the former Bayern Munich and Germany star told Calen Carr in a recent interview previewing the MLS playoffs ahead for his new side, the Vancouver Whitecaps.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd what a history it is. The two giants of world soccer have met 11 times for club and country at senior level, with Müller’s team coming out on top in eight of those contests. Muller has scored seven times to Messi’s three. No wonder, perhaps, that the German keeps getting asked for his secret to stopping Messi, and how much, if any of it, can be passed on to his Whitecaps teammates ahead of the pair’s 12th meeting – barring injury – in MLS Cup this Saturday.
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Messi place in history is so often positioned in relation to Cristiano Ronaldo, helped in part by the near-constant meetings between the two during their times at Barcelona and Real Madrid. Messi’s rivalry with Müller, such as it even exists, is a different animal. The two have not played against each other often, but when they have, it has usually meant a whole lot. Looking back over their past meetings, it’s striking how often a crushing defeat led to the end of one era or another, how a single goal shifted fortunes of the teams and teammates around them, and how through their matchups one can track the rise and fall of any number of players, coaches, and trends.
Here, then, are all 11 instances where Messi met Müller, ranked from least to most consequential for the players, their teams, the fans, and the sport at large.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement11. Bayern Munich 2-0 Barcelona
24 July 2013
Uli Hoeness Cup (friendly) | Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
It’s a club friendly; practically the dictionary definition of an inconsequential match. Barcelona started with a full-strength side but made 11 changes at half-time. Bayern made 10 substitutions over the course of the match. The most interesting things here are for MLS heads: Ilie Sánchez played for Barcelona, years before turning out for Sporting KC, Los Angeles FC, and Austin FC. Another one specifically for Sporting KC fans: Jordi Quintilla, who scored the winning penalty in the 2015 US Open Cup final, played the second-half alongside Ilie for Barça. Neither Messi nor Müller did much of consequence.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement10. Germany 1-3 Argentina
5 August 2012
Friendly | Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt, Germany
Müller ended up exiting this one after just 32 minutes due to a tactical substitution, serving as the sacrifice after goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler was sent off. Messi’s future Barcelona teammate Marc-André ter Stegen came on in place of Müller and promptly saved Messi’s penalty. Messi would later score with a trademark low finish.
9. Bayern Munich 3-2 Barcelona
12 May 2015
Champions League semi-final second leg | Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
Müller scored the winner in this one, but it was about as hollow a winning goal as you’re likely to get in this matchup in the Champions League. Bayern’s 3-2 win still left them down 6-3 on aggregate after coming apart in the first leg, sending Barcelona into a Champions League final they would win. This was the peak of the Messi-Neymar-Luis Suárez trio, and on this night it was the latter two who shone brightest, with Neymar scoring twice on Suárez assists within 29 minutes.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“This tie was already dead, buried and ceremonially despatched with half an hour gone,” wrote Barney Ronay for the Guardian.
8. Germany 0-1 Argentina
3 March 2010
Friendly | Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
The first-ever meeting between Müller and Messi was only mildly consequential at the time – it was just a friendly, after all. But it went on to be a reference point when the two sides met in that year’s World Cup quarter-finals – something Argentina manager Diego Maradona seemed to have an inkling of.
“This game had the character of a World Cup quarter-final,” he said after his side’s 1-0 win, presumably having watched it through a crystal ball (or maybe not, considering Argentina would go on to lose the quarter-final 4-0).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAside from setting the stage for the World Cup match to come, perhaps the most important thing to come out of this game is that it gave Müller, then just 20, his debut with the national team, in the stadium where he’d go on to be a fixture at club level for the next 15 years. Messi performed well (“I thank God that Messi is Argentinian,” Maradona quipped), but was kept off the scoresheet.
7. PSG 0-1 Bayern Munich
14 February 2023
Champions League last-16 first leg | Parc Des Princes, Paris, France
Messi’s first match against Bayern in PSG colors could have gone better for him, as the PSG academy product Kingsley Coman scored the only goal of the game for the German side. Messi, paired with Neymar up top with Kylian Mbappé coming off the bench due to injury, was forced to drop deep in order to get anything going for the home side.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“A Paris Saint-Germain team with Neymar and Messi installed as a walking-football front two produced a horribly constipated performance … that threatens to deadhead their season before the end of February,” wrote Barney Ronay for the Guardian.
Müller, in a rarity for him in these games, came off the bench in the victory.
6. Bayern Munich 4-0 Barcelona
23 April 2013
Champions League semi-final first leg | Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
Müller fizzed along with the rest of Bayern Munich in a complete domination of a Barcelona side seemingly in disarray in one of Tito Villanova’s last matches in charge before leaving the club for health reasons. Müller scored a header, provided an assist with another header, and capped off the result with a sliding finish to seal the result.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMessi, wrote Daniel Taylor for the Guardian, “was peripheral, looking increasingly forlorn as the game went on, hands on hips and shaking his head. He had a stinker.” The hamstring injury that limited him for this game would keep him out of the second leg, which Bayern won 3-0 to secure their spot in the Champions League final, where they would claim the title.
5. Bayern Munich 2-0 PSG
8 March 2023
Champions League last-16 second leg | Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
At the time, this seemed like just another example of why, for all their financial might, PSG’s soccer project was far away from capturing the prize that mattered most. It would be the last Champions League match of this era for the Parisian club, who subsequently hired Luis Enrique and became the European champions we know today.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis match stands out for another reason: It was Messi’s last in European competition. Three months after this loss, Messi would announce he was leaving PSG, with an unsanctioned trip to Saudi Arabia in the interim fueling rumors that would be his next stop. Instead, he landed in Miami, and immediately started serving up memorable moments again.
But in this game, wrote Jonathan Liew in the Guardian, “Messi sank to his haunches, a thunderous look upon his face, a man perhaps realising the true scale of the farce to which he was devoting his last footballing years.”
Müller started, teaming up with Leon Goretzka to provide the opening goal for Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. Bayern would run into the Manchester City buzzsaw in the next round.
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AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement4. Germany 4-0 Argentina
3 July 2010
World Cup quarter-final | Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, South Africa
The buildup to this one was, in the words of the Guardian’s Paul Hayward, “enjoyably acrimonious.” Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger said of Argentina: “You see their body language, how they gesticulate, how they try to influence the referee. That is not part of the game. That is a lack of respect. It’s their mentality and character and we’ll have to adjust.”
Germany adjusted plenty, tearing apart Argentina’s midfield en route to a dominant win. Müller opened the scoring, losing Nicolas Otamendi on a set piece and heading Schweinsteiger’s free-kick into the back of the net – his fourth international goal of what would become a haul of 45. Such was the dominance of Germany that Messi barely had any opportunities at all.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement3. Barcelona 3-0 Bayern Munich
6 May 2015
Champions League semi-final first leg | Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain
There was a primary narrative heading into this one – Pep Guardiola’s return to Camp Nou as manager of Bayern – but it ended up becoming known for one of Messi’s finest performances. Messi contributed to all three goals on the night, assisting one and scoring two, one of which resulted in poor Jérôme Boateng falling into meme-dom. Müller, meanwhile, hung tough with Bayern until Messi’s breakthrough in the 77th minute, then exited in favor of Mario Götze.
As Sid Lowe wrote for the Guardian: “Guardiola’s night became Messi’s night yet again, his name ringing round this stadium once more, the homage in Catalonia reserved for him and all else forgotten amid the euphoria.”
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2. Bayern Munich 8-2 Barcelona
14 August 2020
Champions League quarter-final | Estadio La Luz, Lisbon, Portugal
It’s one of those scorelines – like 7-1, in another game involving Müller – that almost needs no further explanation. Utter humiliation behind closed doors in the Covid-19-era Champions League knockouts led Messi to send his first request to leave the club he had been at since childhood, sending English-speakers the world over Googling what a “burofax” is and the Barcelona hierarchy scrambling to keep him in place. Messi ended up staying for just one more season, but this defeat was the truest sign that the high times Messi and Barcelona enjoyed throughout the 2010s were well and truly over.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“History will not be kind to the people who make the decisions at the Camp Nou. They deserve nothing but scorn for squandering Lionel Messi’s talent,” wrote Jacob Steinberg for the Guardian.
Müller was brilliant, along with the rest of Bayern, scoring twice and registering an assist. “He is a footballer who knows how to win,” wrote Barney Ronay for the Guardian, “who understands the movements around him, the way the space opens and closes.”
Beyond the scoreline, the match contains a number of other spots of intrigue: This would be Suárez’s last match as Messi’s teammate before joining him in Miami. Bayern’s head coach, Hansi Flick, is now in charge of Barcelona. In the lineup for Bayern that day was Alphonso Davies, having come through the academy of the Vancouver Whitecaps, where Müller now plays.
1. Germany 1-0 Argentina AET
13 July 2014
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWorld Cup final | Marcaña, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It’s a World Cup final, and thus an easy choice to top this list. Next to Götze’s winning goal, the match has been remembered for all the chances Argentina missed, including a confounding Messi opportunity he pulled wide in the second half. Müller went the full 120 minutes, helping Germany eke out a tense final that ended, strangely enough, with Messi receiving the Golden Ball for the tournament’s best player.
“We deserved a bit more after the match we played,” Messi said afterward.
The result capped an astonishing comeback story for German soccer, with Müller at the center of much of the on-field reinvention. It also increased Argentina’s desperation to make the most of the tail end of Messi’s prime and bring a long-awaited third star to the nation’s crest – something they’d have to wait until 2022 to accomplish.
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