When compiling the most comprehensive wins in Spanish top-flight history what stands out are the dates.
Four occurred pre-war, a time when ‘parking the bus’ meant playing with a third defender. Another four took place in the Nineteen-Fifties, when high-scoring affairs were fairly commonplace.
The most recent game on our list played out in 1960.
That means that in the last couple of generations and more no Spanish side has tonked another by a margin of nine goals or greater and this surprises given the outstanding Real Madrid and Barcelona creations we have marvelled at during this long period.
That’s not to say they haven’t come close, however.
In 2015, Los Blancos thrashed Rayo Vallecano 10-2 and Granada 9-1. A year later, Barcelona stuffed Deportivo 8-0 away.
Can a team go one better in the modern era? Until they do these golden oldies will continue to top the pile.
=7/ Deportivo La Coruna 10-1 UE Lleida (1950)
UE Lleida rocketed through the leagues in the late-Forties, gaining consecutive promotions.
Alas, so swift was their ascendency their recruitment couldn’t keep up meaning they entered the lion’s den of La Liga with a squad partly made up of third-tier standard players.
Sadly, this quickly became apparent as Els Blaus found themselves on the wrong end of a 9-0 battering at Malaga.
Soon after that, with the players still traumatised, came this horribly one-sided debacle. At least they managed to score this time.
The club dissolved in 2011, mired in €28m of debt.
=7/ Athletic Bilbao 10-1 Real Zaragoza (1951)
In the years following the Spanish Civil War, Real were the epitome of a yo-yo club, alternating seasons in the top-flight and second tier.
In 1950/51 they were once again back among the big boys and actually faring quite well this time out, struggling for sure but landing the occasional punch.
Only then they had to travel to Bilbao, home of the feared front five that now resides in legend.
True to form, the magnificent quintet consisting of Rafa Iriondo, Venancio Garcia, Jose Luiz Panizo, Agustin Gainza, and Telmo Zarra – the latter scoring 38 that term – gave the recently promoted side a pasting to forget.
=7/ Real Madrid 10-1 UD Las Palmas (1959)
Las Palmas had only founded a decade before, formed from the merging of three smaller clubs based on the Canary Islands.
To even be competing in La Liga therefore was a considerable achievement.
The downside of this of course is that sometimes you had to travel to the Bernabeu and face a team that had recently won three out of an eventual five consecutive European Cups and furthermore try to contain the likes of Gento, Ferenc Puskas, and Alfredo Di Stefano.
In that context, 10-1 seems like a fairly decent outcome.
6/ Real Madrid 11-2 Elche CF (1960)
Twelve months later, Real’s extraordinary collection of stellar stars ran riot against poor Elche who at least had the temerity to respond twice-over.
Puskas helped himself to four goals while Gento inevitably scored, but the headline-maker on the day was Pepillo who bagged five and was denied a double hat-trick by the crossbar.
Just imagine the La Liga odds on Los Blancos each summer back then, especially as their domestic dominance coincided with Barcelona going into relative freefall.
We’re guessing 1/7 if the bookmaker was feeling generous.
=3/ Athletic Bilbao 10-0 UE Lleida (1950)
After very heavy defeats at the hands of Malaga and Deportivo along comes Bilbao in their prime and administers another thumping.
It will come as no surprise to learn that UE Lleida went down that season, next appearing in La Liga nearly four decades later.
=3/ Athletic Bilbao 10-0 Celta Vigo (1942)
Just four seasons on from this mortifying loss, Celta would finish fourth in La Liga, with a tremendous team that promised even greater things.
This though was a period of struggle for the Sky Blues, hardly the best time to encounter a 21-year-old Telmo Zarra.
The six-time Pichichi Trophy winner, who only cedes to Messi and Ronaldo for La Liga goals scored, bagged four on route to a near-record result for Bilbao.
=3/ Sevilla 10–0 Oviedo (1941)
On the opening day of the season, Sevilla burst out of the blocks, racking up a huge margin of victory that suggested a memorable season awaited them.
In the event they finished sixth, just four points better off than Oviedo.
If the scoreline is highly notable so too is the scoring pattern with arch striker Raimundo Blanco scoring the first six. That’s right, six.
The forward then went on to only fire a further five all season as he struggled to nail down a starting role.
2/ Sevilla 11-1 Barcelona (1940)
From the start of the Thirties to the mid-Forties, Barcelona were very much in the doldrums but this has to be viewed in the context of the Spanish Civil War.
In 1937, Blaugrana played a series of friendlies in the USA and Mexico and half of the team sought asylum rather than return home.
With the military uprising and Franco in charge, Catalonia was under occupation, its language and flags banned nationwide.
While the club was splintered and focusing purely on survival Sevilla by stark comparison were thriving, going on to win the league soon after.
So of course, the football betting would have very different odds today to back then, but back then there were very different circumstances.
1/ Athletic Bilbao 12-1 Barcelona (1931)
There is a reason why the famed Zarra and company were known as the ‘Segunda delantera histórica’ (Second Historic Attack).
It’s because two decades earlier Bilbao were blessed with a similarly brilliant front-line, full of outstanding talents and genuine goal-threats.
Of that particular five Bata stood out, top scorer in the league that season and bizarrely the recipient of just the one Spanish cap.
Twenty-four minutes in, the hit-man had already completed a hat-trick, going on the plunder a ridiculous seven goals.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Adobe*
