Where do Bayern's prolific trio rank in greatest front threes ever?

Image source, Getty Images

• Published3 hours ago

When Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Luis Diaz are bearing down on goal, there is usually only one outcome.

Just ask Atalanta, Real Madrid, Paris St-Germain, and practically any team in Germany, and they will testify to the quality of Europe's most feared front line.

Since linking up for the first time in August, Kane, Diaz and Olise have scored more than 100 times across all competitions for Bayern.

They are only the fifth trio to reach a ton since the turn of the century.

It is one of the main reasons why the German champions are looking to add the DFB Pokal (German Cup) and Champions League to the Bundesliga title they won last month.

But where do they rank among the great three-man forward lines of recent times?

Ahead of Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second leg against Paris St-Germain - with the German side trailing 5-4 after a remarkable first leg - BBC Sport takes a closer look at the numbers.

Guardiola's Barcelona shaped forward lines

Three-man forward lines have been a staple tactic throughout the history of football.

But they have arguably never been as popular as they have over the last 15 or so years.

It is a resurgence that is largely down to Barcelona's success under Pep Guardiola between 2008 and 2012.

Guardiola helped Barcelona win two Champions Leagues and three La Liga titles with a dominant possession-based style.

It was a revolutionary system that relied on both the midfield and front line - operating without a recognised number nine - to be fluid in and out of possession.

Eight‑time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi was usually the most central attacker, though he often dropped deep to either drag defenders out of position and create space for his team-mates, or to create a numerical advantage in midfield.

Either way, the end result was a fluid style of football that was practically impossible to stop and resulted in Barcelona claiming 14 trophies during Guardiola's time at the helm.

Since then, three-man forward lines have become fairly prominent in Europe, with the likes of Real Madrid and PSG deploying similar tactics in the years that followed.

In the Premier League, however, the forward line that resembled Guardiola's side most closely was Liverpool's Champions League and Premier League-winning trio of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.

During their five seasons together at Anfield, Firmino was deployed as the Reds' central attacker and, similar to Messi, was responsible for dropping between the lines, linking play with the midfielders and ultimately creating space for Mane and Salah to run in behind.

The trio is widely regarded as one of the greatest forward lines in the history of English football, having helped Jurgen Klopp's side win a haul of major trophies.

The numbers behind recent years

Image source, Getty Images

Fast forward to the present day and it is Bayern Munich who are the envy of Europe.

By signing Kane, Olise and Diaz in consecutive summers since 2023, the Bavarians have slowly but carefully constructed the most lethal front line on the continent.

After each forward scored in last week's Champions League semi-final first leg thriller against PSG, Bayern have become the first team in German history to have a front three reach a century of goals in a single season.

The Bundesliga champions have come close to that figure before, with Gerd Muller, Uli Hoeness and Willi Hoffman finding the back of the net a total of 99 times in the 1972-73 season.

In fact, a 100-goal-plus front three is extremely rare.

Since 2013-14, only five times have a front three hit the 100-goal mark, with three of them coming from the same trio.

Barcelona's Messi, Suarez and Neymar are out on their own in terms of goals and what a front three can produce.

In three consecutive seasons from 2014-15 to 2016-17, they hit 122, 131 and 111 goals.

But let's not forget the famous trio at Real Madrid - Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema netted 100 times in 2014-15.

Liverpool's brilliant Salah, Firmino and Mane came close to the three-figure mark in 2017-18 but finished the season with 91 goals.

And now football has a 100-goal trio once again with Bayern's Olise, Kane and Diaz.

How does it compare to PSG?

PSG were once blessed with a front three consisting of Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

But it is now with Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia where the Parisians have struck gold.

The front three picked by Luis Enrique in the biggest game in the club's history - the 2025 Champions League final - are not as prolific as Bayern's, but create chaos for opposition defenders with their fluidity and creativity.

But despite being PSG's chosen trio, it was Dembele (33), Goncalo Ramos (18) and Bradley Barcola (21) who were their highest scoring last term with 72.

Doue (15), Kvaratskhelia (seven) and Dembele (33) netted 55 times between them.

This season, though, Doue (12), Kvaratskhelia (18) and Dembele (18) have struck 48 times to Olise, Kane and Diaz's 101.

Bayern's front three has a clear structure, with Diaz setting up on the left, Olise off the right and Kane down the middle - allowing for reliable week-by-week output.

Luis Enrique's set-up is all about fluidity. PSG forwards rotate positions and have a strong tendency to turn up on the biggest of occasions.

Related topics

• Paris St-Germain
• Bayern Munich
• European Football
• UEFA Champions League
• Football

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