FC Bayern: champions, always champions – sport

As a precaution, Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann took off his jacket in the final minutes of the game, and when he ran across the pitch in all black after the final whistle and Benjamin Pavard poured beer on him, he seemed to really enjoy it. Nagelsmann also happily endured all the other beer and water showers. Probably also because he felt a lot of tension shortly before the end of his first year at Bayern.

The Munich team had just won their 32nd championship title, the tenth in a row, by beating Borussia Dortmund 3-1 (2-0) in the German football classic. The celebrations afterwards were quite boisterous, including among Nagelsmann’s players. For the 34-year-old coach it was the first championship title in men’s football. With TSG Hoffenheim he became U19 champion in 2014, at the age of 26 he was the youngest coach ever. Now he can also call himself the youngest master coach in Munich and the second youngest in Bundesliga history – after Matthias Sammer, who was 33 days younger when he won the title with BVB in 2002.

But for Nagelsmann and the Bayern players, winning the title came primarily as a reconciliation with a season that was marked by the 5-0 defeat in the second round of the DFB Cup in Mönchengladbach and the elimination in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Villarreal also had great disappointments in store.

Just slept in Bayern bed linen as a boy – now master trainer of his favorite club

“I deserve to be champion, I’m very happy today,” said Nagelsmann later, very soaked, but apparently also very happy. It “felt very quickly” from his nights as a boy in Bavarian bedding to the coronation as master coach of his favorite club. At the same time he said about his first season in Munich: “The year wasn’t that easy.” But now he also wants to let go a bit, and it helped him that he was able to draw a conciliatory conclusion. “We did a lot right in the championship,” said Nagelsmann.

Even very experienced title collectors like Thomas Müller spoke afterwards about the emotional discrepancies of the season, and they obviously felt like their coach. “Of course there has been a lot of frustration in the last few days. Now we wanted to get rid of the frustration,” recalled the 32-year-old of the recent defeat against Villarreal. Müller has even won the Bundesliga title for the eleventh time, more than ever before. And apparently he intends to add at least two more championship titles with Bayern. “It’s difficult to leave feeling from today’s perspective,” he replied when asked if he would extend his contract until 2023. Similar signals came from Manuel Neuer for extra time, and the goalkeeper also said: “In the end, it was important for us that we end the year sensibly after losing to Villarreal.”

Serge Gnabry (15th minute) and Robert Lewandowski (34th) had taken the lead 2-0 at break – and thus the two offensive players whose future at Bayern seems uncertain. Emre Can’s 2-1 penalty kick (52nd) made things exciting again. But in the end it was enough for Bayern to win the championship title early because substitute Jamal Musiala scored the game-winning 3-1 (83rd). “We showed again that we are better,” said Lewandowski. He left his future open.

A saying about the volunteer fire brigade caused Nagelsmann trouble before the game

“Only FCB will be German champions,” the Munich fans chanted as the teams warmed up. But it wasn’t the red-robed Bavarians who started like the, well, fire brigade, so fast and enthusiastic, but the Dortmunders in their yellow jerseys. Nagelsmann’s previous comparison, according to which FC Bayern was “not the Süd-Giesing volunteer fire brigade” but always had to want to work because of the extremely good pay, had previously caused some annoyance among representatives of the volunteer fire brigades. The trainer therefore felt compelled to clarify shortly before the kick-off at Sky. “It was all about the word voluntary. I apologize to everyone who got it the wrong way,” said Nagelsmann, emphasizing how important the work of the volunteer fire brigade and all volunteers is.

So after this fire was extinguished, it was Dortmund who shaped the game in the early stages. They occupied Bayern’s back four with a few swift attacks, but without being able to pose a serious goal threat. The Munich team needed a little time to get going, and Joshua Kimmich’s corner kick and Leon Goretzka’s header proved helpful, after which Gnabry drained the ball in one fluid movement with his right thigh and immediately put his right instep into the corner of the Dortmund goal by Marwin Hitz.

Fifteen minutes after the 1-0, the international had scored again. But because the goal was not recognized because his colleague Kingsley Coman was offside, Gnabry made his next contribution to winning the championship title elsewhere shortly afterwards. In a duel, Gnabry tempted Dortmund’s Dan-Axel Zagadou to make a bad pass, as a result of which Müller served the free-standing Lewandowski. The world footballer pushed in to make it 2-0.

Open detailed view

It now seemed as if the Munich team had remembered the motto of their former goalkeeper and current CEO. “More, keep going”, Oliver Kahn once made his motive. Now the current Munich workforce went on, on and on, to become champions, always champions.

But the game also came across as a reflection of the season, which was characterized by fluctuations and uncertainties on the defensive. Now the seemingly certain victory was once again in danger because Kimmich fouled Marco Reus in the penalty area and Can converted the penalty. When shortly afterwards Neuer prevented the equalizer with a save against Reus and a little later Lucas Hernández also saved against the Dortmund captain with a sensational tackle, the game reminded of Bayern’s fickleness this season as if in fast motion.

It was also enough for Bayern to win the league title early because substitute Musiala scored to make it 3-1 in the closing stages. “Only FCB will be German champions,” chanted the fans, as they did during the warm-up.