You So tonight we face the rather daunting task of taking on the mighty Bayern Munich in the rather lavish setting of the Allianz Arena.
Of all of our Champion League opposition this year they are the ones who require the least introduction.
It’ll come as little surprise that they are by some distance the most successful club from Germany both on the domestic and European front.
Started 117 years ago by 11 members of a Munich based gymnastics club who disgruntled at the club’s decision not join the recently formed Deutscher Fußball-Bund (German Football Association ) then started their own club that would take up membership on the 27th of February 1900.
They actually only won one German League Championship prior to the 1968-69 season during a somewhat tumultuous history. The set-up of German football historically has been pretty complicated with a such a large country containing so many distinct regions. Indeed there were even works and faith-based leagues set-up in the wake of the first world war. Bayern themselves originally competed in southern German league set-ups before emerging at a national level.
One of their most difficult periods occurred during the pre-WWII years when the Nazi party under of course Adolf Hitler controlled the country. Bayern was seen to have a distinctly Jewish identity which of course didn’t go down well with the Third Reich.
Then club president Kurt Landauer, himself a Jew was forced to leave the country and many other players and staff with Jewish heritage were similarly expelled from involvement. As a result of his their city rivals 1860 Munich gained much popularity which was no doubt encouraged by local Nazi party influence.
Their first national cup success didn’t come until 1957 but the good times really started in the following season thanks to the emergence of the mercurial talents of goalkeeper Sepp Maier, goal machine Gerd Müller and of course ‘The Kaiser’ Franz Beckenbauer . Together they formed the backbone of over a decade of success and were collectively labelled ‘The Axis’.
Between 1965 and 1976 they won four German Championships, four national cups and incredibly three back to back European Cups cementing Bayern’s status as the pre-eminent power in European club football. The three also were part of the great West German team of the 1970’s that won the European Championships in 1972 and the World Cup as the host nation in 1974.
The West Germans had this crazy idea you see of regularly playing most of the players in their national team who played for their most successful club side. Imagine Scotland had adopted such crazy approach in regards to the Celtic team of the 60’s and 70’s?! Alas, Jimmy Johnstone…………….27 caps!
Anyway back to Bayern. In total they have won the German League Championship a record 27 times, the DFB-Pokal (German) cup a record 17 times, and also have the record for the number of Supercups as well as the now-defunct DFL-Ligapokal (League) cup as well.
Added to that they’ve won every major European and international trophy with singular successes in the defunct Cup Winners Cup (1967), the UEFA Cup (1996) and UEFA Super Cup (2013) as well as capturing the Intercontinental Cup twice (1976 & 2001), FIFA Club World Cup once (2013) and the European Cup a total of fives times with the most recent success coming in 2013. That’s a total of 68 major honours with 66 of them coming in the past 51 years.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
They’ve won the last five consecutive German League Championships and all by a minimum of 10 points.
Yet all is not rosy in the garden. Well, at least it wasn’t for all of about 5 mins. Despite winning last years title by 15 points and losing only 2 league games out of 34 manager Carlo Ancelotti came under pressure after a 3-2 German Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund, the closest thing that Bayern have to anything approaching a legitimate domestic rival.
More importantly, Bayern suffered a 6-3 Champions League quarter-final aggregate humbling to his former charges Real Madrid. Expectations had been heightened after Bayern thrashed serial last 16 losers Arsenal 5-1 home and away for an impressive 10-2 aggregate victory in the previous round but came crashing down against eventual tournament winners Real.
After a ‘disastrous’ start to the domestic season that saw Bayern lose on and draw one of their first six as well as going down 3-0 to PSG in Paris on match-day two of this season’s Champion League, the much-travelled Italian coach was given his jotters.
Rumours abound that some of the big-name players had turned against him but then they often do when a manager gets fired. What’s true is that within German media the perception was that Bayern’s approach had gone backwards since the style of play implemented under Ancelloti’s predecessor Pep Guardiola and that he had failed to rebuild an ageing side over three transfer windows.
Not only the scoreline but the nature of the performance against PSG confirmed that Bayern were no longer realistic challengers for European football’s top trophy.
Club CEO and German football legend, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge summed upped the dismay at the display in Paris: “What we’ve seen tonight was not Bayern Munich,”
The thing is that Ancelloti did actually spend 170 million Euros in just over a year in charge. It just goes to show what kind of a world football has become when that is seen as unambitious.
Some of the arrivals this season include 21-year-old French winger Kingsley Coman who arrived in a 20+ million Euros deal from Juventus and has been the standout signing.
The highest profile capture was 26-year-old Colombian internationalist midfielder James Rodriguez on a season-long loan deal from Real Madrid.
His loan move was a snip at 13 million Euros.
It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that Rodriguez was regarded as the hottest prospect in world football. He undoubtedly suffered in the shadow of Ronaldo and to a lesser extent, Gareth Bale at Real and so far has failed to set the heather alight at Bayern though a talent such as his can never be counted out.
The 72-year-old club legend Jupp Heynckes was brought back in to take the reigns until at least the end of the season. In his last spell in charge, Bayern won an unprecedented treble culminating in the 2013 European Cup, their last success in the tournament, where they defeated domestic rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the final. They also won the league championship that year by an equally unprecedented 25 points losing only one domestic game all season.
Heynckes had previously managed Bayern to two back to back league championships in the late 80’s and won the European Cup with Real Madrid in 1998. Safe to say he’s not bad. He took over for his first game back in charge on Saturday and ‘struggling’ Bayern slaughtered Freiburg 5-0. They now sit second in the Bundesliga, two points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund.
The team is dripping with talent. To begin with, there’s German international keeper and club captain Manuel Neuer, rated by many as the best goalkeeper in the world. Then central defensive rock Mats Hummels, Spanish internationalist midfielder Thiago Alcântara, and veteran Dutch winger Arjen Robben who even at 33 still hit the net 16 times in 37 games last season and has scored 133 goals in 265 appearances for Bayern.
There’s also the legendary French winger Franck Ribéry who even at 34 is no slouch and its difficult to look at the squad and find anything approaching a weak link. The standout player though has to be Polish striker Robert Lewandowski who has hit the net a pretty incredible 123 times in 159 games for Bayern and 304 times in a career total 491 games. He’s actually scored 13 goals in 12 games already this season. Basically, he’s a goal machine and will shoot on sight.
Rumours of Bayern’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Financially they are on a different planet to us and expect to dominate every season what should be on paper one of world football’s most competitive leagues. They also still aspire to Champions League success and know that beating us is a must if they are to obtain their preferred first place in the group.
We’re in for a long night.
In Brendan we trust.