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What a year it has been! FC Bayern Munich have now officially won every trophy there is to win, starting with the Bundesliga back in June and culminating with the Club World Cup just now. Let’s take a little stroll down memory lane to see just how we got here.
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Bundesliga — Won on June 17, 2020
Up until November 2019, Bayern were languishing under then-coach Niko Kovac, who handed in his resignation after a humbling 1-5 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt. Assistant coach Hansi Flick took over from the Croatian, and starting with a 4-0 mauling of title rivals Borussia Dortmund, carried Bayern on a winning spree for the rest of the season. Apart from two defeats and one draw, Flick and his men won every single game there was, eventually clinching the Meisterschale with two matchdays to go in a very rainy Bremen. The team scored 100 goals in the entire league season, 34 of them coming from top scorer and record breaker Robert Lewandowski.
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DFB-Pokal — Won on July 4, 2020
Bayern’s DFB-Pokal run wasn’t as smooth sailing as their Bundesliga run. Apart from their 3-1 opening win against Energie Cottbus, every game leading up to the final was won by just one goal. VfL Bochum, Hoffenheim, Schalke 04, and Eintracht Frankfurt put up some decent fights against the Bavarians, but ultimately came up short against the eventual winners. Surprisingly enough, the final was a lot easier than the road to it, with Bayern winning 4-2 against Bayer Leverkusen in a highly entertaining 90 minutes. Lewandowski scored twice in this final and ended up as top scorer in the Pokal with six goals.
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Champions League — Won on August 23, 2020
Bayern finished their group with six wins out of six games, including stunning victories over Crvena Zvezda and previous finalists Tottenham Hotspur. They then extended their dominance over London with a 7-1 aggregate win over Chelsea in the round of 16. That aggregate score would seem tame, though, compared to what Bayern did to Barcelona in the next round. After the 8-2 destruction of the Catalans in the quarterfinals, Bayern swept aside Olympique Lyon in the semis before meeting their compatriots Paris Saint-Germain in the final. Fate had it that Parisian native Kingsley Coman would score the winner to bring home Bayern’s sixth European Cup. Mission Lis6on was successfully accomplished.
Oh, and Lewandowski was the top scorer here too.
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UEFA Super Cup — Won on September 24, 2020
Bayern’s victory in Lisbon meant they would compete in the UEFA Super Cup against Europa League winners Sevilla. The European champions found themselves a goal down early on after conceding a penalty, but an equalizer from Leon Goretzka took the game to extra time. Substitute Javi Martinez then repeated history with a powerful header to win the Super Cup for his team, just like he had done seven years ago. I guess we now know where the ‘ja v’ in ‘Déjà vu’ comes from, right?
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DFL Supercup — Won on September 30, 2020
Barely a week on from their victory in Budapest, Bayern were competing in another “Super Cup”, this time the domestic one. League runners-up Borussia Dortmund were their opponents. Bayern took the lead through early goals from Corentin Tolisso and Thomas Muller, before a quickfire double from Julian Brandt and Erling Haaland brought Dortmund back on level terms. However, Joshua Kimmich was on hand to fire home a rather strange goal to win his team their fifth trophy in a year. Coincidentally, Kimmich was also the one who scored the winner in Bayern’s previous meeting with Dortmund. “Super Cups” just have a way of bringing back old memories, don’t they?
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Club World Cup — Won on February 11, 2021
The last piece in Bayern’s puzzle was the Club World Cup, which was pushed back to February because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bayern’s journey was anything but smooth, with a nine-hour delayed flight draining the players of their already depleted energy. Add that to a handful of positive COVID cases, and the situation was looking dire. But Hansi Flick and his men would not let that be an excuse, as they defeated African champions Al Ahly in the semifinals, before a Benjamin Pavard goal put North American champions Tigres to the sword.
The Final Missi6n was complete. FC Bayern were on top of the world.
It’s been quite a journey, hasn’t it? I think that’s an understatement. All I can say is, I am so incredibly proud of the team and what they have achieved this past year, and I am proud to call myself a supporter of this wonderful club. Here’s hoping for even more success down the road for our glorious FC Bayern!