On March 25th 2014 Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga in record time.
The Bavarian giants wrapped up the league with a massive seven games to spare, were on a 19-game winning streak and had yet to taste defeat since Pep Guardiola took charge the previous summer.
Bayern would finish 25 points ahead of Borussia Dortmund, who were still coached by Jurgen Klopp, had won the league title in 2011 and 2012 and narrowly lost the 2013 Champions League final to their Bundesliga rivals.
When Bayern won the treble the previous year, many questioned how the in-coming Guardiola could improve on perceived perfection.
As Guardiola’s side won the league in record time, and prepared to face David Moyes’ beleaguered Manchester United in the Champions League quarter-finals, it appeared the he was on course to do just that. What’s better than winning the treble? Retaining it, but this time with a revolutionary playing style and remaining unbeaten in the league.
However, it appeared that Guardiola didn’t particularly care about the unbeaten record.
“The Bundesliga is over for us,” the Catalan said after Bayern won the title. The players exuberantly celebrated their victory, and attention turned to reclaiming the German cup and the Champions League. By the end of the following month, Bayern had lost four times, and, more importantly had crashed out of Europe following a 4-0 defeat to Real Madrid at home in the semi-finals.
In 2015, a near identical scenario occurred.
Bayern beat Hertha Berlin 1-0 on April 25th, going 15 points clear with four games to play to claim their third successive Bundesliga title. Guardiola’s side lost five of their next six games, and succumbed to the genius of Lionel Messi, losing 3-0 to Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the Champions League, and 3-2 in the return leg
Did Bayern’s seasons collapse because they weren’t posed enough of a domestic challenge, and thus lost focus in the pivotal month of their European campaign? And could it be argued that they’re better equipped to win this season’s Champions League because a rejuvenated Dortmund are currently just five points behind them in the Bundesliga?
When Manchester United won the Champions League in 1999, they won the Premier League by a single point. In 2010, Inter Milan, who matched United’s feat of a treble, won Serie A by just two points the same year they claimed European football’s top prize.
United finished just two points ahead of Chelsea when they won their second Champions League under Alex Ferguson in 2008.
In Barcelona’s Champions League winning campaigns in 2015 and 2011, they won La Liga by just two and four points respectively.
They won the league at a canter in both 2006 and 2009, when they also won the Champions League, but there’s enough evidence to suggest that a competitive domestic title race can translate into European success.
Bayern face Benfica in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg this week, and anything less than a comfortable passage to their fifth successive semi-final will be a massive shock.
In the Bundesliga, Guardiola’s side have a relatively comfortable lead on second placed Dortmund, but by the standards of recent season, it’s a genuine title race.
The Bavarians know that if they slip up, a rejuvenated Dortmund side under Thomas Tuchel, and featuring the prolific Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, will be there to take advantage. The challenge of Dortmund this season could be exactly what is needed to focus Bayern’s minds as they head into the period that could come to define Guardiola’s time in Bavaria.
The Catalan was criticised for an alleged altering of tactics and formation once Bayern had won the league last season.
“Guardiola has already said that their season is over and he’s been rotating his team so much that he’s unsettling the team,” Lothar Matthaus said. “His team no longer has the stability they had for over eight months, enchanting football fans up and down Germany.”
It is possible that Guardiola, the idealist, and Bayern will be focused to a greater degree than previous years, and therefore benefit from, the practicalities of a domestic title race.
If they slip up again in Europe, expect many to decry Guardiola’s time at Bayern as ultimately amounting to failure.
Success without failure is rare in any walk of life, particularly sport – even Ferguson was sacked – and this is what makes Guardiola such a rarity.
For the phenomenally successful 45-year-old coach, not winning club football’s greatest prize with such a talented team, when he won it twice in his first three years as a coach with Barcelona, may seem like failure. However, such a binary view is undoubtedly harsh.
In fact, it just emphasises how successful the soon-to-be Manchester City coach has been in relatively short time in management. He has improved the Bayern players and built a formidable team that has lost in two semi-finals to the eventual winners. There’s no shame in losing to a team containing Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, even for the best manager in the world.
The margins at such a high level of competition are small, and the added focus the German title race brings could ensure a sustained level of performance required to bridge the gap from beaten semi-finalists to outright winners.
It’s possible, along with some luck, the German title race will ultimately benefit Bayern’s Champions League challenge.
