CHAMPIONS

Tonight FC Bayern München were crowned Bundesliga champions for the eighth successive season after a 1-0 win away at Werder Bremen.

On 7 December Bayern lost 2-1 at Borussia Mönchengladbach, their second league defeat in a row and their fourth of the season. By that point Bayern had dropped 18 points and sat seventh in the table, winning the title seemed very far fetched. On 3 November they had sacked manager Niko Kovač and Hansi Flick took charge as replacement. As you can see things did not run smoothly to begin with for Hansi but since that defeat at Mönchengladbach his side have dropped only two points in a run that's seen them win 17 and draw one. The turnaround has been incredible and you can't argue that they don't deserve the title based on that form.

Bayern's final game pre covid lockdown was a home win against FC Augsburg as they celebrated their 120th birthday in what were joyous scenes at the Allianz Arena. I was present that day as part of a trip to Bavaria that saw me take in games in each of the top three divisions of German football. You can read my feature on those Bavarian travels of mine, as featured in the latest issue of Football Weekends magazine, here.