Sports broadcaster Gary Lineker once famously said, “Football is a simple game: Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end, the Germans always win.” That isn’t particularly true at the international level anymore — Germany hasn’t made it to even the quarterfinals in its past three major tournaments — but a version of it remains true within Germany.
The Bundesliga continues to be an incredibly fun and entertaining league, with lots of goals, huge and boisterous crowds (bigger, on average, than those in the Premier League), and plenty of plot twists and down-to-the-wire races when it comes to top-four finishes or relegation. And at the end, Bayern always wins.
Bayern Munich took its 11th straight Bundesliga crown on Saturday with a down-to-the-wire 2-1 win in Koln, but the outcome was the only normal thing about the race itself. Bayern and Borussia Dortmund took turns stumbling to the finish line, and BVB came into the final matchday needing only a home win over Mainz to end Bayern’s streak and take its first title since 2012. But Mainz took an early 2-0 lead, and while Dortmund was able to come back and secure a draw, it wasn’t enough. Bayern tied Dortmund on points and beat Dortmund on goal differential.
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The Bundesliga’s final matchday was an absolute roller coaster, with every match mattering in one race or another and a number of them involving late plot twists. And while it happened in wild and unexpected fashion, Bayern’s title meant that four of Europe’s Big Five leagues saw extremely familiar title champions. Bayern has indeed won every Bundesliga since 2012, Manchester City won its fifth Premier League title in six years, Paris Saint-Germain won its ninth Ligue 11 in 11 years, and while Barcelona won its first LaLiga title in four years, the idea of a Barcelona title is never going to feel particularly unfamiliar.
Only Napoli‘s Serie A win was particularly surprising at the end of the day, but the journeys each of these five teams took to their respective titles were still awfully intriguing and worth reflecting on.
Here are five defining moments that helped decide each Big Five race.
How Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga
Aug. 20: Werder Bremen 3-2 Borussia Dortmund
It’s hard to talk about this title race without focusing primarily on BVB’s blown opportunities. Bayern finished with its worst league point total in 14 seasons, all but begging someone to overtake it. Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn and director of football Hasan Salihamidzic were sacked following such a shaky run, and it’s not hard to see why. Borussia Dortmund needed just one more point to put Bayern out of its misery, but that point never came.
This match was one of a couple of spectacular blown chances. BVB led recently promoted Bremen 2-0 at home with 88 minutes gone but allowed three goals in six minutes and suffered a shell-shocked defeat.
It was the start of a particularly fragile run for the Schwarzgelben: Over the next 13 matches, they would manage just 19 points. They lost their last two before the World Cup break and found themselves nine points back of Bayern in sixth place. Only a last-second goal and home draw against Bayern kept it from being even worse.
April 15: Stuttgart 3, Borussia Dortmund 3
It’s hard to top the agony of allowing three goals in six minutes, as BVB did against Bremen early in the year, but this one came close. With Bayern stumbling in the aftermath of their head-to-head win, Dortmund once again had an opportunity to seize control and took an easy 2-0 lead over Stuttgart, which also lost a man to a first-half red card.
Stuttgart scored twice in five minutes to shockingly tie, but Giovanni Reyna‘s goal in the second minute of stoppage time appeared to save the day for BVB … nope! Silas Katompa Mvumpa scored in the seventh minute of stoppage time, and Borussia dropped two unforgivable points.
May 27: Jamal Musiala happens
Somehow, the race still wasn’t over. Bayern allowed a late goal in a draw to Hoffenheim and turned 1-0 leads into shocking 3-1 losses against both Mainz and RB Leipzig down the stretch. To win the title, Bayern needed a win over Koln and needed BVB to drop points against Mainz. Bayern got both … eventually. Up 1-0 in the 80th minute, Bayern handed Koln a penalty when Gnabry handled the ball in Bayern’s box. Dejan Ljubicic converted, and it looked like Koln had saved Dortmund’s party.
Jamal Musiala, Bayern’s youngest starter and steadiest player, had other ideas.
JAMAL MUSIALA SCORES AND BAYERN ARE BACK ON TOP OF THE LEAGUE 🤯 pic.twitter.com/rDEE8ksIEt
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 27, 2023
The 20-year old’s masterful strike gave Bayern the lead, and for once, Bayern wouldn’t relinquish it.
How Napoli won Serie A
July: Napoli signs Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Kim Min-jae
After a run of bridesmaid finishes during Juventus‘ nine-year title run — Napoli finished either second or third six times in the seven seasons from 2012-13 to 2018-19 — the Azzurri had fallen to seventh in 2019-20 before renewal began. They took a big swing in signing Lille‘s Victor Osimhen for a club-record €70 million in the summer of 2020, and they had already brought aboard soon-to-be regulars in fullback Giovanni Di Lorenzo, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, center back Amir Rrahmani and goalkeeper Alex Meret the year before.
Midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa joined in 2021 too, first via loan then via permanent transfer. That was enough to bring Napoli back to the Champions League via third-place finish in 2021-22.
A nearly perfect summer, however, boosted Napoli into the stratosphere. Anguissa indeed signed full time, as did a useful left back (Mathias Olivera), but Napoli also signed what turned out to be one of Europe’s best defenders (Kim, from Fenerbahce) and most creative attackers (Kvaratskhelia, from Dinamo Batumi) for under €30m combined. Kvaratskhelia has contributed 14 goals and 14 assists in all competitions, and Kim turned in a brilliant performance in replacing Chelsea-bound Kalidou Koulibaly in front of Meret.
Koulibaly was a stalwart in Napoli’s defense for nearly a decade, and yet it is on pace to allow its fewest league goals since 2006 without him.
