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FC Bayern München and Robert Lewandowski were the headline acts during another captivating campaign of Bundesliga football in 2020-21, but there were tears for giants FC Schalke 04 and SV Werder Bremen.
Bayern started as they meant to go on with an 8-0 rout of Schalke 04 on Matchday 1, setting the tone for both sides. The record champions proceeded to score at least once in all 33 of their remaining fixtures, wrapping up a record-extending ninth Bundesliga title -and 30th overall -with three games to spare.
Lewandowski was–once again -the standout performer. Despite missing five matches, the 32-year-old levelled Gerd Müller’s long-standing single-season scoring record on the penultimate weekend, before rewriting the history books with his 41st goal against FC Augsburg on the final day–with the last kick of the season.
LewanGOALski also claimed his Bundesliga-record fourth successive top scorer’s prize, finishing 13and 14 strikes ahead of Andre Silva and Erling Haaland respectively. Lewandowski’s teammate Thomas Müller led the Bundesliga with 21 assists, while RB Leipzig goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi took the crown for most clean sheets.
Leipzig were Bayern’s closest pursuers, topping the table at various stages in the season, but was unable to hold off the challenge from FC Bayern. Die Roten Bullenboasted a league-high 16 different scorers and the division’s meanest defence, but a maiden top-level trophy proved elusive with Julian Nagelsmann’s men falling to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Cupfinal too.
The 27 goals of Haaland were a real boon for Dortmund, who staged quite the late-season comeback under boyhood fan and interim coach, Edin Terzic. The BlackandYellows were seven points adrift of the UEFA Champions League places following their Matchday 27 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, but a seven-match winning run turned the top-four race on its head.
The DFB Cup winners final flourish ensured that they will join Bayern, Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg in next season’s UEFA Champions League. For Frankfurt, UEFA Europa League football awaits, alongside a Bayer 04 Leverkusen team that led the Bundesliga standings until their Matchday 13 loss to Bayern.
Meanwhile, the race to be part of the inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League went right to the wire. A 90th-minute winner from Max Kruse saw1. FC Union Berlin pip Borussia Mönchengladbach to seventh on Matchday 34 and earn the Berliners a first European qualification in 20 years.
Gladbach’s result also had major repercussions at the foot of the table. Their 4-2 win in Bremenleft the Green-Whites teetering over the relegation precipice. A dramatic late goal from Sebastiaan Bornauw saw 1. FC Köln delivers the final push and leaps out of the automatic drop zone themselves at the crucial moment, condemning Werder to a first season outside the top flight in 40 years. The Billy Goats will now fight for survival over two legs against Holstein Kielin in the relegation play-offs.
Rock-bottom Schalke’s fate had been confirmed on Matchday 30, though they did avoid tying Wuppertaler SV and Tasmania 1900 Berlin for the ignominious Bundesliga record for fewest victories in a single season. The club that gave the world Manuel Neuer, Mesut Özil and Leroy Sane drop to the second tier for only the fourth time in their history, having spent all but five matchdays propping up the rest of the division.
The performances of Matthew Hoppe, in particular, were a bright spot in a difficult season. The 21-year-old became the first American to score a hat-trick in the Bundesliga -with three superb finishes -as Schalke snapped a 30-game winless streak with a 4-0 thumping of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Matchday 15. He ended the season as the Royal Blues’ top scorer, warranting a maiden call-up to the US men’s national team.
Hope was not the only young star in the Bundesliga this season. In Munich, 18-year-old Jamal Musiala enjoyed a breakout campaign, making history as Bayern’s youngest scorer with his first of six Bundesliga goals, and earning a place in Germany’s Euro 2020 squad. Jude Bellingham(17)proved a revelation in the Dortmund midfield in his debut Bundesliga season, but it was Silas Wamangituka who claimed the Rookie of the Season award after producing 11 goals and four assists for promoted VfB Stuttgart.
Special mention goes to record-breaker Youssoufa Moukoko. One day after turning 16, the BVBprodigy made history as the Bundesliga’s youngest debutant in a 5-2 spectacular against Hertha Berlin, in which Haaland scored four times. Moukoko later went into the annals as the German topflight’s youngest goalscorer, aged 16 years and 28 days.
At the other end of the age scale, Lukasz Piszczek bowed out as a Bundesliga veteran of 332 appearances. The 35-year-old rediscovered his best form down the back straight, adding a third DFB Cup to a collection that also includes a pair of Bundesliga winner’s medals and three German Supercups.
Sven Bender was a former teammate of Piszczek’s during Borussia’s back-to-back title-winning years of 2010-2012. The Leverkusen defender, along with twin brother Lars, bowed out with 12 seasons of Bundesliga football to regale the grandkids with. The pair totalled 521 Bundesliga appearances combined, with Lars signing off by scoring a penalty in Dortmund.
Speaking of fond farewells, emotions were running high at Bayern’s Allianz Arena on Matchday 34 as the club bid farewell to David Alaba, Jerome Boateng and Javi Martinez. On the Bayern books since 2008, 2011 and 2012 respectively, the trio are among the five players to have won the treble twice with the Bavarian giants, alongside Thomas Müller and Neuer.
Managerial reigns were ended at 13 of the Bundesliga’s 18 clubs –in some cases more than once. Dortmund’sTerzicand 1. FSV Mainz 05’s Bo Svensson proved the biggest hits, despite having no prior first-team coaching experience. Terzic seized DFB Cup gold, while former Mainz defender Svensson steered the 05ers from 17th to 12th, toppling Bayern and Leipzig along the way.
But it’s the coaching merry-go-round involving Hansi Flick, Nagelsmann, Marco Rose and Adi Hütter that teases even more thrills and spills in 2021/22. Flick’s decision to call time on a historic 18-month stint has paved the way for Nagelsmann–Europe’s youngest coach-to swap Leipzig for the record champions. Gladbach counterpart Rose will take charge at Dortmund, with Frankfurt’s Hütter his replacement at the Borussia-Park.
The new Bundesliga season will kick off on 13 August 2021. It’s football as it’s meant to be -and it can’t come soon enough!
