By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
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 13 and 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 were unable to hold off the challenge from FC Bayern. Die Roten Bullen boasted a league-high 16 different scorers and the division’s meanest defence, but a maiden toplevel trophy proved elusive with Julian Nagelsmann’s men falling to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Cup final 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 Black and Yellows 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 saw 1. 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 Bremen left the Green-Whites teetering over the relegation precipice. A dramatic late goal from Sebastiaan Bornauw saw 1. FC Köln deliver the final push and leap 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 Kiel 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.
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 an 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!