Bayern Munich win eighth successive Bundesliga title after beating Werder Bremen
- Published
Bayern Munich are the second team in one of Europe's top five leagues to win eight consecutive domestic top-flight titles, after Juventus in Serie A from 2011-12 to 2018-19.
Bayern Munich celebrated in a near-empty stadium after securing an outstanding eighth successive title.
Robert Lewandowski chested down Jerome Boateng's chipped pass to net the winner against Werder Bremen - and seal the league with two games to spare.
Bayern's 11th straight Bundesliga win put them 10 points clear of Borussia Dortmund, who have three games left.
Bayern finished the match with 10 men after Alphonso Davies was sent off for two yellow-card offences.
Poland striker Lewandowski has scored 31 league goals this season, a tally that equals the single-season scoring record by a foreign player in the league. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, now at Arsenal, scored 31 Bundesliga goals for Borussia Dortmund in 2016-17.
Robert Lewandowski has scored in nine of his past 10 appearances for Bayern Munich
Bayern were far from their best against a Werder Bremen side fighting for survival at the other end of the table.
With the game goalless, Bremen's Maximilian Eggestein went close from distance before Lewandowski's quality winner after Kingsley Coman had earlier headed narrowly wide.
Coman again went close before teenager Davies was sent off with 11 minutes remaining, while Werder Bremen had a late appeal for a penalty for handball turned down.
Bayern celebrate in unusual circumstances
Seven points clear of nearest rivals Borussia Dortmund with three games to go before kick-off, Bayern needed one win from their remaining three games to wrap up another title.
Hansi Flick's side did just that - but they got over the line in unusual circumstances.
When Bayern won the title on the final day of last season, they did so after an emphatic 5-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in front of 75,000 fans at the Allianz Arena.
On Tuesday, there were no supporters present inside Werder Bremen's 42,000-capacity Weserstadion as they wrapped up the title in pouring rain.
The full-time whistle was greeted with shouts of delight from Bayern's players which echoed around the empty stadium, but it was a far cry from previous title celebrations before the coronavirus pandemic.
"It is sensational the kind of football we have played in the past few months," said Flick, a four-time Bundesliga winner with Bayern as a player.
"You could feel the passion, the joy for the game and the team spirit."
From a humiliating 5-1 defeat to champions
With matches at home to Freiburg and away to Wolfsburg still to come, Bayern's latest domestic triumph looks relatively straightforward but it required a managerial change to kick-start their season after a poor opening.
After an embarrassing 5-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt on 2 November, Bayern were fourth in the table, four points behind early-season leaders Borussia Monchengladbach.
That result spelt the end of Niko Kovac's 16-month reign, Flick appointed interim boss before signing a new contract until 2023 in April.
And Bayern have flourished under the 55-year-old former Germany assistant.
This result means they have taken 58 points from a possible 66, yet their season is far from over.
Bayern Munich's players wore red T-shirts after full-time with the number eight on them to mark the club winning the Bundesliga between 2013 and 2020
While Bayern have progressed to the final of the German Cup, where they will meet Bayer Leverkusen on 4 July in Berlin, the five-time champions of Europe are still in the Champions League and are well placed to reach the quarter-finals after establishing a 3-0 lead over Chelsea in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
"We have now taken the first step and reached our big goal," added Flick.
"But we also have the cup in our sights and then obviously the Champions League games are something you cannot plan for and we still need to survive the Chelsea game."
Nine league titles at one club - the stats
David Alaba and Thomas Muller win their ninth Bundesliga championship title, equalling the record set by Franck Ribery last season.
Hansi Flick is the third person to win the Bundesliga title for Bayern both as a player and a manager, after Franz Beckenbauer and Niko Kovac. Flick won the Bundesliga title as a Bayern player in 1985-86, 1986-87, 1988-89 and 1989-90.
In Europe's top five leagues, only Juventus (35 in Serie A) and Real Madrid (33 in La Liga) have won more league titles than Bayern (30, including pre-Bundesliga era).