Bayern Munich win the Champions League for the fourth time - or is it the old European Cup.
For those of you who have lost track of time or those who simply don't really care which month or year it is this may be the time to set you straight. We are rapidly heading towards the end of August, autumnal hints are in the air, the kids will be hopefully back in school shortly and everything will be dandy so let's hold our heads up in the air and acknowledge everything we've been blessed with. In any case the new football season is almost upon us and last night the old one ended with a German flourish.
Yes, it's true the old football season finally ended last night with Bayern Munich claiming their fourth European Cup or as its more latterly known the Champions League. So what happens next? To all intents and purposes the end of a long and gruelling season should mean what it says on the tin. All of Europe's highly paid, ridiculously pampered footballers would normally take their buckets and spades and set off on a well deserved holiday for a welcome three-month break. But this has been unlike any football season in the history of the game. It didn't really go according to plan and everything seems totally out of kilter.
Last night in a lonely looking stadium in Lisbon, Bayern Munich narrowly scraped to a 1-0 victory against the equally as decorated Paris St Germain, a French powerhouse now boasting the world-class pedigree of Brazilian magician Neymar and exciting young genius Kylian Nbappe whose memorable display against Croatia in the 2018 World Cup Final was by far and away the most breathtaking performance from any youngster in a World Cup Final since Pele, surely the greatest player of all time.
It is hard to categorise the scale of Bayern's achievement because for long periods a Champions League Final towards the end of August almost feels at odds with nature. Of course we recognise the severity of the global pandemic but even so it still seemed as if somebody was tampering with our body clock. The Champions League music still bravely and boldly played before yesterday evening's match but how to explain a game that should have been played in May would now be played when the new season is imminent and the leaves will shortly be brown.
Still, there were no complaints from Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick although you do find yourself wondering whether Bayern's victory would have been any more satisfying than the night in Paris 45 years ago when the Bayern of Uli Hoeness, Franz Beckenbauer and the explosive Gerd Muller eventually outclassed the much-admired if sometimes loathed Leeds United who took the Germans all the way with some of the most well-crafted football that any losing side in a European Cup Final had given.
When Peter Lorimer's shot was ruled out for offside there was a niggling feeling that this was not the night when Don Revie's Leeds would provide their supporters with the one trophy that may have kept those fans with plenty to gloat about at future dinner parties. But Revie that night just stared grimly into the distance, dreaming no doubt about future wealth in Saudi Arabia. And yet Revie was lured into the desert and after he walked out of the England job half way through even he might have felt privately regretful and perhaps ashamed of himself.
But Leeds, who are now back in the Premier League after almost three decades of turmoil, terrible financial mismanagement, corruption within the club and a bunch of owners who should have been locked up long ago, were the team beaten by Bayern Munich way back when. Now Bayern are on top of the European tree with this hard-earned victory over Paris St. Germain. Now the diverging paths that both Leeds and Bayern Munich have taken over the years is a revealing glimpse into the weird and wonderful world in which fate has guided both clubs in recent years.
Last night the exceptional Neymar and the irrepressible Kylian Mbappe could never get anywhere near the more worldly and altogether more intimidating sight of lethal striker Robert Lewandoski, a Polish forward in a Portuguese stadium surrounded by a Frenchman and a German. Truly football has embraced multiculturalism and the cosmopolitan vibe in a way that none could have foreseen. But the Germans came through in the end and how often have we been reminded of this inevitability in both European football competitions?
When Ivan Perisic fused his multi-layered game together with the outstanding Serge Gnarby, Bayern knotted their passes together with swift, incisive patterns that frequently took you back to the Bayern of old. Now though, Leon Goretska found his colleagues with astutely judged passes behind the French defence and PSG began to resemble a resistance unit that had already been broken.
Essentially though what we had here was a Champions League Final played behind closed doors, no fans, nothing in the ether, not a soul in sight. This must have been like watching a Royal Ballet performance with the sound completely turned down and nobody on the stage. Instead there was a mass of cardboard, row upon row of men wearing masks on the respective teams benches and increasingly, a scene of hollow desolation and extraordinary silence.
In retrospect the 2020 Champions League Final may be remembered not only for its utter uniqueness but for the way in which football played out its last game of the European season. Football has conducted itself both intelligently and admirably even if there were moments when some of us could hardly believe what we were watching. Football in the sanitised and clinical age has made it through to the final curtain and a new Premier League season looms in September. We await further developments with much anticipation. It should be the most intriguing of prospects.
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