Early on Sunday evening Bayern Munich’s players arrived a few at a time in a swish restaurant that had been opened just for them, as they prepared to commemorate a 33rd Bundesliga title (34 if you include the pre-Bundesliga crown of 1932) not quite as they had hoped, in their street clothes rather than their football strips. Bild even claimed that as Freiburg took the lead late in the first half against Bayer Leverkusen on the big screen in front of the Bayern squad (a game the 2024 champions needed to win to mathematically prolong the race) there was a loud exclamation of “Scheiße!” from at least one player who had wanted Bayern to officially finish the job themselves at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach next Saturday.
It had not quite been the titanic end that anybody had hoped for, with Bayern letting in a 95th-minute Yussuf Poulsen equaliser that stopped them officially sealing it on Saturday, Harry Kane suspended so he couldn’t take part at all and Leverkusen getting a leveller in the fourth minute of stoppage time at Freiburg on Sunday which ended up meaning little to anyone apart from the hosts and their rivals for Champions League qualification.
