Champions League semis: The fallout from midweek

Back then Bayern took from Dortmund the architect of that sole conquest, the manager Ottmar Hitzveld, and now after re-emerging from Dortmund’s shadow (domestically) the Bavarians want to put some distance between the two clubs by taking two gems from the Signal Iduna Park.

Their only Champions League conquest to date was in 1997, and yet their main rivals Bayern (who had already won three by then) are going to contest a fifth final since that time.

Back then Bayern took from Dortmund the architect of that sole conquest, the manager Ottmar Hitzveld, and now after re-emerging from Dortmund’s shadow (domestically) the Bavarians want to put some distance between the two clubs by taking two gems from the Signal Iduna Park.

In consecutive seasons now Dortmund have lost Nurin Sahin (back there on loan), Lukas Barrios, Shinji Kagawa and Mario Gotze, and Robert Lewandowski looks likely to join that list.

Their academy is still churning out raw quality at the moment, and they exploit a national initiative that has culminated in good academies across Germany (for example the midfield class act Ilkay Gundogan was nurtured at Schalke and signed from Nurenberg), but constant selling and top flight success are neither compatible nor sustainable - case in point Ajax.

Bayern
The immediate future has been secured with all the impending arrivals, and the distant future is most guaranteed by perhaps the healthiest financial books in Europe.

But it is first things first for Bayern at Wembley, where they desperately need to right the wrong that is their Champions League finals record. They have lost two finals since their last victory in 2001, and before that they had lost another three finals after their Beckenbauer-inspired hat-trick of the ‘70s.

After Wembley, the challenge then falls in the lap of Pep Guardiola to do what he managed with Barcelona. Frank Rijkaard won the Champions League in 2006 and it was difficult to see how any successor could improve on what Ronaldinho, Eto’o Deco, Guily and co had accomplished.

Yet Guardiola managed to take them to a much higher level with young home-grown charges from La Masia as he created a monster. He will have to find a way of doing that again, albeit differently.

Many have declared the torch passed on to Bayern, the dawn of a new era, the ascension to the throne of the new kings of Europe. Granted Bayern are the strongest team in Europe now and only going to get stronger, but they can’t be the new Barca until they turn that strength into sustained domination.

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