After three years at the helm, Pep Guardiola said goodbye to the Allianz Arena – a place that had come to appreciate his bullish and attacking style of play. Next season he will be Manchester City manager and he wanted to make sure Saturday would be a day he’d never forget.
Bayern won this season’s Bundesliga only recently but the celebrations on the final game of the league season, which they won 3-1 over Hannover, weren’t solely about cherishing a 26th league title.
As the beer flowed – and it flowed – Bayern’s players surrounded Guardiola and bounced as one. Yet that wasn’t good enough for David Alaba, Douglas Costa and imperious goalkeeper Manuel Neuer who poured nine litres of Paulaner over the 45-year-old.
The party on the pitch looked to have calmed down when the German goalkeeper sprinted around the front of where some of the players were still lifting the championship plate to throw the contents of a Weißbier (three litre beer glass) over Guardiola.
Next up was Alaba. The left back covered the Spanish manager in Paulaner beer as he was having his photo taken with members of Bayern’s staff – possibly the best photobomb in footballing history.
And if that wasn’t enough, Costa, the Brazilian, who signed from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer, joined the Austrian defender in completely drenching their manager. He eventually got his own back and Robert Lewandowski had to sprint as quick as he has all season to get away from his manager.
Before the celebrations got very boozy – and you’d imagine the party will roll on into the early hours of Sunday morning – the players danced and took turns in holding the silver plate.
Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm raises the Bundesliga trophy as the rain fell at the Allianz Arena after a comfortable 3-1 win.
Pep Guardiola gets his hands on the trophy before he leaves the German giants after three-and-half years in charge.
Guardiola, possibly wanting to allow his players to enjoy a title-winning moment, stayed behind the players and instead reflected with assistant coach Domenec Torrent.
He eventually made his way to the centre of the podium, where fittingly the players waited before they could really get the party started.
It has been a successful three years for Bayern – despite the lack of Champions League trophy that he so badly craved – and his players gave him the perfect send-off against Hannover.
Guardiola – who was presented with a farewell gift before kick-off, was treated further, when striker Lewandowski tapped home his 30th goal of the season to put the home-side in front.
The Poland striker is the first player to score at least 30 goals in a season since Dieter Mueller in 1977 and became the first foreign Bundesliga top scorer to net 30 times or more as he won the title for the second time in three seasons.
Mario Gotze – the talented midfielder who has found opportunities hard to come by this campaign – doubled the lead for the champions and grabbed a second after the break, with a fine low effort. Artur Sobiech struck a consolation for the relegated visitors, as Bayern eased to another win.
Elsewhere, former Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart were relegated for the first time in 41 years after losing 3-1 at VfL Wolfsburg in the top flight season finale on Saturday.
Werder Bremen needed an 88th-minute goal by Papy Djilobodji to beat visiting relegation rivals Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 and keep their spot in the Bundesliga, with their opponents going into a play-off against Nuremberg, third in the second division.
It was not only the manager who was presented with a trophy as Lewandowski collected his top scorer award before kick-off.
Manager Guardiola received his farewell present before the kick-off on Saturday ahead of his summer departure to England