Bayern Munich Down Hopeless Mainz to Conclude Title-Winning Bundesliga Season

Bayern Munich concluded another successful Bundesliga campaign with a 2-0 win over a Mainz side who within minutes of starting the game had very little to play for.

As results would play out across Germany on the concluding Saturday afternoon, the ambition of Martin Schmidt’s side would have lasted about 16 minutes before the likes of Borussia Dortmund stormed ahead in their own game against Werder Bremen to confirm a Europa League-less campaign for the Carnival Club next season.

As such, it was an afternoon of football that came to resemble an exhibition match between two teams who had very little left to play for. Bayern were confirmed as Bundesliga champions and Mainz had finished another season safe in the top half of the German top division.

Pep Guardiola’s side may be the newly crowned champions, but they went into Saturday’s game under a newly fathomed weight of criticism upon their shoulders, having lost three league matches on the bounce as well as being knocked out of the Champions League to Barcelona.

You’re only as good as your last game in Bavaria, and having won the title so early on, this final matchday seemed like an afternoon of redemption for a Guardiola side who had looked as though they would ultimately finish the campaign limping and pleading for their offseason break.

Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

Of course, this simply couldn’t be the case at Bayern. And before a fully packed Allianz Arena, Guardiola clapped out his full-strength side with expectations of a professional win. That is exactly what they achieved.

Bayern lined up in a traditional 4-3-3 formation with the usual back line, welcoming back Dante in place of Mehdi Benatia, while a midfield trio of Philipp Lahm, Xabi Alonso and Bastian Schweinsteiger took up their usual spots behind Mario Gotze, Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski.

It was the Polish international, played as the lone striker in a sea of Mainz defenders, who stood out as one of the few Bayern players who actually seemed interested in scoring. Holding the ball up, winning headers and even clattering into goalkeepers; Lewandowski chased every ball and was ultimately rewarded for his efforts with a penalty kick in the 26th minute.

Alongside Lewandowski, we saw the industrial nature of Schweinsteiger come to the fore, as the Germany international wasted little time hoping for Gotze or Mitchell Weiser—who came on for Muller in the 26th minute—to create something of note.

As such, we saw the former holding midfielder play as a No. 10—or even at times as a second striker alongside Lewandowski in attack—in his 500th game for the club.

Whether this was through instructions from Guardiola directly, who may well hope to play the German as a No. 10 next season as his legs begin to go, or indeed through sheer chance, it worked well and offered plenty for Bayern in attack.

Like his Polish colleague, it was only a matter of time before the central midfielder got his goal when, in the 48th minute, Lewandowski’s hold-up play found the ball bobble to Schweinsteiger on the edge of the box for him to calmly slot past Loris Karius in goal. With the positioning, technique and finishing of a striker, Schweinsteiger bagged a goal any forward or No. 10 would have been proud of.

Despite being, in essence, a rather meaningless fixture, there were shades of Bayern’s game that may well come to predict what’s to come for many within this current squad.

Gotze’s complete and utter refusal to offer anything in attack will go down as another opportunity missed in a match that had very little else to offer. The attacking midfielder has wandered through this side with the apathetic look of a player who has lost his way in the sport, despite the continued success and industry around him in Munich.

Even now, at the tender age of 22, fans and critics alike will spend the summer contemplating "what next?" for the former Dortmund starlet.

Contrastingly, the introduction of Sebastian Rode and a decent performance once again from the emerging German talent would suggest that we’re likely to see more of him in Alonso’s spot next season. 

Bayern will be hoping to add strength to a midfield that has begun to look its age this season, but in the box-to-box midfielder, Guardiola will be well aware that he already has a ready-made star who can slot into that midfield trio.

In the end, it was a standard Bayern win in a standard title-winning season. Guardiola's team had their ups and their downs, but in the end, they proved themselves as quite comfortably the best team in Germany for another season running.

Now to the offseason and the summer transfer window, where Guardiola will tweak and tinker to keep his squad fresh and ready for new challenges from the likes of Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen and possibly even Dortmund next season.  

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