Can Bayern Munich Retain Their Champions League Crown?

Winning a title is a feat that’s already difficult to accomplish. Doing it twice in a row could be close to impossible. No club has done it in the current format of the UEFA Champions League. Before the format switch in 1992, though, a handful of teams were able to overcome the odds. Curiously, this short list includes the 1975 and 1976 Bayern squads. A.C. Milan has the distinction of being the last one to do it back in the 1988-1989 and 1989-1990 seasons. Fast-forward to today, more than two decades has elapsed since there has been a back-to-back champion in the UEFA Champions League. Can Bayern finally break that dry spell and be the first to attain this astonishing achievement in the current format?

Obviously, the chance for a repeat is always there, no matter how unlikely it can be (you can defy the odds with Bayern by placing your bets on the team in Au Freebets—click here to see more). Uncertainty is the greatest enemy here; it’s what makes it hellishly tough to take home back-to-back championships. Factors such as the ever-changing competition, trades, and injuries, will prevent a club from simply redoing what it did the previous year. Heck, merely starting out in a “nightmare group” can already derail one’s chances of being victorious in this tournament. So yeah, it won’t be easy for Bayern to repeat. However, the Bavarians have a lot going for them, thus they have a chance of pulling this off. For one, the club has acquired several young guns: Mario Götze, Thiago Alcántara, and Jan Kirchhoff. It still has UEFA’s best player in Europe (as awarded by respected football journalists) in Frank Ribéry. There’s also the brilliant new coach, Pep Guaridola, who won his first trophy with the team in the most recent UEFA Super Cup and trumping his longtime rival, Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho, in the process. On top of its UEFA Champions League win last year, Bayern won 46 of its 54 fixtures in all competitions the previous season. And this year, so far, the club has been an impressive 5 of 8.

But wait, there’s more: Bayern has been breaking (or equaling, at least) Bundesliga records left and right as well. Chief of these is the fact that the team claimed its 23rd German championship last April—with six games remaining at that. The 2012-2013 season also saw the club post the most wins (29), the most points (91), the biggest winning margin (25 points), the highest goal difference (+80), and the most clean sheets (21). The Bavarians have certainly done well for themselves, eh?

So, will the unthinkable happen?  Considering Bayern’s recent level of play, it’s hard to discount the club’s chances of achieving such a feat even though back-to-back titles don’t come quite easily. Yes, the team has suffered setbacks as well; but all in all, it has placed itself in a position in which it can really go all the way to the UEFA Champions League Final for the second straight year.