BAYERN MUNICH
Overdue a Champions League challenge
For all Bayern Munich’s noteworthy work in the Champions League last season – not dropping a single point in the group phase (scoring18 and conceding just twice) and knocking out Paris Saint-Germain in the last16 – what fans and decision-makers at the Allianz Arena demand above all is continental staying power, an ingredient that the Reds have singularly lacked in recent years.
Since winning the Champions League in 2020 (beating PSG1-0 in the behind-closed-doors COVID final), Bayern have been knocked out at the quarter-final stage in each of the past three seasons and, for a club as prestigious and voraciously ambitious, this is simply not acceptable. Six-time winners of European football’s top cup and runners-up on a further five occasions, Bayern set the bar higher than most. Whenever they fail to
