Bayern Munich became the first time to win five successive Bundesliga titles as they comfortably defended their crown ahead of RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, and Hoffenheim.
Bayern lifted the title with three games to spare as the Champions League contenders failed to mount a proper challenge for the trophy, with Leipzig finishing 15 points adrift in second place.
However, the season was a massive success for the Red Bull-funded club, who had just been promoted from the 2 Bundesliga a year earlier and qualified for Europe at the first time of asking.
Thomas Tuchel guided Dortmund to yet another season in the Champions League spots and lifted the DFB Pokal, but BVB’s season was majorly affected by an incident involving a bus bomb ahead of their UCL quarter-final defeat to Monaco, which shook the club’s players and fans.
Only three matchdays saw a team other than Bayern at the top of the table, while at the other end Darmstadt were consistently on the bottom. They were joined in the relegation zone by Ingolstadt, while Wolfsburg needed to beat Eintracht Braunschweig to stay in the top flight.
CHANGES
Bayern Munich had planned for the post-Pep Guardiola era since the previous December, confirming that Carlo Ancelotti would become head coach in the summer once the Spaniard had left.
He was one of six new head coaches heading into the 2016-17 campaign, with Leipzig’s Ralf Rangnick moving upstairs to become sporting director and Ralph Hasenhuttl joining from Ingolstadt.
Schalke and Augsburg also hired new coaches, while Werder Bremen and Hamburg had sacked their bosses by the end of September.
Ancelotti had just two new arrivals during the summer with Mats Hummels moving for €38 million from Dortmund and Portugal wonderkid Renato Sanches coming from Benfica for €35m. After three seasons in Munich, Gotze went the opposite direction returning to BVB.
Tuchel made a lot of changes at Dortmund, also signing Andre Schurrle, Sebastian Rode, Raphael Guerreiro and Rennes…
Author : editors@footballcritic.com (Martin Macdonald)
Publish date : 2024-08-04 15:00:00
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Author : soccernews
Publish date : 2024-08-04 15:09:49
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.