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Bayern aside, Bundesliga disappoints in Champions League

Jonathan Harding
December 8, 2021

Other than Bayern Munich, who continue to look like one of the best sides in Europe, Bundesliga teams in the 2021/22 Champions League season endured rather than enjoyed.

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Leroy Sané scores from range for Bayern against Barcelona
Bayern Munich finished the Champions League group stages with a perfect recordImage: MIS/imago images

Other than Bayern Munich, who remain not just the best team in the country but also one of the best on the continent, Germany's Champions League sides have had a somewhat torrid time this season.

Of the remaining three teams, two are heading for the Europa League and one is out altogether.

Perhaps the disappointment hits harder after such a strong outing in recent seasons. 

All four Bundesliga sides qualified for the knockouts last year, with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund making the quarterfinals. The year before, in the abbreviated tournament in Lisbon, Bayern Munich won it all, RB Leipzig made the semifinals and Borussia Dortmund were stopped by PSG in the Round of 16.

This season has been a very different story.

Not, of course, for Bayern Munich. The German record champions waltzed through the group stage, as has become their custom in recent seasons. Thomas Müller scored his eighth goal in his seventh game against Barcelona to keep Julian Nagelsmann's team perfect and dump Barcelona into the Europa League. Bayern, who also won all six group-stage games when they won the treble under Hansi Flick, are contenders again.

Disappointing decline

Wolfsburg's campaign has been wildly unpredictable, as has their group which entered the final matchday with only one point separating one team from the next. Needing a win in their final game, Wolfsburg succumbed at home to a Lille side who just looked more comfortable playing their game than Wolfsburg did playing their own.

Florian Kohfeldt's team was full of holes and struggled off the ball, falling to a somewhat comprehensive 3-1 defeat as a result.

Their early exit is perhaps more forgivable given the club changed head coaches early on in the season, but the manner of their departure was still disappointing.

Borussia Dortmund's great start was rocked by consecutive defeats to Ajax, one of the three sides who finished the group stage with a perfect record.

Borussia Dortmund players looked shocked after conceding to Sporting
Borussia Dortmund disappointed in Europe this seasonImage: Octavio Passos/Getty Images

The Dutch champions dismantled Dortmund in Amsterdam and the German side looked like it never really recovered after that. Mats Hummels' controversial red card turned the second game, but Dortmund only have themselves to blame that their 5-0 win over Besiktas on the final day meant nothing. Finishing third in a group with the Dutch champions, Sporting and Besiktas is a major disappointment for the Bundesliga club.

To say the same is true of RB Leipzig in a group with Manchester City, Paris St. Germain and Brugge would perhaps be too much. Nevertheless, RB Leipzig's victory against City in the final game, admittedly after the departure of former head coach Jesse Marsch, combined with the winning positions they often had themselves in suggests the Bundesliga side missed their chance to do more.

Ilkay Gündogan wins a header vs. RB Leipzig
RB Leipzig's win against Manchester City came too late for them to make the knockoutsImage: Annegret Hilse/Reuters

Hope in defeat?

And so a pair of Bundesliga teams head to the Europa League, where they'll join Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt in the knockouts.

The Europa League is a far more open competition than the Champions League, handing the four Bundesliga teams involved an exciting opportunity.

If 2021 has ended largely in disappointment for Germany's European representatives, the hope is that next year it's not just Bayern Munich who stand a chance of winning a trophy.