5. Bayern Munich 1971-76
Points: 1260
The team that created the Bayern myth. But not just in terms of relentless domination. Also the infamous concept of Bayern-Dusel – luck.
Because, despite offering Germany’s answer to Total Football, this team was never quite as convincing as their magnificent achievements inferred. To a greater degree than many of the other great teams, they were a curious mix of fearsomeness and fortune.
Admittedly, there was an awful lot of fearsomeness. For a start, despite the fact that their great rivals Borussia Monchengladbach were routinely considered the more entertaining team, Bayern always outscored them. Gerd Muller, meanwhile, outscored most teams in Europe on his own. It was throughout this period he set a record by scoring 55 goals in a season.
That also helped Bayern set a Bundesliga record for the most points per game. It came in the midst of three titles in a row, with that achievement overlapped by Europe’s gold-standard feat: three European Cups in a row.
But it was also in that golden era of 1973-76, that they most profited from fortune. First off, they were lucky that the Ajax team who had demolished them 4-0 in the 1972-73 season had broken up so dramatically. And, in the following season’s final, they were a minute way from defeat to Atletico Madrid until Georg Schwarzenbeck – a defender who scored about a goal a season – swept home an unlikely equaliser. Bayern did pummel Atletico in the replay (the European Cup’s only one), but signs of decline were there.
In the following season they only finished 10th in the Bundesliga before benefitting from a very controversial offside call in the final against Leeds. And in 1976 they repeatedly benefited from the width of the woodwork as Saint Etienne squandered a series of opportunities.
To give Bayern their due though, they rarely did the same.
Trophies won: European Cup 1974, 1975, 1976; German league 1972, 1973, 1974
Managers: Udo Lattek, Dettmar Cramer
Best XI: Maier; Hansen, Schwarzenbeck, Beckenbauer, Breitner; Roth, Zobel, Hoeness, Rummenigge, Muller, Kapellmann