Bayern Munich reaches DFB-Pokal final to keep treble hopes alive (Video)

Just six wins separate Bayern Munich from sending off manager Pep Guardiola with a treble, which would be the second in the club's trophy-strewn history.

Yet, somehow, this also means that Guardiola is a half dozen or so victories from merely living up to expectations – perverse and unreasonable as this may sound.

Bayern beat Werder Bremen 2-0 in the semifinal of the DFB-Pokal, Germany's domestic cup competition, on Tuesday. Although Bayern typically monopolized possession, the game was competitive.

Thomas Muller's goals were the difference. He lost his marker Clemens Fritz on a corner kick, soared toward the ball and slamming his bouncing header past goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald in the 31st minute.

Werder's equalizer after the hour was ruled out when Fin Bartels seemed to pull David Alaba by the neck as he sliced a weird ball over his own goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer. When Alaba then appeared to pull an attacker down in his own box on the subsequent play, no whistle rung out at the Allianz Arena.

In the 70th minute, Janek Sternberg wiped out Arturo Vidal – albeit with minimal contact – in his own box and Muller converted the penalty kick.

As such, one more win will clinch Bayern's cup victory. And their seven-point lead in the Bundesliga over Borussia Dortmund sees to it that two more wins from their final four games will ensure a fourth title in a row, and a second double in three years under Guardiola. Yet the real prize – and the harder challenge – resides on the continent.

There, as many as three more victories are needed. Atletico Madrid awaits in the semifinals of the Champions League. And here's where things get a bit twisted for Guardiola. Although he has clearly lifted Bayern to an even higher plane than the stratospheric one it already resided on, he has yet to equal the man who came before him. In the year before Pep arrived, Bayern won the treble under Jupp Heynckes who was, painfully, pre-fired to make way for the Spaniard, although the club claimed he was retiring. Heynckes had no intention of retiring at the time, but wound up doing so anyway after he was pushed out.

The implication of dumping such a successful coach for Guardiola was clear: He would make Bayern even better. He did that stylistically. But, inconveniently, the bar for performance was set as high as it will go: a treble. This, then, means that Guardiola, in strictly empirical and fact- and trophy-based terms, can only be a true success if he matches that. Yes, this is unfair.

Danger has lurked. While Tuesday's affair was straightforward, the Champions League round of 16 bout with Juventus was not. If not for Muller's 91st-minute equalizer, which sent the thing to extra time, Guardiola's time would have already been deemed a failure.

In the summer, he'll be off to Manchester City, where the incumbent, Manuel Pellegrini, has been preemptively told to clear out his office when the season is over as well. Funny thing about that: Pellegrini has City in the Champions League semis, the club's best-ever campaign in that competition by far. Should Man City win the competition, Guardiola would again face a near-impossible task of matching his supposedly inferior predecessor.

No need to cry for Guardiola, of course. Time and again, he takes over talent-rich mega-clubs seemingly on the right side of their peak – for all of City's veterans, plenty of players are in their prime of a few years before it. But at some point, he may ask himself why he keeps committing to his next clubs so far ahead of time, and why they tend to go on unlikely runs on the eve of his arrival.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.