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Bayern Munich sends off Pep Guardiola with DFB Pokal title and domestic double

Bayern Munich sends off Pep Guardiola with DFB Pokal title and domestic double

Pep Guardiola restored some of the sheen to his Bayern Munich legacy by claiming his second DFB Pokal Cup title in three years as his side beat Borussia Dortmund on penalties to claim a domestic double on Saturday.

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In the end, it was more grueling than spectacular. Although one only had to look as far as an anguished, gesticulating Guardiola raging on the touchline in the second half to see how much it meant to the departing Bayern boss.

After a cagey 90 minutes of normal time, during which both sides largely cancelled each other out and there were more yellow cards than opportunities on goal, the match ticked into extra time. However, two additional 15-minute halves failed to separate the sides as Dortmund put in a spirited rearguard action, in which Thomas Tuchel's players' lung-bursting efforts largely nullified the superior talents of Bayern's assemblage of midfield creators and dangerous target men.

Mats Hummels, the man in the spotlight thanks to his pending transfer from Dortmund to Bayern, had a fairly inauspicious night. He was subbed off following a solid but unremarkable performance, highlighted by heading a good ball in from Marco Reus over the crossbar and earning a yellow card.

Defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos was instead the standout player for Dortmund on a night when the likes of Reus, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all failed to hit their operatic heights.

Bayern's best chances to break the deadlock in regulation time came just four minutes into the match with Thomas Muller testing Dortmund keeper Roman Burki from 25 yards out.

Douglas Costa exerted an increasing influence on the game throughout the latter part of the first half and forced another fine save from Burki with a snapshot from the edge of the area just pass the half-hour mark.

After Bayern dominated the early part of the match, chances increasingly fell to Dortmund with Mkhitaryan forcing a reaction from Manuel Neuer and later playing in a cross for Sven Bender who failed to connect properly with his shot.

Franck Ribery flashed a dangerous ball across the face of goal for Robert Lewandowski early in the second half. However, the Poland striker couldn't quite stretch himself to make contact.

Aubameyang continued to spurn a number of good chances, most notably on an 85th-minute break, when he was found by a pitch-perfect ball from a speeding Reus, only to blast his effort over.

As the match gave way to extra time the number of chances diminished and there were an increasing number of players on both sides writhing and stretching all over the pitch as fatigue and cramps crept in.

Bayern had perhaps one final chance to win the game from open play after winning a free kick on the edge of the area in the final minute of extra time. Thiago Alcantara lofted the ball in where it was met by a rising header from Jerome Boateng. However, the Germany defender sent his effort over the crossbar, sending the match to penalties.

Vidal, Lewandowski, and Muller all duly converted for Bayern, while Joshua Kimmich had his effort saved. Meanwhile, on the Dortmund side, there were successes from Shinji Kagawa, Aubameyang and Reus, along with misses from Bender and Sokratis.

Thus the tiebreaker fell to Costa, who stepped up and duly blasted his effort past Burki to bring the DFB Pokal Cup back to Munich and send the Bayern fans at Berlin's packed Olympiastadion into ecstatics.

For a team like Bayern, winning the Bundesliga is considered more of a technicality than a celebrated triumph. But adding a German Cup win over your fiercest domestic rivals to the trophy cabinet was a nice way to complete the final season of the Guardiola era.

It's an era that, despite its numerous triumphs – three Bundesliga titles, one UEFA Super Cup, a FIFA Club World Cup, and now two DFB Pokal Cups – will always be somewhat overshadowed by the failure to bring the European championship back to Munich.

But for Guardiola and his players, who were visibly moved in the match's aftermath and during the subsequent trophy ceremony at the center of the pitch, none of that mattered as they celebrated a season that, like the Guardiola era as a whole, was not an unequivocal triumph but a success nonetheless.

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