Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung thought that the wide-felt "weariness of the Guardiola football" was unfounded: "It's a football that the Bundesliga has never experienced in 50 years; so delicate and precise, so playful and determined, so sophisticated and improved, so inspiring and exciting. No one has come this close to art with football in this land as Pep Guardiola."
"One has to love the magic of their passing game, their technical perfection," agreed Die Zeit. Swiss broadsheet Tages-Anzeiger gushed that "this FC Bayern has gone up another level, they have made football, German football that used to rely on very different virtues, into art; into a game full of beauty, with players who are constantly on the move and who only want one thing: the ball, always the ball, and never to give it away again."
* * *
They have outgrown the league and must therefore find true validation abroad. It is the European history books they want – no: have – to get into, with a first successful defence of a Champions League trophy.
