Perhaps Bayer Leverkusen always believed. But this was the moment when the rest of us could too. For Bayern Munich this was a kind of televised humbling: a blow not just to their title hopes but to their sense of identity. Through the peaks and troughs of this season we have been told that Thomas Tuchel’s team would eventually show their true selves when it really mattered. And they did; just not remotely in the way anyone expected.
In the end Bayern were simply outclassed: Tuchel bested by Xabi Alonso, Bayern beaten not just in practice but in theory. Bayern’s trophy-laden players – for the most part, anyway – had no answer to Leverkusen’s quirky angles and relentless off-the-ball running, their defensive solidity and ability to move as one unit. And Tuchel simply had no answer to Alonso’s tactical flourishes, his surprising selections, his use of the bench.