One foolish journalist even wrote that there would be no tears shed when Pep Guardiola bid farewell to Germany on Saturday evening.
Pep proved them all wrong. When Douglas Costa scored the penalty which won Bayern the German Cup in Berlin, Guardiola broke down into floods of tears.
When it was time to lift the trophy, captain Philipp Lahm insisted that it should be Guardiola, not he, who held the hideous, golden German Cup aloft.
It was the seventh and final trophy that Guardiola had won as Bayern coach. It was by some distance the most emotional of the seven.
'When it comes to a penalty shoot out, anything can happen,' an emotionally exhausted Guardiola said amid the celebrations. 'Everyone was so tired in extra-time, so we are very happy.'
Very happy was an understatement. On this final, warm night in Berlin, Guardiola had betrayed emotions that many in Germany thought he could never have conjured when it came to Bayern Munich.
'I will miss everybody. I have had such a wonderful three years here at Bayern,' he said. 'I will miss everybody with whom I have worked at this club. But most of all I will miss my players. For three years, I have spent 24 hours a day thinking about them.'
Saturday night's triumph means that Guardiola has now won the domestic double in two of his three years at Bayern. The general consensus is that he has created a Bayern side whose dominance has eclipsed anything that German football been seen before.
He may not have won the Champions League. The fans may never fully have fallen in love with him. But we were all fools to think that Pep Guardiola and Bayern Munich never had a special relationship.
-dailymail
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