h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For the crunch match of the season, Otmar Hitzfeld held faith with the side that steered Bayern to a 3-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld the previous weekend. There were, however, some exceptions: with Giovane Elber serving a one-match ban, Carsten Jancker came in up front, while precocious talent Roque Santa Cruz gave way for Mehmet Scholl.
Even before kick-off, Hitzfeld had reason to be happy, having been voted coach of the season by his Bundesliga colleagues. It won't have taken long for his good mood to increase, as Jancker's 2nd-minute opener - a header from a Markus Babbel cross - gave the champions just the kind of early encouragement they were hoping for.

There was more to come: Bremen scarcely had time to recover from the shock when Jancker struck again, another header securing the reigning champions a 2-0 advantage. The crowd were still on their feet, when Brazilian ace Paulo Sergio back-heeled the ball over the line, after some fine combination play by Thorsten Fink and Mehmet Scholl. It had taken Bayern just 16 minutes to shore up a commanding 3-0 lead.

But it was at 3:50pm CET that the delirium in the Munich stadium really hit breaking point, as the scoreboard brought news of a 1-0 advantage for upstarts Unterhaching. Marco Bodo's left-footed strike for Leverkusen seven minutes from half-time did little to dampen the mood.

The only disappointing note of the first half came shortly before the interval when Carsten Jancker was forced to leave the pitch injured, to be replaced by Roque Santa Cruz.

Jancker, however, had already contributed sufficiently to the afternoon's proceedings. Indeed, the attacking tone he established so early in the game continued after the break, as Santa Cruz set up Hasan Salihamidzic - whose strike whistled past the right-hand post by an inch. Unbelievably, injury struck again, this time to force Jancker's replacement Santa Cruz out of action. Alexander Zickler, who came on for him, seemed similarly doomed, his comeback also yielding to injury. Thomas Strunz - himself recently recovered from a long spell of inaction - took his place, 10 minutes into the second period.

The bout of sideline activity did little to stem the flow of Bayern's game, however; but the aggression of the first half was now tempered with tactical know-how to confine Bayern's forward movement to the counter-attack. There were early indications that the policy was working, as both Paulo Sergio and Bixente Lizarazu hit the woodwork 20 minutes into the half.

Meanwhile, the crowd became eerily quiet as 63,000 supporters feverishly waited for events to unfold in Unterhaching. It was in the 70th minute that news - and brilliant news, at that - finally arrived that Haching had extended their lead over Leverkusen to 2-0. The silverware - and Bayern's 16th League title - was in sight.

Neither were the crowd slow to show their gratitude as chants of "Haching, Haching" grew in volume, in appreciation of the efforts of the Bundesliga newcomers, battling it out just 10 miles to the east of Munich. Needless to say, the final whistle - which came at 5.20pm CET, for the record - could barely be heard above the roar in the Munich stadium. Bayern had been given little hope by the pundits - but they showed that when it comes to steel and determination they are unsurpassed.

Bayern 3-1 Werder Bremen