With seconds left, Dante cynically fouled Reus at the edge of the box. The free kick was half-cleared. The final whistle blew. The "Choke Artist" label was gone.
But across the border, in Munich, something historic was happening. Bayern Munich hosted Barcelona. 2012/13 champions league
May 25, 2013. Wembley Stadium. The marketing slogan was "The Ultimate Stage for the Ultimate Prize." It lived up to the hype. It was the first all-German final in Champions League history: Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund. With seconds left, Dante cynically fouled Reus at
As the competition kicked off in September 2012, the footballing landscape was shifting. Chelsea, the defending champions, had crashed out in the group stage—the first holders to do so in the modern era—signaling that their triumph was a lightning-in-a-bottle anomaly rather than a sustainable shift in power. The "Choke Artist" label was gone
It was the high watermark for German football. Not only did the two Bundesliga teams contest the final, but they had knocked out the Spanish giants along the way. It paved the way for the German World Cup win in 2014, with the core of that team (Neuer, Boateng, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Müller, Götze) forged in the fires of that European campaign.