Being a Bundesliga fan can sometimes involve hefty contradictions from one domestic weekend to the next European club midweek.
If you're not a Bayern Munich follower, then you tend to regularly bemoan the success of Germany's Rekordmeister and invoke concepts such as Bayern-Dusel (Bayern luck) and the inevitable Bayern-Bonus (alleged preferential treatment from referees). Then of course, there is an outpouring of Schadenfreude on the few occasions when the Munich giants actually do badly on the pitch.
Frequently, however, on European nights, those who wished Bayern considerable ill just a few days prior are cast in the role of their unlikely defenders. It's difficult not to take this stance when snide comments about the supposed weakness of the Bundesliga are made by international pundits who frankly should know a lot better.
How on earth are Bayern meant to keep themselves sharp for the UEFA Champions League when they're playing teams like Freiburg, for goodness sake?
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Freiburg, for the record, are very competent and, like Bayern, auf drei Hochzeiten tanzen (literally dancing at three weddings), an expression used to describe a team still competing in three different competitions. In the case of Freiburg, it's the UEFA Europa League, the league, and the DFB-Pokal.
Last Saturday, they gave their Bavarian guests an almighty examination. Freiburg, who pressed and battled intelligently throughout, were 2-0 in front with nine minutes of normal time left, but Bayern eventually began taking bites into the lead. Two goals, one with either foot, from the talented Tom Bischof, saw the match level by the beginning of stoppage time.
I posed the question in the live world feed commentary regarding whether Bayern could actually go on and win the game now.
With 99 minutes on the clock and the match about to conclude, Bayern produced an aesthetically pleasing move. It started with a beautiful butter-soft diagonal pass from Joshua Kimmich to substitute Alphonso Davies on the left. The Canadian fed it across for 18 year-old Lennart Karl to finish off from close range.
Cue absolute bedlam in the nearby Gästeblock (away section). It was more than Bayern's most dramatic winning goal of a spectacular season. This will go down as the club's 100th Bundesliga goal of the campaign, only the third time they or any team in the Oberhaus has scaled such impressive scoring heights.