By the time they had finished, every Bayern Munich player had a souvenir to go with their winners' medals. Mario Mandzukic was the first to get out the scissors and set to work on the netting of Roman Weidenfeller's goal. Daniel van Buyten, a substitute, was next. Very soon they were all snipping away, forming a queue, then cutting out little rectangular pieces to take away a memento of the night.

They had waited so long to experience this kind of euphoria, enduring so many different ordeals in the process, they could probably be forgiven for not caring a great deal that Wembley hosts a Championship play-off final and an England international in the next three days.

At one point Bastian Schweinsteiger took himself off on his own and lay down in the centre circle, soaking it all in, looking up to the skies, and the mind went back to his missed penalty against Chelsea a year ago and the jarring sight of a player who seemed to epitomise every characteristic of the Germany international crumpling with emotion.

A lesser group of footballers might have been damaged by that experience, losing in a way so galling one of the Munich newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung, led with the headline the following morning: "How much bad luck can fit into a single football match?" Bayern, instead, have simply rolled up their sleeves and diligently set about reminding us what it was that made them such a formidable club in the first place. They began the season with nine successive wins and they have ended it by dismantling the theory, after five defeats in their previous six European Cup finals, that they should be thought of as serial losers in the competition they cherish the most.

Serial finalists, more like. Bayern have averaged one roughly every four years since the mid-1970s. They are joint third now with Liverpool in the all-time list of winners and, without wishing to get too far ahead of ourselves, who could possibly be surprised if their record of five victories and five defeats is not further enhanced before the cycle of this team expires?

More than that, how does Pep Guardiola possibly improve on a team that can confirm a treble by overcoming Stuttgart in the German Cup this weekend and reached Wembley by taking apart a Barcelona side revered until that point as the most exquisite group of footballers that has ever existed in one place at the same time?

The only answer is to create a dynasty and Guardiola is certainly starting from a position of strength bearing in mind the players he is inheriting from Jupp Heynckes and the fact Bayern are clearly guarding against any form of complacency. Mario Götze's transfer already represents a demoralising piece of business from Borussia Dortmund's perspective, irrespective of the £32m fee, and Robert Lewandowski will plainly be joining him judging by Heynckes's remarks after the game.

For the Bundesliga, there has to be immense pride after a final that justified all the acclaim for German football. Yet maybe they should be alarmed, too. Bayern have just won the title in record-quick time and now they are recruiting two of the more distinguished players from one of the small band of teams who can possibly challenge them. All this, lest it be forgotten, from a team that trounced Barcelona and saw off Dortmund despite missing the considerable gifts of Toni Kroos, injured since the first week of April.

Jürgen Klopp, perhaps the first losing manager to be applauded out of a Wembley press conference, preferred to take a more positive slant, pointing out that Dortmund could now think about winning the trophy when it is staged in Berlin in two years. He might also have pointed out that losing two players is not necessarily the same as taking a breaking ball to the team. Yet it is clear that Dortmund are vulnerable to others moving on, too. That must be the real worry if their success story is not to start tailing off.

Certainly it is a formidable assignment ahead of them bearing in mind Bayern have lost only three times all season and won 25 of their past 27 matches. Lewandowski has scored 24 times in the Bundesliga and, though Dortmund have two other players in double figures (Marco Reus with 13 and Jakub Blaszczykowski on 11) they are essentially attacking midfielders. Edin Dzeko is a possible replacement for Lewandowski and was prolific for Wolfsburg in his previous stint in the Bundesliga. All the same, Dzeko's form for Manchester City is erratic enough for that to feel like a downgrade.

It would certainly be a great shame because, even in defeat, Dortmund played with great panache and endeavour and it was their misfortune that the Italian referee, Nicola Rizzoli, awarded a penalty for Dante's challenge on Reus but decided against bringing out the second yellow card it warranted.

Bayern did not manage a shot at goal until the 26th minute when, in all their other Champions League ties this season, they have had at least one inside the opening 11 minutes. It was the first time in any game this season Manuel Neuer has had to make five saves in a single half and, by the 16th minute, Dortmund had already won more corners than Chelsea managed (one) in 120 minutes of the final last year.

As for standout memories, how about that goalline clearance from Neven Subotic, chasing down Thomas Müller's shot and launching himself off the ground to make sure he reached the ball ahead of Arjen Robben, a blur of brilliance as the defender slashed it away from beside the post? Or that wonderful moment late in the first half when, in quick succession, three different Dortmund players threw themselves at the ball to charge down shots from the edge of the penalty area?

Dortmund had given everything but, ultimately, there is a reason Bayern have won the Bundesliga by 25 points. Six of Heynckes's players, according to Uefa's statistics, averaged above 70% with their passing accuracy. None of Klopp's had been so precise and five were between 50 and 60%. The worry, at least for Dortmund, is that the gulf may be about to get even bigger.