A total failure for Dortmund! Borussia only drew with Mainz at home, Bayern celebrate Bundesliga title

Unlike in several other years, the battle for the German top flight championship lasted until the end of the season. Bayern Munich won the overall championship at Cologne. Dortmund, on the other hand, failed to confirm their role as favourites and drew 2-2 with Mainz in front of their own fans

Borussia Dortmund entered the last 34th round of the German Bundesliga as the favourite to win the title. Why? For a very simple reason.

Edin Terzic’s charges went into the match with Mainzic from first place with a two-point lead over second-placed Bayern. Thus, Dortmund’s players had a clear obligation to win unconditionally at Signal Iduna Park.

But Borussia did not start the match well at all, scoring in the 15th minute. Andreas Hanche-Olsen opened the scoring when he headed the ball into the home net from a corner kick – 1: 0 for Mainz.

Two minutes later, however, it could have been level. Raphael Guerreiro was fouled in the penalty area and Dortmund were awarded a penalty. However, Sebastian Haller did not convert the advantage of the penalty kick into goal joy, goalkeeper Finn Dahmen made a great save.

It must be added, how this match would have played out if Haller had converted the penalty will unfortunately remain one big unanswered question for all Borussia fans.

In the 24th minute it was even worse for the home side. Karim Onisiwo took advantage of a great centre to find himself virtually alone in front of goalkeeper Gregor Kobel and increased Mainz’s lead to 2:0. Karim Adeyemi’s injury was also a big blow to the game for Dortmund.

It was the young star of the German big club who had to be substituted by coach Terzic in the 40th minute and Marco Reus came on. Julian Brandt was on the end of the first half to reduce the deficit, but Dahmen pulled off another great save.

Donyell Malen was also unsuccessful in the first half, sending his shot just past the right post. At the start of the second half, the visitors again created a very good opportunity, but did not get the home team within three goals.

Stats and superiority are not everything

However, the score of the match did not match the statistics of the competition at all. After all, Borussia had 61% ball possession after the first half and a total of fourteen shot attempts. Mainz struck twice from just four shots.

In the second half Dortmund improved their stats a bit more, but it didn’t lead to a goal for a very long time. On the other hand, Onisiwo could have added his second goal of the game in the 57th minute, but only hit the bar.

In the 60th minute, Dortmund also had a couple of chances to score, but Haller and Malen again failed to convert their chances. Borussia only managed to reduce the deficit in the 69th minute when a beautiful pass from Giovanni Reyna was headed into the net by Guerreiro.

The home side needed to score two more goals to secure the title, so they wouldn’t have to look back at the Bayern Cologne game. However, Borussia were virtually ten minutes away from the title in the 80th minute as the Bavarian giants were 1-1 in Cologne.

However, Jamal Musiala scored for Bayern in the 89th minute to send his team into a 2-1 lead. He scored one of the most important goals of his career. Dortmund couldn’t react to that.

The injury time goal was not enough, Bayern win the title

Mats Hummels and Reus did not convert their chances into goals, and only in stoppage time in the second half did the home team at least manage to equalise. Niklas Süle scored the equaliser in the 96th minute. After the final whistle, of course, there was a huge disappointment at Signal Iduna Park as Borussia had the title in their hands.

Dortmund finished second for the second season in a row, with the difference that last season they got two points less. 64% of ball possession, a total of 30 shooting attempts, 12 of which went between the three posts. The visitors shot on Kobel’s goal four times in the whole game and benefited mainly from breakaways. The final score – 2::2.

Bayern thus celebrates the championship title again, the eleventh in a row. Both teams have recorded the same number of points this season, namely 71. Against Dortmund, however, both the games and the scores are in play.

Source: Bundesliga