Bundesliga
5 reasons Dortmund can STILL win the title
The title is out of Borussia Dortmund’s hands after their 2-2 draw in Bremen left them four points behind Bayern Munich with only two games to play, but don't for one second assume that's the end of the story.
After Dortmund slipped up in Bremen, falling four adrift of Bayern, bundesliga.com outlines five reasons why Dortmund can nevertheless still claim the 2018/19 Meisterschale…
1) Bayern still have to play RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt
If Dortmund are to win the title, they’ll need a big helping hand from elsewhere. Rock-bottom Hannover were unable to spring a surprise on Bayern in their battle to salvage a place in the relegation play-off on, but realistically it’s the defending champions’ season-ending meetings with RB Leipzig (a) and Eintracht Frankfurt (h) that BVB will be pinning their hopes on.
Leipzig boast the meanest defence in the Bundesliga, have won five of their last seven and they are unbeaten since losing to Dortmund in their first match of 2019. And while Bayern’s DFB Cup final opponents have already secured UEFA Champions League football for next season, they still harbour hopes of snatching the runners-up berth from Dortmund.
Frankfurt look like they’ll also have something to play for when former coach Niko Kovac comes to town on the final day. The Eagles occupy fourth spot going into the final two games of the season, though they have four clubs within three points of them. Adi Hütter’s trigger-happy UEFA Europa League semi-finalists could therefore find themselves in the position of having to beat Bayern to hold off the chasing pack.
2) The gap is only four points with six to play for
It's simple mathematics. Bayern will be champions if they win one of their remaining two fixtures, no matter what Dortmund do. But if the record title winners slip-up twice, BVB can sweep in and seize the throne, as long as they take maximum points from games against Fortuna Düsseldorf and Gladbach - just a draw in one of those games, in view of their vastly inferior goal difference, would be curtains.
3) Sancho provides more goals than Messi
It’s an uphill task, but anything is possible when you’ve got a young wing wizard conjuring up more assists (14) than any player across Europe’s top five leagues so far this season. That’s right, folks: English teenager Jadon Sancho is outdoing Lionel Messi in the hocus-pocus department, and he’s also chipped in with 11 goals. The Londoner can’t magic talismanic captain Marco Reus, who returned from suspension for the game in Bremen, but he can put a spell on BVB’s remaining opponents and give Bayern the heebie-jeebies from afar.
Watch: A closer look at Jadon Sancho's street-honed skills
4) Paco and the kings of the late show
If you think that’s a scary thought, what about this? Dortmund have whipped up a league-high 24 goals in the final 15 minutes of matches this season, as well as eight in added time - and 12 of those have come via the boot or head of Paco Alcacer alone. Just a third of his 18 Bundesliga strikes have come prior to the 75-minute mark, while he has earned Borussia eight points with winners inside the last quarter. There’s a sneaking suspicion he might have added to his haul in the 4-2 defeat to Schalke, too, if BVB hadn’t ended the game with nine men.
So, as fanciful as it may seem right now, if the whistle sounds in Frankfurt after Luka Jovic condemns Bayern to a second successive defeat (stranger things have happened...) and Dortmund need a late goal in Mönchengladbach, you’d be stark raving mad to bet against Paco and the gang delivering the Bundesliga title at the 11th hour.
5) It ain’t over until it’s over
Dortmund have done it before, after all. Back in 2001/02 campaign, a costly defeat to Kaiserslautern left Matthias Sammer’s ensemble FIVE points adrift of leaders Leverkusen and in need of a minor miracle with only three matches to go. Luckily, their prayers for divine intervention were answered. Leverkusen lost back-to-back games to Nuremberg and Bremen, while BVB got the better of Cologne and Hamburg to edge back in front. Bayer beat Hertha Berlin on the final day, but Dortmund defended their slender one-point lead thanks to a title-clinching triumph over Werder. If history tells us anything it’s that no one is safe when a wounded Black-and-Yellow behemoth is breathing down their necks…