Borussia Dortmund lost the championship.

Parallel realities

The entire second half of the season in the German league seemed to lead to this climax. Bayern stumbled every time, Borussia Dortmund, on the contrary, gathered strength. In the penultimate round, the final step towards the drama that unfolded at the end was taken. Bayern lost to Leipzig (1:3) and paved the way for Borussia. Terzic’s magnificent Dortmunders took advantage of the opportunity, beating Augsburg (3:0). There was only one step to take.

At the same time, a margin of two points really did not give the right to make a mistake, since Borussia still needed a victory so that everything remained in their hands and they did not have to look around for the result of a parallel match for Bayern. And I had to check out the whole game.

Different halves

Bayern in the match with Cologne began to implement the plan already in the eighth minute, when Coman opened the scoring. In the online mode, the Munich team climbed to first place. How did Borussia, who played the match with Mainz, respond? Failure. Dortmund started the meeting very nervous, made mistakes, despite the apparent control of the situation.

In the 15th minute, Hanche-Olsen ended Mainz’s counterattack with a goal. And less than ten minutes later, another counterattack by the guests ended with a goal by Onisivo. Among these goals, Borussia missed a chance to equalize as Aller failed to convert a penalty. Damen played beautifully in the Mainz goal, but the striker’s strike did not come out somehow surprisingly. Everything in Borussia’s actions was mediocre and frantic. The expectation of a title that suddenly fell on his head put pressure on Dortmund more than the risk of losing everything to Bayern.

And it’s not about statistics. Bayern had the ball under 60 percent in the first half, they and Cologne had four shots on target, and the Munich team had the only shot, Muller still hitting the frame. At half-time, Bayern were ahead, as they should have been. And Borussia was on fire. Although he rolled the ball more than 70 percent of the time, he put up 13 hits, five of which were on goal. And Mainz had four attempts for two goals.

Rescue times

The question of saving Borussia’s result lay not in some properties of the game, but in the psychological state of the team. He couldn’t tune in properly and recover. I had to do it during the meeting. The second half in this sense was more constructive. At the end of the 70th minute, Dortmund managed to win back a goal thanks to a goal from Guerreiro. By then, Terzic had made four substitutions, which greatly reduced nervousness and added meaning to his team’s actions.

But a goal for Borussia wasn’t enough. Here we must pay tribute to the rivals of the two title contenders. Mainz and Cologne have decided not to be at the mercy of the teams that are conducting important clashes. Each of the modest opponents fought for real. In reality this was Borussia’s chance when, after the 80th minute, a penalty was awarded for playing with Gnabry’s hand in the Bayern penalty area, Ljubicic converted it. And in online mode, Borussia returned to the leaders of the Bundesliga.

But it would be naive to believe that Bayern will not throw all their might on Cologne. Of course, in the second half of the season Bayern made a lot of failures. But it’s not for nothing that this team has won ten league titles in a row. They were obtained under different circumstances, but each of these stories of struggle gave experience and composure, which this time came in handy. Eight minutes later, Musiala once again put Bayern ahead and into the lead in the title race. By that time, Borussia had unsuccessfully stormed the doors of Mainz, which was closed with all bolts. Only in the sixth minute of added time, Süle converted one of Borussia’s many reinforcements, but only equalized the score and the number of points between Dortmund and Monaco. And additional indicators are better for Bayern, who celebrated one of the toughest championships. But the series was not interrupted – this is the eleventh title in a row. After that, the administrative management of the club was immediately dismissed, which is significant.

persistent domination

Interestingly, 11 league titles in a row is not a record in Europe. The longest streaks totaled 14 titles. From 2003 to 2016, they were won by Lincoln in the Gibraltar championship and from 1991 to 2004 by Skonto in Latvia. 13 championship titles in a row BATE in Belarus (2006 to 2018) and Rosenborg in Norway (1992 to 2004).

So Bayern still need to be dominated for a few more years. And there are all the prerequisites for this. First of all, thanks to financial solidity. Borussia managed to impose a fight this season, and in this there is a chance for the competitors: to catch a dominant rival in several failures, giving away a flawless season or most of it. But it will be difficult for Dortmund to reach such a stable level because they are forced to sell. And those who made this “near miracle” can scatter in the summer. Well, it’s not a fact that Bayern will not draw conclusions and strengthen their dominance. Everything is in his hands.

By the way, not only residents of Munich in Europe now have such a long flight. In Bulgaria, Ludogorets also have 11 league titles in a row and the streak could be extended.

In the history of Bayern there have already been such dramatic finals with a happy ending. We can recall the year 2001, when Schalke reached Munich and achieved the necessary victory over Unterhaching with a score of 5:3 in the final match. And in a parallel meeting, Bayern, who needed at least a draw, gave in to Hamburg with a score of 0:1. And a few minutes after the end of the match, Schalke began to celebrate the championship, in the last seconds of his match Bayern scored the goal that became the champion.

That title was Bayern’s 17th. The current one is the 33rd. Bayern are unlikely to be proud of this season, but they will certainly go down in history. Despite the problems, in the decisive moment, the team from Monaco found the strength to give the desired result. And for Borussia, the season has become one of the most attacking in recent years. Although the habit of becoming second in the Dortmund team is gradually becoming a habit and can become a clinical problem. In the past 11 league years, Bayern have finished behind Bayern Dortmund seven times.