Borussia Dortmund had a frustrating campaign last season, bottling the Bundesliga on the final match day of the season, when they drew at home to Mainz, while Bayern Munich won theirs, with both teams finishing at 71 points. Dortmund also crashed out of the DFB Pokal at the quarterfinals stage, losing to RB Leipzig, as well as crashing out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 stage to Chelsea.
The new season didn’t start too well for Dortmund with the club losing its best asset, Jude Bellingham, to Real Madrid. The Bundesliga has been dominated with the emergence of Xabi Alonso and his Bayer Leverkusen team, but Dortmund has struggled from the lofty heights of finishing second last season, as they are currently in fifth place, some 24 points behind the newly crowned champions. Dortmund’s DFB Pokal campaign was even worse than where they finished last season, losing to VFB Stuttgart in the Round of 16.
However, Dortmund has been a different animal in the Champions League. Paired in the Group of Death alongside Newcastle, AC Milan and Paris St. Germain, Dortmund managed to scale to the Round of 16, after a superior head to head record ahead of AC Milan, as both sides finished with eight points, with PSG on top, and Newcastle crashing out entirely.
The Round of 16 clash was rather kind to Dortmund, pairing the German side with PSV Eindhoven. After sharing the spoils in Eindhoven, two goals from Jadon Sancho and Marco Reus were enough to send Dortmund to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals fixtures were all box office, and Dortmund played against Atletico Madrid. They lost to Spanish outfit but put up a monster performance in Germany to progress to the semifinals against a side they couldn’t beat in the Group Stages, PSG.
Dortmund lost their opening Champions League clash to PSG and drew with the French side in the final Group stage game, so confidence was on side of Kylian Mbappe and Co, but Dortmund scored the only goal of the semifinal first leg, despite PSG having the better attacking stats. Dortmund defended with some heart in the second leg and put up a resolute display, and even nicked a goal from a set piece when Mats Hummels rose the highest to nod a corner home. The big bad PSG wolf huffed and puffed, but they couldn’t blow that Dortmund piggy defense down.
It’s great to see Dortmund in the Champions League final, and they would have a keen eye on today’s semifinals between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
As a neutral, it’s been a fun watch and I guess it’s fair to say Mbappe’s time in Paris is up.
Sayonara.
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