Winner on the lawn of Augsburg (3-0) this Sunday at the start of the evening, Borussia Dortmund took full advantage of the defeat of Bayern on Saturday to offer themselves a ball for the German championship next week. As since his return, the Ivorian Sébatien Haller was decisive with a double.
Symbol of Dortmund’s exceptional second half of the season, Sébastien Haller released his teammates on the hour mark in a meeting that was a trap for Borussia Dortmund. The Ivory Coast international was absent from the first months of the 2022/23 financial year due to testicular cancer diagnosed in mid-July last year, and took BVB to the second leg, scoring his eighth on Sunday. and ninth Bundesliga goals.
Recruited in the summer to compensate for the departure of Norwegian center-forward Erling Haaland to Manchester City, Haller was able to return to the lawns in January, after four cycles of chemotherapy and two operations.
“No more the right to let the title escape”
Before the last day of the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund are now two points ahead of Bayern (70 against 68) and will have to win in their Westfalenstadion and their 81,365 spectators against Mainz next Saturday to clinch a title that has eluded them since 2012.
When Germany’s last title was won eleven years ago, nearly 400,000 people celebrated the coronation in the streets of Dortmund and on Borsigsplatz, where BVB players meet to commune with their supporters. The decade-long wait for Bayern’s ten consecutive titles between 2013 and 2022 has never been closer to an end.
” We still have a game to play. We took a giant step today, no need to beat around the bush. It was not an easy meeting, we finally deserved to win “, commented the sporting director of Dortmund Sebastian Kehl at the microphone of the broadcaster DAZN, after the meeting. “The euphoria will now be immense. We will take her with us, but we still need 90 minutes, in our stadium, with the power we have shown in recent weeks. Now we no longer have the right to let the title slip away, ”added Kehl, the last captain of Borussia to have lifted the Schale, the name of the trophy awarded to the German champion in 2012.
Bayern’s defeat on Saturday against RB Leipzig (3-1) at the Allianz Arena opened the door for Mats Hummels’ teammates, who patiently rushed in to put an end to six consecutive matches (four in the league, one in the Champions League and one in the Cup) unsuccessfully away from their bases.
(With AFP)