Dortmund qualify for Champions League on dramatic final day of Bundesliga season

New York Times

17-05-2025

Borussia Dortmund have qualified for next season's Champions League on a dramatic final day of the Bundesliga.
Dortmund had been outside the Bundesliga's top-four since the third game of the season but a 3-0 home victory over Holstein Kiel on Saturday, combined with Freiburg's 3-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt, ensured Niko Kovac's side finished fourth and will return to European football's premier club competition in 2025-26.
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For a long time that had looked extremely unlikely.
Dortmund started the season with Nuri Sahin, who replaced Edin Terzic as head coach in June 2024. Dortmund won just seven league games under his charge, though, and did not record their first away victory of the Bundesliga season until December 2024, at Wolfsburg.
It was a disaster and Sahin, whose only previous head-coaching experience had been two years with Antalyaspor in Turkey, was lucky to survive into the new year.
After four straight defeats in January, the last of which came against Bologna in the Champions League, Sahin was dismissed with the team in 11th place in the Bundesliga.
He was replaced two weeks later by Kovac, who had previously worked for Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich, Monaco and Wolfsburg.
Announcing the decision, Lars Ricken, the club's CEO for sport, made reference to the frailty of the side and his hope that Kovac could toughen a team that had become much too fragile.
'Energy, determination and the importance of the team spirit have always distinguished Niko's teams,' Ricken said on announcing the appointment. 'We want to feel and see all of this on and off the pitch.'
More or less, that is what happened. While Kovac and Dortmund initially took time to adapt to one another, with the Croatian, 53, favouring a more pragmatic, counter-attacking style. He suffered poor defeats to Stuttgart, Bochum and Augsburg during his first month in charge, and also suffered a disappointing loss to RB Leipzig in March.
But Dortmund would not lose again domestically all season. And while nobody would have guessed it that day, Leipzig would be the ones to miss on the Champions League places and European football entirely, finishing a disappointing 7th.
Kovac's players remained unbeaten in their remaining eight games, winning seven — including away to Bayer Leverkusen and Freiburg — and gaining a creditable 2-2 draw with champions Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena.
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Characterising their resurgence has been a significant uplift in their efficiency in front of goal, the quality of the chances they have been creating, but also their running statistics. Kovac inherited a team who had run the 14th-furthest distance in the league through the first 18 games and had completed the 14th most sprints. Against Leverkusen, on matchday 33, no team in the league ran more than Dortmund's 121.5km.
There has been plenty of individual improvement. Karim Adeyemi has played some of his best football of the season during that final eight-game stretch, with Serhou Guirassy scoring in each of his last five appearances.
Dortmund have also benefitted from Felix Nmecha's return from long-term injury, and the return to form of Niklas Sule and Waldemar Anton in defence, compensating for the loss of Nico Schlotterbeck to serious injury in April.
And the reward will be a place at Europe's top table next season, despite a year of turmoil and uncertainty. Beyond the coaching changes, Dortmund have had to survive a contract saga concerning Sebastian Kehl, which dragged on for many months. Kehl eventually committed his future to the club, but Sven Mislintat, the former head scout with whom Kehl experienced a difficult relationship, departed in February, sacked less than a year after returning to the club.
There will be more upheaval. Hans-Joachim Watzke, who has been the club's CEO since 2005, will bring an era to an end by leaving his role this summer, after 20 years in charge of the club.
But the transition will now be easier than it might have been. Dortmund will take part in this summer's Club World Cup, where they will face Fluminense, Ulsan, and Mamelodi Sundowns in the United States, before planning for their first full season under Kovac, with the crucial support of Champions League revenue.
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