Winning Augsburg by an imposing 3-0 on Sunday, Borussia Dortmund took perfect advantage of Bayern Munich's defeat on Saturday to be within striking distance of winning the title of champion of the Bundesliga of Germany next weekend and thus cut a hegemony of a decade of the giant of Bavaria.
As a symbol of an exceptional second half of the season, it was Sébastien Haller who released his teammates at game time in a match that had cheating for Borussia Dortmund.The Ivorian international, who was absent in the first months of the 2022/23 financial year due to testicular cancer diagnosed in mid-July 2022, he helped his team in the second round, scoring his eighth and ninth goals in Bundesliga.
Signed this season to alleviate the departure of Norwegian striker Erling Haaland to Manchester City, Haller was able to return in January after four cycles of chemotherapy and two operations.
Before the last day of the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund now has two points ahead of Bayern (70 against 68) and must prevail in its Westfalenstadion before its 81,365 spectators against Mainz next Saturday to achieve a title that eludes it since 2012.At home, Borussia Dortmund is imperial this season in Bundesliga with only one defeat at the beginning of the campaign and a draw against Bayern, but above all fourteen victories.
In Germany's last championship title eleven years ago, some 400,000 people had celebrated the trophy on the streets of Dortmund and at the Borsigsplatz, where BVB players come to celebrate. The decade-long wait and Bayern's ten consecutive titles between 2013 and 2022 has never been closer to finding an end.
"It's incredible. If someone had told me I would be in this situation six months ago, I wouldn't have believed it," Haller told DAZN. He added: "We have talked a lot with each other to be sure to continue with our principles, positive, patient, and today is the best example that that works."
Sebastien Haller scored a brace for Dortmund. Photo: AP
"We still have one game left to play. We have taken a giant step today. It wasn't an easy game and we deserved to win it," Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl told DAZN.
Bayern's defeat on Saturday against RB Leipzig (3-1) at the Allianz Arena had opened the door for Mats Hummels' teammates to end three months and six consecutive games (four in the championship, one in the Champions League and one in the Cup) without winning away from home.
In numerical superiority from the 38th minute, for a logical red card to Felix Uduokhai, Edin Terzic's men had to wait for the hour of play to open the scoring. Up to that point, they had touched the posts twice, through Niklas Süle (39) and Emre Can (54) and met Augsburg goalkeeper Tomas Koubek on many occasions.
But in the 58th minute came the release for the thousands of Borussia fans who made the trip to Bavaria. In an anodyne action, an Augsburg defender, Maximilian Bauer, had a mistake and Haller opened the scoring.
Haller eventually pushed the specter away from the unlikely equaliser, scoring the second in the 84th minute, before Julian Brandt closed out the scoring in stoppage time.
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