Haller and a brace so that Borussia Dortmund are one step away from the end of Bayern Munich’s ten-year hegemony

Winner in the field Augsburg for an impressive 3-0 this Sunday, Borussia Dortmund took full advantage of the defeat of Bayern Monaco Saturday to be close at hand to take the title of champion of Bundesliga of Germany and thus put an end to a ten-year hegemony of the Bavarian giant.

As a symbol of an outstanding second half of the season, it was Sebastian Haller who cleared his team-mates at match time in a match that had a 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 to the second round, scoring the eighth and ninth Bundesliga goals.

Signed this season to ease the departure of the Norwegian striker Erling Haaland at 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 are now two points clear of Bayern (70 against 68) and they will have to prevail in their Westfalenstadion in front of their 81,365 crowd against Mainz next Saturday to clinch a title that has eluded them since 2012. At home, Borussia Dortmund are imperial this season in the Bundesliga with only one defeat at the start of the season and a draw against Bayern, but above all fourteen victories.

In the last German championship title eleven years ago, Around 400,000 people celebrated the trophy on the streets of Dortmund and on Borsigsplatz, where BVB players come to celebrate. Waiting for a decade and Bayern’s ten consecutive titles between 2013 and 2022it has never been so close to finding an end.

“It’s unbelievable. If someone had told me I would have been in this situation six months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.”Haller told DAZN. And he added: “We talked a lot among ourselves to make sure we continue with our principles, positive, patient, and today is the best example that works”.

“We still have one game to play. Today we took a giant step. It wasn’t an easy game and we deserved to win it,” Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl told DAZN.

Bayern’s defeat against RB Leipzig (3-1) at the Allianz Arena on Saturday had opened the door for teammates from Mats Hummel to end three months and six consecutive matches (four in the league, one in the Champions League and one in the Cup) without a win away from home.

In numerical superiority from the 38th minute, due to a logical red card for Felix Uduokhai, Edin Terzic’s men had to wait for the hour to open the scoring. Until then, he had hit the posts twice, through Niklas Süle (39′) and Emre Can (54′), and had met Augsburg goalkeeper Tomas Koubek on many occasions.

But in the 58th minute the liberation came for the thousands of Borussia fans who made the move to Bavaria. In an unnamed play, an Augsburg defender, Maximilian Bauer, made a mistake and Haller opened the scoring.

Haller finally banished the specter of an improbable equaliser, doubling the lead in the 84th minute, before Julian Brandt closed the scoring in added time.