Key events
Dortmund 0-2 Mainz: At least Dortmund are keeping the ball a bit better, with Malen their main attacking weapon. It’s been half an hour of horror for them today.
Köln 0-1 Bayern: Job done? Thomas Tuchel doesn’t think so, and is going absolutely mental on the sidelines. He has not looked at all trusting of his new club since taking over from Nagelsmann.
Dortmund 0-2 Mainz: BVB look for a way back but look hurried, distracted, gone at the game.
Köln 0-1 Bayern: Can Bayern blow it from here? That feels like Dortmund’s only hope. They’ve been atrocious in defence. Köln, at least, haven’t given up.
Goal! Dortmund 0-2 Mainz (Onisiwo, 24)
This is brutal. Mainz find space down the sidelines and Onisiwo is unmarked, and Kobel’s goalkeeping is poor, too. Good lord.
Köln 0-1 Bayern: The game is just a quarter way in and it’s already unspeakable drama. Tempers are fraying..
Mainz 1-0 Dortmund: Incredible scenes. Matthias Sammer raging in the stands, there was a long delay for the VAR awarding that. They want another too, when Guerreiro again goes down. It looked a foul and Dortmund entitled to be angry. No check given.
Dortmund miss a penalty!
Dortmund want a penalty for what looks a foul on Guerreiro, and up steps Haller. He thrashes at it and hits the bar!
Köln 0-1 Bayern: The Bayern fans know the score in Mainz and fancy doubling their lead, Muller is denied by the woodwork as they ratchet up the pressure.
Goal! Mainz 1-0 Dortmund (Hanche-Olsen, 15)
Oh no, the dream is coming apart already. It comes from a set piece, a corner, and Hanche-Olsen nods in at the near post.
Dortmund 0-0 Mainz: Mainz’s Kohr is booked for smashing into Adeyemi.
Köln 0-1 Bayern: The local fans rather quietened by that breakthrough, though as it’s late-season and the beer is flowing. Bayern meanwhile look a little vulnerable to set pieces, and a throw-in has them scrabbling.
Dortmund 0-0 Mainz: News breaking 74km away of that Coman goal, and Bayern lead the league on goal difference. Don’t panic, Dortmund.
Goal! Köln 0-1 Bayern (Coman, 8)
A trademark goal from Coman, cutting in from the left, drilling in with his right. Pressure now on Dortmund.
Dortmund 0-0 Mainz: Mainz pushing on in their small, perfectly formed stadium but the ball breaks for Malen, before the move slows down. Haller’s shot is deflected.
Dortmund 0-0 Mainz: Brandt chases the ball down the channels, and the first shot of the match comes from Malen, the Dutchman, dragging his shot wide.
Köln 0-0 Bayern: Tuchel is up off the sidelines and not looking too happy with his team. he was hugely annoyed after last week’s defeat to Leipzog.
2 min: All Bayern can do is go for it, Dortmund begin with so much noise behind them.
And away they go….
kicking off in both Köln and Dortmund, the latter a minute or so slower.
The sound of driving, Euro heavy rock means we are soon to be in business, 90 minutes from pain and glory.
And both stadiums are full of noise, as they are across Germany as the teams take to the field. It sounds electric in both Dortmund and Köln.
@JohnBrewin_ Hi John, I appreciate your focus is on the title, but the relegation battle is even tighter than in the Prem. 2 of 4 could be relegated directly or via the playoff. As a previous resident of Stuttgart, I hope they get the 3 points they need against Hoffenheim.
— Harvey Mayne 💙 #Staysafe #Bleibgesund (@HarveyMayne) May 27, 2023
Here come the buses.
Tough old world, being a Bayern fan…
Today for the first time in over a decade Bayern goes into the final match day likely to lose the league title
We all knew this day would come but never expected to be this one, specially against a team that couldn’t even beat us
— Der Kaiser™️ (@DerKaiserBM) May 27, 2023
Headline news there: Jude Bellingham is on the bench for Borussia Dortmund as he is carrying a knee injury.
Here’s the Dortmund team v Mainz
Dortmund: Kobel, Wolf, Sule, Hummels, Ryerson, Brandt, Can, Guerreiro, Malen, Haller, Adeyemi. Subs: Meyer, Schlotterbeck, Ozcan, Reyna, Reus, Bellingham, Duranville, Moukoko, Modeste
Mainz: Dahmen; Hanche-Olsen, Bell, Fernandes; Caci, Barreiro, Kohr, Martin; Stach, Lee; Onisiwo. Subs: Rieß, Laux, Barkok, Gruda, Ingvartsen, Mustapha, Burgzorg, Weiper
And the Bayern team against Köln.
Bayern: Sommer; Pavard, Upamecano, de Ligt, Mazraoui; Kimmich, Gravenberch; Sane, Muller, Coman; Gnabry. Subs: Ulreich, Goretzka, Choupo-Moting, Mane, Musiala, Cancelo, Tel, Stanisic
Köln: Dahmen; Hanche-Olsen, Bell, Fernandes; Caci, Barreiro, Kohr, Martin; Stach, Lee; Onisiwo Subs: Rieß, Laux, Barkok, Gruda, Ingvartsen, Mustapha, Burgzorg, Weiper
If Bayern pull this off, there is still much work to do, as Andy Brassell wrote earlier this week.
The talent is there for Bayern as ever, but the lack of leadership is striking. After David Alaba, Robert Lewandowski, Thiago and company (and with Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry watching on, casting a shadow of the strength of will of Bayern past), the brand known for their winning DNA just didn’t have the personality to react here. Again. “The [Joshua] Kimmich, [Leon] Goretzka, [Leroy] Sané and Gnabry generation stands for sporting mediocrity in the national team, and they won’t make Bayern advance,” chided Kicker’s Frank Linkesch in an editorial.
When the club’s supervisory board meet on 30 May there will be a bill to pay, and the only question is who will be emptying their pockets. Oliver Kahn is under the greatest pressure though it cannot be ruled out that he and the sporting director Hasan Salihamidźić will split the burden. Continuity is generally a good thing, and has been one of Bayern’s greatest strengths not just in the last 11 years, but going back to the 1990s, when Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge began to work in tandem. That principle assumes, though, that there’s something worth hanging on to.
Jonathan mentions the title race of 2000 but 2001 was perhaps even closer. The official website tells much of the story here.
When the Barbarez goal went in, the television commentator at the Hamburg-Bayern game dramatically announced, “The German Champions for the year 2001 are called… Schalke 04!” The Bayern bench were shell-shocked. The ghosts of the 1999 Champions League final defeat to Manchester United FC suddenly seemed to have surfaced, as the Bavarians watched the Bundesliga title slip through their fingers.
Instead it was Patrik Andersson who ensured himself a place in Bayern legend. Stefan Effenberg touched the ball forward, and the Swedish defender drilled it low past the wall, past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. It was the only goal he would ever score for the club.
Legend has it that Effenberg said to Andersson: “put it in and we can go home.” Andersson himself:
“I’d gone forward, like everyone else. Then Effe came and said: ‘Patrik, you’re shooting!’” The question was just: where? The ball was half to the left side of the penalty area, nine or ten metres from goal, with a crowd of 11 Hamburg players (and five Bayern) in between. “You have a thousand thoughts in your head,” continues Andersson. He realised that as soon as Effenberg tapped the ball for him, Schober and Stig Tøfting would charge at him from the right. “When I shoot, they’re almost going to be where I am. The far corner was therefore closed off. The only option was to hit the ball as hard as possible, keep it low and hope that somehow it goes in.”
Jonathan Lïew is our man in Dortmund today, and will be writing the match report. He sets the scene here.
The deed is almost done. Victory at home against ninth-placed Mainz on Saturday afternoon would bring the curtain down on Bayern Munich’s decade of dominance. Victory against Mainz would bring the Bundesliga shield back to North Rhine-Westphalia for the first time since 2012, when Jürgen Klopp was young and Robert Lewandowski was up front and every kid with a copy of Fifa wanted to play as Borussia Dortmund.
Bayern, two points behind but with a vastly superior goal difference, must go to Köln, win and hope. Nothing but a win will be good enough for Bayern; in which case nothing but a win will be good enough for Dortmund. And in Bavaria they retain strong memories of the great escape of 2000, when they began the final day three points behind but sneaked in after Bayer Leverkusen lost at Unterhaching.
Preamble
“It’s Dortmund’s title to lose,” said the excellent Derek Rae, the Bundesliga world feed commentator when Bayern lost to RB Leipzig. And that’s the problem. It has not been a title race where the holding of nerve can be guaranteed. Beat Mainz and it’s done, a first title since 2012, whatever happens when Bayern play at Köln. Last Sunday’s 3-0 win over Augsburg showed a steady hand, now can it be repeated? Slip up and it’s Bayern’s 12th successive title though Bayern have become wobblers, too.
There’s a lot to play for elsewhere. One of Union Berlin or Freiburg will join RB Leipzig in the Champions League for the first time. Union hold a slight advantage on goal difference and can all but secure a top-four spot by beating Werder Bremen. Freiburg travel to Eintracht Frankfurt who have only a distant chance of returning to European football next season. They need both Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen to lose, both of them.
One of four clubs – Schalke, Bochum, Stuttgart and Augsburg – could join Hertha Berlin down in the 2.Bundesliga. Schalke travel to Leipzig, while Bochum host Leverkusen and Augsburg visit Borussia Mönchengladbach. The third-last side escapes the automatic must play a two-legged relegation playoff against the third-best side in the 2.Bundesliga.
So, all to play for. Kick-off is at 3.30pm local time, 2.30pm in the UK.
