Chapter 591 - 115: Another Explosion! Five Goals! Breaking Records! Domain Skill: Hunter! He Saved Dortmund
After a grueling battle against AC Milan to secure a spot in the Champions League quarterfinals, Dortmund’s next two matches were crucial Bundesliga fixtures in their title race.
In Matchday 26 of the Bundesliga, the team played away against Hoffenheim.
Rangnick had finally gone to Schalke 04, taking over from Magat.
Hoffenheim’s new head coach was Rangnick’s former assistant, Marco Pezzaiuoli.
As it turned out, the new coach managed to secure a 1-1 draw at home against Dortmund, thanks to a goal from Ibisevic.
Initially, Klopp was not satisfied with a draw.
But after Sven Bender was subbed off due to an injury in the 64th minute, he changed his mind.
Wang Shuo remained on the bench and did not play.
In the end, both sides settled for a draw.
Lewandowski scored the goal for Dortmund.
The Polish striker had now successfully integrated into the Dortmund squad, and his performance was getting better and better.
In the same round of matches, Bayer Leverkusen defeated Mainz 1-0 away.
With 24 wins and 2 draws, Dortmund now had 74 points.
Bayer Leverkusen was on 52 points, trailing by 22.
However, there were still 8 matches left in the Bundesliga season.
This meant that the date Dortmund could clinch the title early had been pushed back.
The good news was that Sven Bender’s injury wasn’t serious. He didn’t even need time to recover; it was just a false alarm.
...
「A week later.」
The team welcomed Matchday 27 of the Bundesliga, a home game against Mainz.
This time, Wang Shuo was in the starting lineup.
Facing his old club, Wang Shuo assisted a goal by Reus just 9 minutes into the game.
Then, in the 19th minute, Wang Shuo drew a penalty from his two former teammates, Nowitzki and Bo Svensson.
But when Shahin took the penalty, he unexpectedly missed.
’What can you even do about that?’
As the match went on, Dortmund maintained their 1-0 lead and dominated possession.
It wasn’t until the 62nd minute in the second half that Klopp made a substitution, bringing on Lewandowski for Wang Shuo.
A few more substitutions followed.
The most significant of these was when captain Kael came on as a substitute for Shahin in the 86th minute.
This was the Dortmund captain’s first appearance after suffering a season-ending ruptured tendon.
But then, in the 88th minute, Mainz’s young substitute striker, Silishkovich, scored a goal.
The final score was yet another 1-1 draw!
Meanwhile, Bayer Leverkusen won again this round, defeating Schalke 04 2-0 at home.
Just like that, Dortmund’s point total rose to 75, but with Bayer Leverkusen now at 55, their lead shrank to 20 points.
But there were still 7 matches left in the season.
Talk about a bumpy road to success.
That was Dortmund right now!
They had such a massive lead, so why were these games so difficult?
So close, yet so far!
The media and Dortmund’s fans were in an uproar.
All sorts of opinions were flying around.
But only those inside the club knew the real situation.
The main reason was that the team was preparing for the Champions League quarterfinal knockout stage.
After the AC Milan match, the team was focused more on making adjustments.
’As for the Bundesliga title, isn’t that already a sure thing?’
...
After Matchday 27, the Bundesliga went on a two-week break for the national team training camp.
During those two weeks, Dortmund received one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
The good news was that none of the international players got injured during their national team matches.
Everyone returned to the club unscathed.
The bad news was that captain Kael, who had been about to return from injury, got injured again.
The human body is truly a mysterious thing.
He had already started participating in team training and was gradually returning to matches, but who would have thought he’d get injured again?
At first, it was thought to be a back problem, but he was later diagnosed with bursitis.
This meant his season was basically over.
「After the two-week international break.」
The Bundesliga resumed with Matchday 28.
In this round, Dortmund only needed a draw at home against Hannover 96 to clinch the title early.
Having already missed two consecutive chances to lock up the championship, the Dortmund fans were clearly getting impatient.
As soon as the match began, the fans in the South Stand unfurled a massive tifo, which prominently featured the Bundesliga championship shield.
It also had Dortmund’s club crest and name on it.
And as the players from both teams walked onto the pitch, the more than 80,000 fans in the stadium roared in a unified chant for the champions.
A full 20-point lead!
Although they had long known the team would surely win the title...
...it wasn’t in the bag just yet, was it?
But the course of this match seemed to be playing a joke on them.
Because of the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals at home against Chelsea next Wednesday, Dortmund once again heavily rotated their squad for this match, saving their main forces for the midweek European clash.
Head coach Klopp had already made this clear at the pre-match press conference.
They would do their best to win at home, but the team’s main battleground was the upcoming Champions League match.
The attacking lineup, led by Lewandowski, dominated the first half but was unable to break through Hannover 96’s defense.
The first half ended in a 0-0 stalemate.
This was still an acceptable result, actually.
During halftime, Klopp had no intention of making any substitutions.
But unexpectedly, it was the Hannover 96 coach, Slomka, who made the first move.
He brought on striker Jan Schlaudraff for the defensive player Constantin Lausch.
Hannover 96 was actually ramping up their attack.
And then, in the 57th minute, Hannover 96 capitalized on a tactical corner kick. Striker Abdulrao snuck in a goal during a scramble in front of the net.