Are Dortmund Nearly There or Way Off the Pace?

It is fair to say that it has been a mixed season for Borussia Dortmund. The former German champions have had a dramatic fall from grace, having missed out on the title by goal difference in the 2022-2023 campaign and being losing Champions League finalists last time out, yet struggled to maintain any kind of consistency in 2024-2025.

Even so, there is still a slight chance that they can finish in the top four this season, leading some to wonder whether they are a busted flush or are close to recapturing their previous form.

What’s Happened This Season

There was a great sense of hope for many at the Westfalenstadion when the 2024-2025 Bundesliga campaign got underway. Der BVB finished fifth last season, but they were only two points off RB Leipzig in fourth and the feeling was that that was understandable as the players and management began to focus on the Champions League final in the latter stages of the campaign.

In the end, the club lost 2-0 at Wembley Stadium in what proved to be Edin Terzić’s final match in charge, seeing former player Nuri Şahin take over as manager in the summer.

Nuri Sahin:

“We would have liked to have won, that’s also the aim. But you also have to be realistic: we had to defend for the last two or three minutes. I saw a very good Dortmund team. But in the end you can also talk about the fact that it was unfortunately deserved.”

#BVB

— BVB Newsblog (@bvb-newsblog.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 10:35 PM

Although his only previous managerial experience had been as the head coach of Antalyaspor, there was the desire of many to see him succeed in Germany, only to see him sacked by Dortmund in the middle of January as the club continued to falter. Former Bayern Munich manager Niko Kovač took over from him on the second of February, but the damage had seemingly already been done.

Die Borussen had been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by VfL Wolfsburg and barely made it into the knockout phase of the Champions League.

Barcelona Showing Suggests Life in the Old Dog Yet

Having finished tenth in the Champions League group stage, Borussia Dortmund were drawn to play Sporting CP in the knockout phase play-offs, winning the first-leg 3-0 and drawing the second-leg 0-0 in order to reach the round of 16. By that point, Kovač had been able to install his principles in his players and put some decent results together, drawing 1-1 at home to Lille before defeating the Ligue 1 side 2-1 in France to make it into the quarter-finals.

There the opposition was Spanish giants Barcelona, with the first-leg being away from home on the ninth of April.

@theooo606 Barcelona 4-0 Dortmund #fcbarcelona #barca #championsleague #ldc #liguedeschampions #aura #pourtoi #fyp #pedri #visca #viscabarca #viscacatalunya #footballtiktok #foot #footbal #lewandowski #raphinha #lamine #lamineyamal #cubarsi #fermin #ferminlopez ♬ son original – ່

That ended in a 4-0 loss to the Spanish side, which many saw as indicative of the state that Die Schwarzgelben has found itself in this season. The second-leg was always likely to be an uphill battle, but hope was given when Guirassy made it 1-0 to the home team after just 11 minutes. Another goal in the 49th minute sent the Signal Iduna Park faithful into raptures, but an own goal from Bensebaini all but killed the tie off. In the end, the game finished 3-1, showing that Dortmund do still have some talent within the squad for the manager and supporters to hang their hats on.

A Decent End of Season Run

It was always going to be hard for Niko Kovač to come in and reverse the tanker, so it can’t be seen as too much of a surprise that results for Der BVB were mixed in the initial part of his managerial spell. He did slowly start to turn things around, however, with his first two defeats in charge being followed by a 6-0 win over Union Berlin and a 2-0 away victory against FC St. Pauli.

Although a home loss to FC Augsburg was far from ideal, the 2-0 defeat to RB Leipzig on the road can be excused given Leipzig’s overall form this season.

Niko Kovac is one of the best coaches in Europe. pic.twitter.com/duSwJuv7Dj

— Sébastien (@SebC__) April 16, 2025

Since then, however, the club has been on a decent run, winning five games and drawing only one. Even the draw was against champions Bayern Munich so can be considered creditable, putting Die Borussen in a position where Champions League qualification remains a slight possibility.

Although it isn’t likely, the fact that supporters can even hold out hope in the two remaining games is a sign of just how well Kovač has done to turn it all around. It lends credence to the thought that Dortmund might not be all that far away from being able to compete if they can make some good decisions in the summer.