The mess that Borussia Dortmund has endured is truly unimaginable! The way she lost the championship to her hands is shocking and surely the definition of “football suicide”.

In the penultimate round of the Bundesliga, 10-year-old German champions Bayern lost to third-placed Leipzig, two points behind Borussia Dortmund. The Westphalians found themselves with an unexpected gift in their hands and entered the final segment with the confidence that this time they would break the Bavarian monopoly.

What did they want in the last game? To beat in their “hot” homeland (they counted 11 victories in a row) the completely indifferent Mainz, which was in 9th place in the league and came from four defeats in a row.

At the same time, Bayern were playing away to (also unremarkable) Cologne, who were in 10th place in the standings. The only scenario that gave them the title was for them to win and Dortmund not. With any other combination of results, the Bundesliga will finally have a new queen after a full 10 years.

First festivals

Eighty thousand Dortmund fans filled the Signal Iduna Park, a fireplace stadium in a huge park far from the city center. Outside the stadium, about 200,000 of her fans, left without tickets, had a big party since the very morning.

Inside the city, he became inseparable from the thousands of people who took to the streets early to take position and see up close the magnificent parade that would start from the stadium and end in the center. Players will be in an open double-decker bus on a journey estimated to take over four hours, with the epilogue of triumph written in the city center where a big and expensive fiesta is being prepared.

In the other camp, Bayern treated their game like a little football “funeral”. No one believed in miracles, and everyone inside them considered the cause lost. The bill was ready, and it was decided in advance who would pay it. Its general manager Oliver Kahn and technical director Hasan Salihamidzic, both of the team’s greatest glories, settled into the roster and waited until the end of the match to receive their diploma.

Both games started at the same time. In the 8th minute, Bayern took a 1-0 lead in Cologne, and soon after, scoring two goals in the 15th and 24th minutes, Borussia out of nowhere found themselves 2-0 behind, missing the chance equalize with a penalty in the 19th minute. . He made it 2-1 in the 69th minute and needed two more goals in less than half an hour to clinch the title as Bayern led their game.

With … a mobile phone during delays

In the 81st minute, Cologne gave Dortmund an unexpected gift. He equalized 1-1 from the penalty spot, and if nothing had changed in the last minutes of the two games, Borussia would have finished first with 70 points and Bayern second with 69. In the final stretch, the tension reached the Reds. . The Bavarians scored in the 89th minute to make it 2-1, and since there were no delays in their game, the players gathered around and watched what was happening in Westphalia on their mobile phones.

There, Borussia managed to score two goals in stoppage time, but, unfortunately, for them it only counted in one. The one he scored in the 92nd minute was ruled out for offside, and the one in the 96th minute was scored too late to make a difference. Both teams finished level with 71 points, but as Bayern got the upper hand in a draw, they celebrated their 11th title in a row!

The surprise was incredible! Even the organizer took care of sending the original trophy to Westphalia, believing that the awarding ceremony would take place there! He sent a copy of the famous “salad bowl” to Cologne, and the award was made along with it. Bayern will receive the original trophy in the coming days.

Germans… Germans

And because the Germans are… the Germans, this incredible development did not change the course of the river. Despite taking the trophy, Bayern fired Kahn and Salihamidzic immediately after the game, banning them from the celebration.

And the Dortmund fans, despite their bitterness, uniquely deified their team’s players, in a shocking scene that, seeing her without knowing what happened earlier, one would think that it was just a time of deification for the victory. Name.

Greece lacks … mythical upheavals

In Greece, there has never been such a mythical change of scenery in the last game day and at the highest level. It’s like saying that Volos (or rather 9th PAS Yanina) will go to Hagia Sophia indifferent to points and beat AEK, depriving them of the title.

This year we experienced the fate of Panathinaikos closest of all, which lost 5 points to PAOK and Olympiakos in the final of the championship and lost the title along with them. The difference is that his two rivals did not remain indifferent, because they were chasing 3rd place and a ticket to the Europa League, and their special weight in Greek football is clearly immeasurably greater than that of Mainz in Germany.

Famous “suicides” in history

The truth is that “suicides” like the one in Dortmund are rare in football all over the world, not just in Greece. Individual surprises became too many and too high-profile, such as England’s loss to the United States in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, considered by many to be the greatest ever. England emerged as top favorites for the trophy, beating Italy 4-0 and Portugal 10-0 in friendlies just days before the tournament kicked off, while the Americans lost their last seven games by 2:45 goal ratios and heavy defeats 7-1 against Italy, 11-0 against Norway and 5-0 against Northern Ireland.

And yet, the USA won 1-0, with news that no one believed, to the point that some newspapers of the time wrote that England won 10-1, because they thought that the telegram from the bill was… a typographical error.

Such victories are a frequent occurrence in football life, but it is very rare that we see such finals in this year’s Bundesliga in well-known leagues.

Championship

The most recent was 23 years ago, in the “championship” of the 2001-02 season. Three teams fought for the title, and on the last match day, Inter finished 1st with 69 points, Juventus 2nd with 68 and Roma 3rd with 67. Their team sit down and lose so that the trophy does not end up in the hands of one of the “haters” of Juventus and Roma.

Although Inter took a quick lead, Lazio eventually won 4–2 and the title went to Juventus with Roma in second and Inter in third.

Bundesliga

The Bundesliga final between 1999 and 2000 was also the cause of the “earthquake”. With a terrible counter-attack in the second round, Leverkusen went into the final game day with a three-point “air” from Bayern and just wanted to get a point away from Unterhacking, completely indifferent to points, to celebrate the championship.

The hosts won 2-0 and the title went to Bayern, who don’t make such mistakes. Beat Werder Bremen 3-1 and got him again at the last minute. Coincidentally, the other two teams involved and indifferent to points ended up, just like this year, in 9th and 10th places.

Premier League

Liverpool also had a great opportunity but at a much more competitive level in 1988/89. In the last round, they were 3 points ahead of Arsenal and met them at Anfield. They would have won the title even if they had lost by one goal, but ended up losing by two (0–2), with the Gunners’ second and decisive goal coming in stoppage time.

La Liga

La Coruña in Spain also suffered a memorable defeat on the final match day. In the 1992-93 season, they were ahead of Barcelona by 2 points, taking the indifferent Valencia to their home arena and only wanted to win, so as not to depend on the result of the game being played at the same time at the Camp Nou. .

Blaugrana at the same time hosted Sevilla, lost in the first half 2:1, but scored 4 goals in the second half and was looking forward to the result in Riator. There, “La Coruna” could not, despite their excellent, but missed opportunities, score the coveted goal. A 0-0 draw looked inevitable and a failure, but when they converted a penalty in the last minute of injury time, the excitement of the fans reached the brink of insanity.

Djukic’s shot was saved by Valencia’s substitute goalkeeper, Barcelona won the title, and La Coruña missed an incredible chance to celebrate the first title in their history.