A rollercoaster ride into Europe’s elite | OneFootball

After four defeats in the first four games of 2025, Borussia Dortmund chose to part ways with the first-team head coach. ‘‘We greatly appreciate Nuri Sahin and his work, had hoped for a long-term collaboration and remained hopeful until the very end that we could turn things around together,’’ said Lars Ricken on 22 January, the day after the 2-1 defeat away to Bologna in the UEFA Champions League, adding: ‘‘Unfortunately, we have lost faith that we can still achieve our goals in the current arrangement. This decision hurts me personally, but it was unavoidable after the game in Bologna.’’ The separation was amicable: “I wish this special club all the best,” said Sahin, who shaped an era at Borussia Dortmund as a player. The necessary bit of luck was not on his side in his spell as head coach.

U19 coach Mike Tullberg took charge of the team for for three games, immediately breathing new life into it. “Ten days ago, when he arrived, we were a bit dead as a team,” Emre Can said after these three matches, a 2–2 draw against Werder Bremen, which can be considered a partial success after playing a man down for 70 minutes, a 3–1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk and a 2–1 win in Heidenheim.

At the same time, the sporting management were working on signing an experienced head coach, ultimately opting for Niko Kovac. ‘‘In our situation, external input from an experienced coach from outside the club is extremely necessary, as I am convinced that this is the way to ensure further development,’’ explained Ricken. And Kovac rolled up his sleeves from day one: ‘‘Only those who work will get something. You don't get much for little. I'm a believer in more is more." But his debut didn't go according to plan. The match against VfB Stuttgart, dubbed the ‘‘final for fourth place,’’ ended in a 2-1 home defeat four days after Kovac took charge. Instead of drawing level on points with the Swabians, BVB dropped six points and six places behind them. The two sides sat in 11th and fifth place at the conclusion of Matchday 21.

Performances in the UEFA Champions League improved – the Black and Yellows prevailed 3-0 (away) and 0-0 (at home) against Sporting Lisbon in the play-offs, going on to face Lille in the round of 16. Following a 1-1 draw at home in the first leg, BVB picked up an encouraging 2-1 win on the road to secure passage to the quarter-finals. But the new coach's start in the Bundesliga proved tough. After a 2-0 defeat in Bochum, fourth place was seven points away. Hope that the team were finally back on track sprung up after a 6-0 rout of Union Berlin (featuring four goals from Serhou Guirassy and four assists from Pascal Gross), as well as a solid 2-0 win away to FC St. Pauli. But in Kovac's first six weeks, Borussia Dortmund still looked shaky at the best of times. The performance in the 1-0 defeat at home to FC Augsburg was shockingly poor. Kovac, who had always protected his players until then, was highly critical: ‘‘No chances created, no goal threat, no aggression, no intensity, no quick ball circulation. The bottom line is that we got what we gave: nothing.’’

The situation in the table became even more dire in mid-March. tenth-placed BVB travelled to sixth-placed Leipzig. Looking to draw to within a point of their rivals with an away win, the Black & Yellows instead found themselves 2-0 down after 47 minutes. They worked hard to get back into the game, firing 21 shots on target (26 in total), but failed to find the back of the net thanks to some outstanding saves by goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi. After six league games, Niko Kovac's record stood at two wins and four defeats. Fourth place was now ten points away.

What followed was a final charge unlike anything ever seen in 62 years of Bundesliga football. For the first ever time in history, a team that were in the bottom half of the table after Matchday 27 managed to finish fourth. Borussia Dortmund achieved something unprecedented, but not something they were too proud of. The predominant emotion was relief.

The comeback began with a 3-1 victory against 1. FSV Mainz 05, who were in fourth place at this point. This was followed by a 4-1 win away to Sportclub Freiburg, their next direct rivals, and a 2-2 draw away to Bayern Munich. ‘‘It feels strange. We'll take the one point, even though we really needed all three,‘‘ reflected Emre Can.

Before and after Munich, there was more action in the Champions League. In the quarter-final first leg, the Black & Yellows fell to a 4-0 defeat away to Barcelona. But in the second leg, they came close to causing a sensation thanks to an outstanding performance at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. In the end, all the team had to celebrate was a 3-1 win over the eventual La Liga winners and points 17 and 18 in the UEFA ‘‘five-year ranking’’, making them the most successful German participant in the 2024/25 season ahead of Bayern (17 points), Frankfurt (15), Leverkusen (11), Heidenheim (9), Hoffenheim and Stuttgart (seven each) and Leipzig (two). In this metric, two points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw.

Back to the Bundesliga! The 3-2 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach was not as close as the scoreline suggests, with BVB having 14 shots on goals compared to six for their opponents. BVB also won 3-2 at TSG Hoffenheim, but only by the narrowest of margins.The Black & Yellows missed a penalty and entered the final stages with a narrow but deserved 2-1 lead, which only lasted until the start of what turned out to be 13 minutes of added time. After conceding an unnecessary equaliser to make it 2-2, Borussia threw everything forward and were rewarded with a spectacular winner from Waldemar Anton in the fifth minute of added time. Borussia Dortmund were back in sixth place for the first time since Christmas, which would at least see them qualify for the UEFA Conference League.

A 4-0 win over Wolfsburg! Another statement win. For 24 hours, the Black & Yellows even moved up to fourth place. At the conclusion of Matchday 32, Freiburg had moved back to fourth place, albeit just one point away, with third-placed Frankfurt five points ahead. In the last away game of the season, the Black & Yellows travelled to last year's double winners Bayer Leverkusen. The game got off to a bad start; Gregor Kobel’s heroics were required to prevent BVB from trailing by more than 1-0 after half an hour. But then Julian Brandt popped up to equalise from Dortmund's first real chance of the game. Julian Ryerson then turned the game on its head with a goal to make it 2-1 in the 43rd minute.  After the break, BVB controlled proceeding; goals from Adeyemi (73) and Guirassy (77) left the Werkself with no chance. The final score was 4-2. And as Frankfurt could only manage a 1-1 draw against St. Pauli two hours later, Borussia even had their Champions League qualification in their own hands going into the final matchday.

‘‘The coach gave us a kick up the arse,’’ was how Karim Adeyemi succinctly put it after the victory in Leverkusen: ‘‘He told us that we have to run, no matter who we're playing against. And that with our quality and our style of play, we'll make it very difficult for the other team.’’ Gregor Kobel mentions another aspect: consistency. ‘‘He doesn't let much slide, which is a good thing.’’ The decisive parameters on the road to the Champions League were efficiency and intensity.

‘‘What Niko has achieved here is one of the greatest coaching achievements in the history of BVB,’’ said Lars Ricken after the final 3-0 home win against Holstein Kiel. ‘‘I did my job here,’’ said Kovac, emphasising: ‘‘I want to make it clear that you can't achieve anything in football on your own. I don't just mean my players, but also my staff and our fans. I feel proud of what the lads have achieved.’’

‘‘Niko didn't always talk about game plans. He was pragmatic. It was all about running, tackling and attacking. That's what brought success,’’ says BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke. And captain Emre Can points to ‘‘little things’’ that Kovac paid attention to: ‘‘That's the old school. That helped us a lot.’'

With Niko Kovac at the helm, the only Bundesliga club apart from Bayern Munich to have qualified for the UEFA Champions League every year for the past ten years are back on track. A perfectly executed landing.