Fight for places for the Champions League in the Bundesliga – VfB Stuttgart is BVB’s big problem

In the fight for qualification for the Champions League, Borussia Dortmund is four points behind fourth place in the table and the big problem is that VfB Stuttgart is even further away and remarkably stable.

There are the two games again, in exactly the same order, first FC Augsburg away, then 1. FSV Mainz 05 at home.

That was the case for Borussia Dortmund in May of this year, when two wins would have led to the championship. This time they would lead to the certainty that Dortmund went into the last matchday of the first half of the season in mid-January with a maximum of four points behind fourth place in the table.

Fourth place and thus secure qualification for the Champions League (fifth place may also be enough under certain circumstances) is the minimum goal for BVB, which a few weeks ago stated that it was their goal to become champions. But he was shown by the big players in the league that these demands were too high. Borussia lost 0:4 against FC Bayern, the 1:2 at VfB Stuttgart was grotesquely flattering, the 1:1 at Bayer Leverkusen was fortunate, the 2:3 against RB Leipzig was a home defeat, even if it was because of Dortmund long outnumbered people talked nicely.

Of the last six Bundesliga games, BVB only won against Borussia Mönchengladbach. In the table, which only takes this period into account, only three teams are worse, 1. FC Köln is even better.

It is still too early to dramatize, but if a listed football company with a turnover of almost half a billion euros, which pays its licensed player department more than 180 million euros in salaries and bonuses, misses the Champions League, it can have serious consequences .

Bayern, BVB and Leipzig are permanent guests

Dortmund have always been there in the last eight seasons of the European elite league. They are permanent guests, just like FC Bayern and RB Leipzig. These three clubs have reached the Champions League together in each of the past five seasons and have finished in the top three places four times this season.

The Bundesliga has no other champion than FC Bayern and only one participant in the Champions League other than Munich, Leipzig and Dortmund. That’s how it was in recent history, even if it was sometimes very close.

This was the case last season, for example, when BVB needed a win against Mainz to become champions after a 3-0 win in Augsburg. The game ended 2-2.

Exceptions between the disappointments

The last matchday, May 27th, hit Borussia to the core. She dragged the disappointment into the current season, which is also a disappointment. The exceptions with good performances are strikingly often in the Champions League, such as on Wednesday (December 13, 2023), when Dortmund wrested a spectacular 1-1 draw from French champions Paris Saint-Germain and thus finished the group phase first.

They like evenings like this in Westphalia, and they will experience at least one more in the spring. But it is questionable whether Borussia will also be there next season when things start thanks to a reform in the league system.

In addition to the four point gap to fourth place, Bayer Leverkusen is almost firmly booked for the premier class. The Bundesliga leaders already have eleven points more than Dortmund and are very stable. Bayern are Bayern, Leipzig have created a small cushion with their victory, and then there is VfB Stuttgart.

VfB flying high with no signs of landing

Having escaped relegation in the relegation match against HSV, Stuttgart are on the rise. Sport is familiar with such phenomena, and a usual reaction is that they will collapse soon.

But – and this is a big problem for BVB – there are no signs that VfB will collapse. Coach Sebastian Hoeneß has formed a team that shows at the weekend what they trained during the week – and that seems well coordinated, presented with passion, provided with resilience and provided with playful class.

A good three weeks after the 2-1 defeat in the Bundesliga, BVB played against VfB again in the DFB Cup, and again they were clearly the worse team. Stuttgart’s dominance in the two games was striking.

Dortmund only got one point from the four games against the teams currently placed ahead of them. VfB got at least four points from three games. On matchday 13 there was a spectacular 1-1 draw against Leverkusen in one of the best Bundesliga games in recent years. In addition, there was the 2-1 win against BVB and a 1-5 loss in Leipzig on the second matchday, when there was still little to suggest that the team would be on the rise.

A tough test is coming up on Sunday (December 17th, 2023, live in the audio stream and in the ticker from 5:20 p.m.) with the game at FC Bayern. It is also a duel between the two best scorers in the league. Munich’s Harry Kane scored 18 times and Serhou Guirassy 16 times.

VfB Stuttgart will miss Guirassy sorely in the new year. The question is whether only for the Africa Cup of Nations (January 13th to February 11th), where the striker will play for Guinea, or whether there will be a change in the winter.

Guirassy’s contract is valid until the summer of 2026, but there are rumors that the striker will be available for 17.5 million euros in the winter. Nothing has been heard from the player or the club.

However, Borussia Dortmund reported on the personnel. Sports director Sebastian Kehl denied the previously rumored report that BVB wanted to strike at Guirassy. The Dortmund team would certainly not be active in the center forward position, said Kehl, as they were well supplied. However, Niclas Füllkrug, Sébastien Haller and Youssoufa Moukoko only have a combined total of six goals.