2024-25 Bundesliga Matchday 33: Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs Borussia Dortmund

WTF is going on?!?! 4-1 !! where were these actions all year?!?!

 

They score but it's clearly offside...

 

Looks like I'm wearing yellow today ;-)

 

And they give another one. not offside this time. 3 minutes to hold a 2 goal lead now.

 

And we see it through without conceding further...
I am still not sure what I witness today! Was it good or bad?! A lot of both but the result is excellent so lets concentrate on that!

 

If we win by 4 goals next week and Frankfurt/Freiburg is tie we could actually finish 3rd!

But I somehow expect we'll end up in Europa...

 

Frankfurt - St Pauli 1:1 after just 4 minutes.
If Frankfurt only gets a draw against St Pauli, we'd theoretically have it in our own hands with a win as long as we finish with a better goal differential than Frankfurt or Freiburg doesn't win.

 

They are making a special occasion after the games for Xavi and I must say I hate seeing players/coaches move on from a position where they just started something special that could become a legacy to go to a team who already won everything and where they really have nothing to prove as they have so much money and resources that they are expected to win everything every year.
He can go on to win 5CL in a row but to me his best achievement will still be what he did last season in Bayer...

 

I'd rather be surprised if Alonso survives there for more than 2 seasons. I also think he should have stayed but I also get it that he was there for Leverkusen's prime and he would need some kind of rebuild again. Tah is gone, players like Grimaldo and Frimpong might be on their way out, too, Xhaka isn't getting younger and Wirtz might be going to the strongest rival. That are a lot of difference makers you'd need to replace.

Meanwhile, St Pauli leads against Frankfurt.

 

Only if Freiburg lose/draw and we win. No more shot at a 3rd place... So it's about 50-50 shot I'd say, unless we implode again on the last game!!

 

There isn't any difference between 3rd and 4th place: both get you directly in the Champions League.
So, we are almost independent of other results:
- if we win by 3 goals, then we will secure the CL spot, because we will 100% overtake one of EIntracht/Freiburg.
- if we only win by 1 or 2 goals, then Freiburg must not win.
- if we only draw, then Freiburg must lose.

 

Good game and result for us. The first half was nervous, but Kobel rose to the occasion. Good finishing on our end, we were clinical. The second part was much better defensively. If we can replicate that stability next season, it will be a much better campaign.

Great outcome in the Eintracht game. We should focus on winning by 3-4 goals in the match against Kiel to be prepared for any outcome from the Freiburg - Eintracht match.

 

A 2 goal Dortmund win would almost certainly be enough, the only scenario where it wouldn't would be Frankfurt to score at least 5 (and still lose by 1) to better the goals scored (goal difference would be equal.

 

Yes, we control our own destiny. Let's make it happen for once. Score as many as possible against an already relegated team that as nothing to play for. If we can't do this, we don't deserve it. It is called CHAMPIONS league after all and thrashing a BL2 team should not be that much of a challenge for a CL caliber team.