Beautiful but flawed Bayern give Dortmund a chance to revive title race

This could have been Tuesday night all over again. So much of Bayern Munich’s play dazzled a sold-out PreZero Arena, and the champions could easily have done to Hoffenheim what they had done to Red Bull Salzburg four days previously. Maybe the difference between the two games was just “a little bit of luck,” as Thomas Müller said it was.

There was certainly little sense of anguish or regret. Julian Nagelsmann may have the luxury of being able to look at the process knowing that the results will likely follow, but he was satisfied with his team’s performance. Bayern are playing way more fluently than they were even a few weeks ago. That they didn’t hand out a second successive thrashing to disoriented opponents was more down to fine margins, with three goals chalked off for offside, and the excellence of a very busy Oliver Baumann in Hoffenheim’s goal.

Yet here Bayern are, improbably, on the brink of being dragged back into a Bundesliga title race, and it’s only natural to wonder how this happened. Borussia Dortmund are far from their strongest, decimated by Covid and injury; on Sunday, they squeezed past struggling Arminia Bielefeld thanks to a single goal by Marius Wolf – who would surely not be playing in a healthier squad. Following their Europa League exit to Rangers, it has felt as if BVB’s season is over. Yet if they win their game in hand at Mainz (themselves coming off a hiatus caused by a Covid outbreak), they will nestle just four points behind Bayern with eight games left.

You might feel, justifiably, that the carrot of potential competitiveness has been dangled in front of us before. Dortmund have, though, something to feel optimistic about for the first time in weeks – quite unexpectedly. On Sunday, Erling