Soccer-Dortmund's title dreams in tatters after shock home draw to Mainz

Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co KgaA

27/05/2023 16:50

DORTMUND, Germany, May 27 (Reuters) - Borussia
Dortmund's dream of their first Bundesliga title in 11 years
turned into a nightmare on Saturday after a shock 2-2 home draw
to Mainz 05 dropped them to second place on goal difference in
the season finale, handed the title to rivals Bayern Munich.
    With a sea of tens of thousands of yellow and black-clad
fans outside the stadium and a sold-out 81,000 crowd inside
ready to pop the champagne for their first league crown since
2012, Dortmund went into the game in top spot.
    The club had ordered more than 120,000 litres of beer
according to club bosses but fans had nothing to celebrate at
the start with Mainz snatching the lead through Andreas
Hanche-Olsen's header at the near post in the 15th minute.
    Dortmund's Sebastien Haller had a golden chance to level and
lift some of the mounting the pressure on his team just four
minutes later but he saw his weak penalty saved.
    It got even worse in the 24th when Karim Onisiwo was left
with far too much space in the box to drill in his header,
shocking the hosts and silencing the stadium.
    A second half attempted comeback did not yield immediate
results, even as coach Edin Terzic brought in captain Marco Reus
and striker Karim Adeyemi.
    Mainz, playing without any pressure, made it hard for
Dortmund who needed to up the tempo further and cut the deficit
with Raphael Guerreiro's shot in the 69th.
    With the fans growing louder again the hosts poured forward
with substitute teenager Julien Duranville injecting new life
into Dortmund's game.
    They levelled deep in stoppage time with Niklas Suele but
ran out of time for a winner, with the players left lying on the
grass, their heads in their hands and tears in their eyes for
the missed title shot.

 (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann
Editing by Christian Radnedge)
 ((karolos.grohmann@thomsonreuters.com; +491743343192;))