![[Subscription Customers Only] Jul 5, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Borussia Dortmund players pose for a team group photo before a quarterfinal match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Lee Smith-Reuters via Imagn Images](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_87,w_5413,h_3044/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/395/01kghedbycan04zfdm08.jpg "[Subscription Customers Only] Jul 5, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Borussia Dortmund players pose for a team group photo before a quarterfinal match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Lee Smith-Reuters via Imagn Images")
Borussia Dortmund can smell the Bundesliga Meisterschale again. Following a 3-2 comeback win over Heidenheim over the weekend, Niko Kovac's side are only six points off leaders Bayern Munich in second place.
With the defending champions appearing to lose steam lately with a 2-1 loss to Augsburg - their first league defeat of the season - and a draw to Hamburger in their last two games, Der BVB capitalized on their slip-up to trim the gap.
Just two weeks ago, the title race already appeared to be a foregone conclusion with Bayern racing ahead with a 13-point lead. But today, they can see Dortmund closing in from the rearview mirror as the race heats up.
Dortmund's star defender Nico Schlotterbeck also issued an ominous message to Bayern after their last win, urging his side to state their ambitions of winning the Bundesliga title. Speaking to the press after the game, he said:
"As BVB, we have to have the ambition to say to our fans that we want to be champions. It’s now six points, that’s three fewer than at the winter break (after Matchday 15). That's why I can say – and the boys can too – that we want to kick on now.""said Schlotterbeck
Just with one loss in the Bundesliga campaign so far, Dortmund have punched above their weight this season and have looked like a serious contender for the league crown, which has eluded them since 2012 when Jurgen Klopp guided them to their eighth and the last Bundesliga title.
Since returning from the winter break, the Yellow and Blacks have demonstrated a frightening attacking form on the domestic front, netting thrice in all five top-flight fixtures in 2026, winning four of them.
As of now, Dortmund are 13 games unbeaten in the competition - the longest active run by any side in German top-flight and it's building towards an enticing showdown between Dortmund and Bayern later this month.
On 28 February, the Der Klassiker rivals meet for their second league encounter in what could potentially decide the title race. A win for Dortmund - provided the gap hasn't increased further until then - would really blow the race wide open, while a win for Bayern would all but squish the former's title ambitions.
Dortmund have seen better results against Bayern in recent times, losing just once from their last four encounters and that was a narrow 2-1 defeat at the Allianz Arena in October 2025.