Borussia Dortmund surmounted another challenging Bundesliga run and came away with flying colors as the side finished in second place with 73 points.
It's their highest finish to a league season since 2023 while bagging the most number of points in seven years. Besides, the club also conceded the fewest number of goals in the division with 34.
On paper, this had all the makings of a title-winning season, but Bayern Munich were still much further ahead and clinched the league title with 89 points, a staggering 16 more than the BVB.
But then Niko Kovac's side were also guilty of some unexpected slip-ups and a patchy mid-season run. Here are the games which proved costly in their title bid:
Hamburger 1-1 Dortmund (8 November 2025)
It was only matchday 10 but looking back now, Dortmund should have comfortably won it. Hamburger were on a three-game losing run coming into the fixture and languished down in 13th place of the Bundesliga table.
What should have been a sail ended up being a slog instead. It took the BVB 64 minutes to break the deadlock as Carney Chukwuemeka fired them in front. The goal was still proving to be enough to seal all three points, until a late defensive lapse allowed Ransford-Yeboah Konigsdorffer to equalize in the seventh added minute.
Even more damning is the fact that Bayern dropped points for the first time this season on the same day, just hours after Dortmund's stalemate as the club retrospectively missed a chance to trim the gap with them.
Dortmund 3-3 Stuttgart (22 November 2025)
Back from the international break and pegged back by another late equalizer for the second league game in a row. Emre Can and Maximilian Beier had the BVB 2-0 up at the break, before a second-half double from Deniz Undav brought Stuttgart back in the match.
Karim Adeyemi appeared to have won it for Dortmund in the 89th minute but another defensive collapse in stoppage-time meant Undav brought up his hat-trick and made it 3-3 on the night. Bayern led by nine points already into the campaign!
RB Leipzig 2-2 Dortmund (21 February 2026)
While it's true that RB Leipzig have had Dortmund's numbers in recent campaigns, the BVB were coming off a six-game winning run here and had reduced their gap with Bayern to just six points.
The Red Bulls, by comparison, were on a patchy form and were expected to be blown away by Dortmund's blistering form. But even they sprung a surprise here.
A fast start means the hosts went 2-0 up and Die Borussen spent the rest of the match trying to claw their way back, which they did, but fell short of turning the match around.
Dortmund 2-3 Bayern (28 February 2026)
This was it. This was the game where all remaining hopes were well and truly put to rest. Trailing by eight points already, Dortmund had to win this game to keep their titles hopes alive.
For a while, it seemed like the BVB could do it as Nico Schlotterbeck's 26th minute strike had their noses in front at the break. Harry Kane then struck twice in the second half to put the visitors in front.
Daniel Svensson appeared to have secured a point with only seven minutes of normal time remaining, but Joshua Kimmich popped up with a late winner for Bayern to end Dortmund's hopes.
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