Borussia Dortmund managing director Lars Ricken has lamented his side's toothless display in a 2-1 loss to Hoffenheim on Saturday as Bayern Munich were crowned champions.
Andrej Kramaric struck two penalties, including the winner in stoppage-time as Serhou Guirassy's last equalizer was canceled out.
It marked their second consecutive league defeat of the season after the 1-0 home loss to Bayer Leverkusen the previous week.
Bayern were left needing just a point against Stuttgart on Sunday but thumped the visitors 4-2 to clinch their 35th Bundesliga title and a second in a row.
Having won on their last five consecutive visits to PreZero Arena, the BVB were confident of their chances with Die Kraichgauer also going their last four Bundesliga games without a win.
But what followed was a resilient display from the hosts, who even came close twice early on before a handball from Niklas Sule won them a penalty that Kramaric clinically dispatched.
Die Borussen huffed and puffed in the second half but Kovac threw in Guirassy to inject some firepower into their vanguard, which appeared to pay off when he made it 1-1 in the 87th minute.
Just when Dortmund seemes to have claimed a point from the match, Julian Ryerson is also penalized for handling the ball inside the box with only a few seconds remaining.
Kramaric, who had converted 16 consecutive penalties at this point, stepped up once again and scored again to win for his team at the death.
Ricken was unhappy with his side's lack of intensity going forward while also expressing concern over Sule's fitness after the defender went off with a knock.
""Not a pleasant afternoon. For one thing, we’re worried about Niki Süle. On top of that, we lost a match due to two penalties – and you’d have to stretch the imagination to say those were justified under the rules. He (referee Siebert, ed.) didn’t even blow his whistle at first. Everyone in the stadium saw what happened. Someone who wasn’t there might then say he should be sent off. But we have our own issues and we agree: we don’t need to point the finger at the referee.""said Ricken
Although his side looked more dangerous after the break, Ricken feels they couldn't create proper goalscoring chances.
""We could have shown more courage from the start. Hoffenheim were clearly the more dominant side early on, even if they didn’t have clear-cut chances. If you’re precise in your build-up play, if you’re technically sound and accurate with your passing, you’ll get your chances. But we didn’t do that often enough. In the second half, we were dominant, we pinned them back, but we didn’t put enough pressure on them to create enough clear-cut chances.”"lamented Ricken
Dortmund returned to action on Sunday, 26 April at home to Freiburg.
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