Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac has made his side's intentions clear ahead of their penultimate home game of the 2025-26 Bundesliga season against Freiburg on Sunday.
The Black and Yellows are reeling from back-to-back losses to Bayer Leverkusen and Hoffenheim which also preponed Bayern Munich's inevitable coronation. With a 15-point lead over the BVB ahead of their last four games of the season, the holders cannot be mathematically caught anymore.
But Dortmund haven't achieved their objective yet. Champions League qualification is the bare minimum and the side's latest defeats have kept them from officially sealing their berth.
RB Leipzig have capitalized on their slip-ups to reduce the gap on them to just five points as Dortmund might even lose the runners-up spot if their form doesn't improve.
Kovac in his latest press conference asserted that his team want to win their remaining league matches and urged them to fare better than in their last two games.
“We want to play the last four games the way we’ve played for most of the season. We want to pick up wins. To do that, we need to perform better than we have in the last two games."
Dortmund have already surpassed their point tally from last season when they finished with 57 from 34 games. They currently have 64 points in 30 but the club is aiming for one of the highest ever returns for a runners-up side in the Bundesliga history.
It's a testament to their solid run in the Bundesliga this season under Kovac's first full-season as their manager. Now the Croatian is encouraging them to finish in the strongest possible way.
“The lads know what’s at stake and we need finish a good Bundesliga season in a fitting manner. We have a duty to our club and our fans to pick up more points in the next few games than we did in the last two.”
Freiburg, Borussia Monchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen account for Dortmund's last four top-flight fixtures of the Bundesliga season, with the first three looking potential banana skin on paper.
What holds the BVB in good stead for the Freiburg clash in their phenomenal record in the fixture. Dortmund are unbeaten in their last eight games against the side, winning seven, while they have only ever lost one game to them on home turf: a 2-0 defeat back in 2001.
The Breisgau-Brasilianer have also lost on their last seven consecutive visits to Signal Iduna Park. Most recently, Freiburg also saw their four-game winning run in all competitions end following a 2-1 loss to Stuttgart in the DFB Pokal semi-finals.
Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac has made his side's intentions clear ahead of their penultimate home game of the 2025-26 Bundesliga season against Freiburg on Sunday.
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