DORTMUND, Germany The T-shirts celebrating Borussia Dortmund’s 2022-23 Bundesliga triumph had already been printed in their thousands, some already worn by fans before Saturday’s match against Mainz had started. The title celebrations had been meticulously planned for Sunday as the city braced for 500,000 people to arrive. With a two-point lead over Bayern Munich, needing to win or match their result vs. Cologne on the final day, the script was perfectly written for Dortmund to end their rivals’ 10-year stranglehold on the Bundesliga title. But it was missing the final page.

Dortmund could have sold out the Westfalenstadion five times over. All they had to do was beat Mainz, then it wouldn’t matter what Bayern did. The fairy tale was 99% finished. But instead of the final page being signed off with a black-and-yellow flourish, they found themselves down 2-0 inside 24 minutes. And when hope returned via an equaliser for 1-1 in Cologne, it was torched by Jamal Musiala’s 89th-minute winner for Bayern. Read More