Chapter 387: Chapter 85: First in the Bundesliga! A Sky-High Contract! Advance, Dortmund! The Shadow of Bayern’s Great Comeback Reappears

Leaders Dortmund, on the other hand, could potentially be slowed down by Bayer Leverkusen.

For Bayern, the best possible outcome was for Bayer Leverkusen to upset Dortmund.

Why?

Because in Matchday 30, Bayern would be traveling to the BayArena to face Bayer Leverkusen away from home.

Rummenigge’s meaning was clear: Bayern didn’t consider Bayer Leverkusen a title rival.

It wasn’t just the Bayern chairman who thought so. Sporting manager Nillinger also stated in a media interview that his biggest worry about playing Frankfurt was that the players would lack motivation.

Therefore, his exact words were, "I hope we give it our all against every opponent!"

After the Frankfurt match, Bayern was facing a grueling schedule.

Midweek, they had the DFB-Pokal semi-final against Magat’s Schalke 04, which was bound to be a tough battle.

Then, it was back to the league for Matchday 28, a home game against Stuttgart.

That would be another tough battle.

After that was the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United, followed by a league match against Schalke 04, and then another match against Manchester United.

And then came Matchday 30 against Bayer Leverkusen.

It was safe to say that this stretch of matches would be incredibly difficult for any team.

In comparison, Frankfurt seemed like an easy pushover.

Van Gaal decided to rotate the squad?

No problem!

Even if they rotated most of the starting lineup, Bayern could still handle Frankfurt with ease.

The course of the match seemed to confirm this view.

Playing away, Bayern opened the scoring just seven minutes in with a goal from Klose.

At that moment, everyone thought there was no doubt Bayern would win the match.

Afterward, Bayern maintained constant pressure on Frankfurt.

The turning point of the match came in the 74th minute.

While defending a corner, Van Bitten injured his right brow bone in a collision and had to go to the sidelines for treatment.

Frankfurt seized the opportunity to make a series of substitutions.

Head coach Michael Schibbe successively brought on three forwards—Martin Fenin, Kolkmats, and Juvhel Tsoumou—to bolster the attack.

Meanwhile, in the 80th minute, Van Bitten was substituted off for Hamit Altıntop.

But as it turned out, this substitution by Van Gaal would completely backfire.

While everyone was talking about "Bayern-Dusel," and while drawing Manchester United had everyone reminiscing about the great comeback in the 1999 Champions League final, Bayern never would have imagined that the shadow of another last-minute collapse would loom over them once again.

In the 87th minute, the recently substituted Fenin and Alexander Meier attempted to link up on Bayern’s left flank, the side defended by the young Alaba.

Alaba got to the ball first inside the penalty area and passed it back to the goalkeeper, Butt.

But unexpectedly, Juvhel Tsoumou, who had only been on the pitch for four minutes, suddenly appeared, intercepting Alaba’s "assist" and sending it into Bayern’s net.

1-1!

What was even more stunning was that two minutes later, on the very same side defended by Alaba, Little Altıntop sent in a diagonal pass. The substitute Fenin controlled the ball, shook off Alaba, and fired a shot into the net from a tight angle.

2-1!

In the final moments of the match, Frankfurt scored two consecutive goals, courtesy of two substitute forwards, to come from behind and defeat Bayern!

The entire German football scene was stunned!

Before the match, Bayern, who had been sure of victory and hadn’t given Frankfurt a second thought, had unexpectedly tripped up against an underdog.

They were even being written off as having lost their chance to contend for the title!

Bild aimed its criticism directly at Van Gaal.

A penchant for relying heavily on young players?

That didn’t seem wrong in itself.

But at a time when Bayern was about to enter a crucial part of their schedule, was it right to entrust such a heavy responsibility to a 17-year-old, especially when he was playing alongside another young player in Badstuber?

Was it appropriate?

Was this a case of rushing his development, or was it truly promoting a young talent?

"If Bayern can’t even beat Frankfurt when handed such a golden opportunity, how can they possibly win the title?"

"What are they going to use to fight to the death against Manchester United?"

This loss was a major stumble for the Southern King on their path to the Bundesliga title this season.

But it also made everyone turn their attention to the match between Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.

Because of their midweek UEFA Europa League match, Klopp would also be rotating his squad for this game.

Bayer Leverkusen’s biggest advantage was that, aside from the Bundesliga, they had no pressure from other competitions.

As a result, Heynckes’s team had a full week to prepare for this match.

But even so, Heynckes remained low-key before the match.

"Westfalen Stadium is an away ground no one wants to visit."

"Of course, I believe we can leave there unscathed, and maybe even take all three points."

"But it won’t be easy."

"To do that, the first thing we have to do is contain Wang Shuo!"

"Only when Wang Shuo stops scoring will we have a hope of defeating Dortmund!"