First of all the most important fact: after the 2-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt and winning points 37, 38 and 39, BVB is not involved in the fight to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga anymore. However the tension is still high. Because now the season is only just starting for Borussia.

It’s just three little points that separate Black Yellow from the fifth and sixth place in the league. These are the two positions that will definitely be enough to qualify for the Europa League. BVB Head Coach Jürgen Klopp said after the game: “if the difference to the places above us is less than the amount of games left to play there is a chance. We are now just three points behind. Now we have to play for everything.”

It is nearly a miracle that Borussia even has the chance to qualify for Europe after the disastrous first half of the season where they only managed 15 points. The difference to FC Schalke 04 and FC Augsburg was twelve points on match day 17. Only FC Bayern Munich (31), Bayer Leverkusen (27), VFL Wolfsburg (27) and Mönchengladbach (27) have won more points than BVB (24) since then.

The most likely reason for this success is that BVB has been much tighter in defense. Up to now they have only conceded eleven goals in 2015, as opposed to the 26 goals they conceded in the first half of the season. The 2-0 against Frankfurt was the seventh game where BVB has not conceded a goal since the winter break and the ninth game in this Bundesliga season. Individual mistakes that were common place in the first 17 games of the season are now history since the 0-0 against Leverkusen marked the upturn after the winter break.

BVB were totally focused against Eintracht Frankfurt. After a short spell at the start of the game where both teams were getting to know each other, Black Yellow was the more decisive team. Erik Durm analysed it like this: “after that we played very well going forward and we were very tight at the back.”

The game opened up when Frankfurt’s Sonny Kittel was at fault when he handled a cross by Marcel Schmelzer in his own penalty area. Aubameyang scored from the spot to make it 1-0 (24th minute). It was the first time that the player from Gabon took a penalty in the Bundesliga and he casually chipped the ball into the middle of the goal. Durm: “Auba’ was really cool about it and did a super job. However I would have been just as happy if he would have scored with a normal shot.”

Aubameyang, who has scored nine of his 14 goals this season after the winter break, had this to say: “I have had it in my mind for quite a while to take a penalty like that. I also told Marco Reus that is what I would do. I looked to see what the goalie would do and luckily it worked out well.”

Jürgen Klopp was full of praise when he said: “after that the second goal was brilliant.” Kagawa scored from Aubameyang’s pass to make it 2-0 (32nd minute) after a move involving just three passes. After that, including time added on, there were a further 60 minutes where BVB was the dominant team, but they could not manage to get a third or fourth goal. “Kuba” explained it like this: “we quickly switched play after we won the ball back - that was good. We just should have scored a few more goals.”

 

Getting closer and closer to fifth and sixth place

And because Eintracht – just like Paderborn before them – could not create a single chance, the score stayed at 2-0 and Borussia climbed from ninth to eighth in the table. Aubameyang was happy to state: “now we are getting closer and closer to fifth and sixth place in the league.”

But it was not just the good outlook for the fight to qualify for Europe that people were talking about after the eleventh win of the season. Everyone was also looking to the DFB Cup clash at FC Bayern on Tuesday (20:30hrs). Klopp: “I hope that you will really be able to tell there that we definitely want to win the Cup. That would be a good way at looking at this game. We are going there to try and do a few things.” (Felix Ulrich)