Joy at beating Bayern, sadness at the passing of Aki Schmidt

"We will miss him!" declared Wolfgang Paul, Chairman of the Borussia Dortmund Council of Seniors. "I can hardly believe it. Aki believed until the very end that he would get better." It was not to be, though: Alfred Schmidt, one of the greatest Black and Yellows of all time, lost his final battle, passing away aged 81 following a short but severe illness. The "Berghofener Junge" (Berghofen Boy), as he was known, made 25 appearances for Germany, played in the 1958 World Cup and became the first Dortmund player to captain a DFB side. In the Black and Yellow of BVB he became a German champion in 1957 and 1963, lifted the DFB Cup in 1965 and steered the club to European Cup Winners' Cup success in 1966.

"Aki Schmidt was a Black and Yellow icon," said president Dr. Reinhard Rauball of a sportsman who helped to usher in a golden era at BVB and played an active role in club life until recently. "This is an immensely sad day for the entire BVB family," said BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke. Wolfgang Paul, who won the European Cup Winners' Cup alongside Schmidt in 1966, recalled "the many wonderful years we spent together, on and off the pitch," before adding: "With his accordion and ready Dortmund wit, he was always an entertaining character."

Last 16 spot sealed prematurely

Borussia prematurely sealed their place in the UEFA Champions League last 16 thanks to a header by Adrian Ramos in a 1-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon, then followed it up with a 8-4 win over Legia Warsaw in the highest-scoring game in the history of the competition. The Poles took the lead through Prijovic (10), but a Shinji Kagawa brace (17, 18) and a strike from Nuri Sahin (20) in the ensuing 198 seconds made it 3-1. Prijovic reduced the deficit (24), then Dembélé (29) and Marco Reus (32) made it 5-2 before the interval. In the second half the returning midfielder scored his side's sixth (52) and eighth (90+2) goals either side of Pulisic's header (81), while Kucharczyk (57) and Nikolic (83) were on target for the visitors.

Not only did Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang score a 'flawless hat-trick'* – incidentally, the second fastest in the club's history behind Jürgen Schütz – but also followed up his three goals (4, 23, 27) in the space of 23 first-half minutes with a fourth early in the second period and set up Ousmane Dembélé for the fifth as Borussia ran out 5-2 victors away at Hamburger SV. BVB followed up that victory, which brought an end to their run of four consecutive leagues games without a win (one defeat, three draws), by inflicting a first defeat of the season on FC Bayern, recording a narrow but deserved 1-0 victory over the Bavarians to move up to third. The winning goal came as early as the tenth minute, assisted brilliantly by Mario Götze. But the victory came at a cost: goalkeeper Roman Bürki sustained a broken hand and had to go under the knife.

However, four competitive victories in a row were followed by a setback – a 2-1 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt. The men from Hesse took the lead through Huszti 17 seconds after the interval and, although Aubameyang's 77th-minute goal gave Borussia renewed hope with the score levelled at 1-1, Seferovic restored Eintracht's lead immediately before Dembélé's stoppage-time effort came back off the woodwork.

Rauball elected for a seventh term

For a seventh time after 1979, 1984, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013, the members of Borussia Dortmund elected as president Dr. Reinhard Rauball, who proudly announced: "On a sporting and economic level, BVB is in a better position than it ever has been before." There was also a real sense of harmony at the shareholders' meeting. With a profit of EUR 29.4 million in the 2015/16 financial year, the group is debt-free and on excellent financial footing. Turnover recently climbed to EUR 376.3 million. And yet Hans-Joachim Watzke still saw fit to send out a warning. "We need to continue to be more creative than other clubs. They buy superstars, we make them," he said.

Neven Subotic completed a stellar comeback following a 252-day spell on the sidelines with injury by scoring an 87th-minute winner as Borussia Dortmund's U23s won one of their games in hand against SV Rödinghausen in the Regional League.
Boris Rupert

*In Germany, the term 'flawless hat-trick' (lupenreiner Hattrick) refers to a hat-trick when a player scores three goals in a row in one half without the half-time break or a goal scored by another player interfering the performance.