Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v Holstein Kiel - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - May 17, 2025 Borussia Dortmund's Felix Nmecha celebrates scoring their third goal with teammates REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
DORTMUND, Germany (Reuters) -Borussia Dortmund cruised past relegated Holstein Kiel 3-0 on Saturday to finish fourth and snatch the last Champions League spot for next season, in the best comeback of the last seven matchdays in Bundesliga history.
Niko Kovac's Dortmund won six of their last seven matches to climb from 10th to fourth in the standings and finish on 57 points, two ahead of Freiburg who lost 3-1 at home to third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt.
Kovac had taken over in February with the team in 11th place after the departure of Nuri Sahin following a disappointing first half to the season.
No other Bundesliga team have managed such a comeback in the last seven matchdays.
"We are all happy but there is no reason to celebrate," Kovac told a press conference. "I am happy and we are all happy to have pushed this through, to have taken that last step which is sometime difficult to take."
Missing out on the lucrative Champions League would have been both a sporting and financial setback for the publicly-traded club.
"For a long time we were just passengers and on the final matchday we were in the driving seat and did it just in time," said the Croat.
"I did my job but I want to underline that you cannot achieve anything in football alone."
CLUB WORLD CUP NEXT
Dortmund players will now go into a two-week break before returning in early June ahead of the Club World Cup in the United States.
Bayern Munich had already secured the title two weeks ago. They beat Hoffenheim 4-0 while Bayer Leverkusen, last season's champions who finished runners-up, drew 2-2 at Mainz 05 to set a league record with their 34th consecutive away game without defeat.
Eintracht and Dortmund will join in the Champions League league phase while Freiburg go into the Europa League, with Mainz 05 in sixth spot qualifying for the Conference League.
With VfL Bochum and Kiel already relegated, Heidenheim finished in 16th to go into a relegation/promotion playoff.
Dortmund, needing three goals to be guaranteed a top four finish irrespective of results in the other games, got off to a dream start when Serhou Guirassy converted a third-minute penalty for the lead.
Guinea international Guirassy became the first Dortmund player to score 21 goals in his first season for the club.
Kiel went down to 10 players when Carl Johansson was sent off with a straight red card but the hosts could not make the extra man count until the break.
They did, however, score two minutes after the restart with Marcel Sabitzer slotting in from the edge of the box to make it 2-0 and Felix Nmecha adding another in the 72nd minute to seal their European spot.
(Reporting by Karolos GrohmannEditing by Christian Radnedge)
