Borussia Dortmund will almost certainly finish tonight’s game with Tottenham Hotspur, safe in the knowledge that they’re in the Europa League. Come win, draw or defeat to their English opponents, all but a famous APOEL Nicosia win over Real Madrid will see them finish third in Group H of the Champions League.
Yet it’s unlikely that confirmation of their qualification will be met with cheers or adoration from the Westfalenstadion faithful at full time. For although Dortmund will still be in Europe, the situation around the German club is far from rosy.
Defeat to Stuttgart was Dortmund’s fourth from their last five league games, leaving them in fifth place in what was just the latest in a conveyor belt of examples suggesting that new coach, Peter Bosz, isn’t up to the task of keeping Germany’s second team above the rest.
Indeed, it was a game that the club had to compete in without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, after the Gabon striker was banned for one game after filming a freestyle video on club property without permission. Although the talisman will be back in the team against Tottenham, patience from fans and the club itself seems to be wearing thin for the want-away striker.
Further off-the-field news of chief scout, Sven Mislintat, leaving for Arsenal this week compounds the general malaise around the club even further. Especially when fans rightly point out that Thomas Tuchel - the considered and impressive replacement for Jurgen Klopp - was forced out of the club not six months ago for falling out with Arsene Wenger’s latest signing.
However, where real damage can be done to Bosz’s job status and the club’s season as a whole will be on Saturday in the first Revierderby of the Bundesliga campaign against Schalke.
Dortmund’s bitter rivals have thrown off the shackles of the Bundesliga’s proverbial “circus club” and have enjoyed an efficient, consistent start to the season, while their yellow and black neighbours have been attracting all the wrong headlines.
A win for the Royal Blues would keep them in second place and six points beyond the club they’ve watched jealously from the shadows for the best part of a decade. Yet it would underline like nothing else just how far Dortmund have fallen in such a short period of time.
Failure to finish in the top four simply isn’t an option for a club hoping to retain stars like Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic and Julian Weigl. And long before that becomes a possibility, Dortmund will have to act. A number of issues on and off the park are keeping this great club down and that may mean change across the board.
