Bayern end title race and reaffirm game's significance in strange times | Andy Brassell
27-May-2020 13:25:55 | The Guardian
The Bundesliga title is heading to Munich again after a match that was so absorbing it was easy to forget the emptiness
As Joshua Kimmich roared his approval on the final whistle, hearts may well have sunk among newly assembled enthusiasts around the world and, likewise, in the Bundesliga’s marketing department. Bayern Munich’s Tuesday teatime win in the table-top clash at Borussia Dortmund may have been narrow, but it was also as significant as football can be in the strange world we currently inhabit.
Moving the incumbent champions seven points clear of their most common irritants with six games to go, there is really no way of looking at the aftermath that suggests that the contest is still going. Just as the Bundesliga opens itself up to the world, any pretence of a title race has been closed off. “From today,” lamented Dortmund’s outstanding defender Mats Hummels, “I think all the other teams are out of it.” Winning goalscorer Kimmich appeared to take no little delight in proclaiming how “mentally tough” it would be for BVB to find their way back from here if, indeed, they were ever really in the title race in the first place.
Related: Bayern close on title after Kimmich chip floors Dortmund in Der Klassiker
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