Embarrassing disasters and major defeats
Embarrassing disasters and major defeats
0-12 against Borussia Mönchengladbach: Borussia Dortmund’s most painful footballing humiliation came on April 29, 1978. On Gladbach’s Bökelberg, BVB were systematically dismantled in what remains one of the most lopsided results in Bundesliga history. By half-time it was already 5-0, and coach Otto Knefler stood helpless on the touchline as Jupp Heynckes, Allan Simonsen and the Gladbach attack ran riot. The final whistle brought the kind of stunned silence that accompanies true humiliation. For the travelling BVB fans, it was a march of shame that no one who experienced it has ever forgotten.
1999/2000 season statistics: The star ensemble, reinforced for €30 million — including Nigerian Victor Ikpeba and Georgian Georgi Kinkladze — produced one of BVB’s most absurd seasons. The team lost 11 away games, won just seven of 34 matches, conceded 64 goals, and achieved a negative goal difference of minus 15. Coach Bernd Krauss was sacked after just eight matches and replaced by Udo Lattek, who at 64 years old was dragged out of retirement for one last, futile rescue mission. The squad, assembled at enormous expense, had the consistency of a house built on sand. It was a masterclass in how money alone cannot buy chemistry, spirit or tactical discipline.
In the 2017/18 Champions League, a desolate Borussia set a new German negative record in the competition. With just two points from six group matches against Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur and APOEL Nicosia, Peter Bosz's side scraped into the Europa League, where the embarrassment continued.
The relegation season saw numerous club-record negatives that still stand: 17th place (worst ever league finish), only five victories, 27 defeats, 38 goals scored and 76 conceded. The Bundesliga match-fixing scandal of 1971, in which BVB were not directly involved, had poisoned the atmosphere across German football. Attendance at the Westfalenstadion collapsed from over 26,000 to barely 16,000 as disillusioned fans turned their backs. For a club that had won the European Cup Winners’ Cup just six years earlier, the drop was a catastrophic fall from grace.
The weak final season under Jürgen Klopp 2014/15 — a feast for haters! With 17th place and 15 points, Dortmund produced their worst-ever Hinrunde. Under Klopp in 2008/09, the record number of draws — 14 — also prevented a better finish than sixth.
A 0-3 deficit against SC Paderborn on November 22, 2019 marked the biggest half-time deficit in BVB history since the era of electronic data. Paderborn, the smallest club in the Bundesliga by revenue and squad value, had been written off by everyone before kick-off. The first half was a horror show of defensive negligence and tactical naivety. That Dortmund eventually salvaged a 3-3 draw with a second-half comeback only partially disguised the embarrassment. Coach Lucien Favre’s tactical adjustments saved the result but the first 45 minutes entered the club’s catalogue of shame.
A match they didn't even lose still goes down as a perceived mega-defeat in the BVB annals. On November 25, 2017, BVB led 4-0 at half-time in the Revierderby against Schalke, only for Naldo's stoppage-time header to make it 4-4 in the "derby of the century."
2007/08 season: The worst season since the introduction of the three-point rule in 1995. Under coach Thomas Doll, Dortmund finished 13th — a nadir for a club with Champions League ambitions. The squad, still weakened by the financial hangover of the Niebaum era, lacked quality in depth and character under pressure. Doll, hired as a motivator, found a squad that was beyond motivation. Only 10 wins all season, a goal difference of minus 7, and an average home attendance that dropped below 73,000 for the first time in years. It was into this wreckage that Jürgen Klopp arrived in 2008 — inheriting the worst starting position of any BVB coach in modern history.
77 minutes as German champions: Arch-rivals Schalke may call themselves four-minute champions since 2001, but what about Dortmund's 1992 title drama? On May 16, BVB were one of three teams level on points and took the lead from the ninth minute through Stephane Chapuisat's goal in Duisburg — holding the virtual title for 77 minutes before it slipped away.
Roooobbbeeeen — Sky reporter Marcel Reif's exclamation in the 89th minute of the all-German Champions League final at Wembley. Arjen Robben's late winner gave Bayern Munich a 2-1 victory over Dortmund on May 25, 2013. After Ilkay Gundogan's equalizer from the penalty spot, BVB were in the ascendancy — but couldn't convert their momentum in the dying minutes.
On June 1, 2024, Dortmund reached the Champions League final at Wembley — their first since 2013. Against Real Madrid, BVB dominated the first half but couldn't convert their chances. Dani Carvajal and Vinicius Junior scored in the second half for a 2-0 Madrid victory. It was the cruelest validation of football's oldest lesson: you must take your chances.
Since 2020, the BVB bench has seen Lucien Favre (dismissed December 2020), Edin Terzic (interim, DFB-Pokal winner 2021), Marco Rose (2021-22), Terzic again (2022-24, CL finalist), Nuri Sahin (September-January 2025, fired after 2-4 at Kiel), and Niko Kovac (from January 2025). The revolving door reflects BVB's structural challenge: competing with Bayern's resources while developing coaches and players simultaneously.
There are defeats and there are humiliations. On 14 January 2025, Borussia Dortmund lost 2-4 at promoted Holstein Kiel. BVB CEO Lars Ricken called the performance embarrassing, shameful and unworthy of Borussia. BVB advisor Matthias Sammer delivered a damning verdict: the team was physically and mentally in a state of non-existence — unable to defend or attack. One week and another defeat in Bologna later, Nuri Sahin's time at BVB was over.
The drama of matchday 34 in 2022/23 will haunt BVB fans forever: Dortmund needed only a win against FSV Mainz 05 on the final day to become German champions for the first time since 2012. BVB led, then fell back to 2-2. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich scored in the 89th minute to beat 1. FC Köln 2-1. With teams level on points, goal difference decided — in Bayern's favour. The Dortmund players lay weeping on the pitch after the final whistle, 80,000 fans in the Westfalenstadion left in disbelief. Sébastien Haller, who had only months earlier beaten cancer, missed a penalty and caused a goal against. It remains one of the most tragic scenes in Bundesliga history.
In June 2024, BVB stood in the Champions League final. Six months later, the Black and Yellows sat in 10th place in the Bundesliga, six points behind a Champions League spot. The squad overhaul after the final — Reus, Hummels, Sancho, Füllkrug all gone — was not compensated on the pitch. The new signings needed time to settle, Sahin's tactical approach remained unclear. An early DFB-Pokal exit (second round at VfL Wolfsburg) completed the misery.
Yes, Borussia Dortmund lost the 2024 CL final at Wembley 0-2 to Real Madrid, with goals from Carvajal and Vinicius Junior.
Favre (until 2020), Terzic (2020/21), Rose (2021/22), Terzic (2022-2024), Sahin (2024/25), Kovac (from 2025).
Sahin was dismissed in January 2025 after a 1-2 defeat at Bologna in the CL. BVB had won just one of nine matches and sat in 10th place.