Hope for Bayern? The biggest Bundesliga title comebacks ever | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund topped the Bundesliga heading into the winter break and, no matter what happens, will top it at the end of the weekend.

German football returns on Friday evening, when Bayern Munich are in action. All eyes will be on the German champions to see if they can catch extend their five-game winning run and put pressure on Dortmund, who face RB Leipzig on Saturday.

By topping the league at the halfway stage of the campaign, Dortmund became Herbstmeister (‘Autumn champions’) of the 56th Bundesliga season. In the previous 55 years, the Herbstmeister has failed to win the league just 17 times.

And on eight of those occasions, they were caught by Bayern Munich.

Here, ahead of the Bundesliga’s return, are the greatest title comebacks in the history of the league.

In the days of two points for a win, only two teams ever made up a six-point gap to win the league.

They were Werder Bremen (1992/93) and Bayern Munich (1993/94).

2001/02 – Borussia Dortmund

Dortmund may have been second, and level with top on points, at the midway stage of the campaign this year but only after a horrific start to the campaign.

Just seven games into the season, Matthias Sammer’s side were eight points from the summit.

Luckily for them, Kaiserslautern collapsed and Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen both endured long blips during the campaign.

2008/09 – VfL Wolfsburg

Perhaps the greatest title comeback all of European football has ever seen. At the turn of the year, 17 games in, VfL Wolfsburg were in ninth.

Nine points from league leaders TSG Hoffenheim.

They won 14 of their remaining 17 games, scoring 45 goals thanks to the firepower of Grafite and Edin Dzeko, to win the league. The highlight, of course, was Grafite’s incredible solo goal in the 5-1 defeat of Bayern Munich.

2009/10 – Bayern Munich

With Louis van Gaal in charge, Bayern were eight points behind after seven games.

An amazing nine-game winning run turned things on their head. By the halfway stage, just 10 games later, Bayern had obliterated the gap and were joint top.

Ultimately, they finished five points above Schalke. The sides who enjoyed that eight point lead early on – Hamburg and Leverkusen – dropped all the way to fourth and seventh respectively.

2011/12 – Borussia Dortmund

In a similar story, Jürgen Klopp’s side had a terrible time as they began their title defence.

Dortmund lost three of their opening six games and found themselves eight points behind league leaders Bayern.

An incredible chase saw BVB just three points back at the turn of the year before they embarked on a record-setting second half of the season.

Klopp’s side won 15 of the 17 games after the winter break, drawing the other two, and ended the campaign as champions with 81 points. At the time, that was a Bundesliga record.

2018/19 – ?

Bayern Munich have won five games in a row to cut the gap to six points.

Just a couple of months ago, 12 games in, the gap to Dortmund was nine points.

Will they become just the second team ever (after Wolfsburg) to come back from such a gap to claim the title.

Or can Dortmund hold them off?