Predicting Where Borussia Dortmund Will Finish in the Bundesliga This Season

With only 10 games remaining of the Bundesliga season it is now mathematically impossible for Borussia Dortmund to snatch the league title from Bayern Munich's tight grip. Similarly, with only nine points separating Jurgen Klopp's side from the bottom of the table, a drop down to the 2.Bundesliga certainly seems at the very least possible. 

Of course, neither of these circumstance were really going to happen. Dortmund didn't look like title contenders from day one of the 2014/15 season and they certainly weren't going to get relegated either. But just where will Dortmund end up come May 23?

To figure that out we have today taken a look through the club's remaining fixtures and compared them to our own predictions for where each of the top 10 teams will finish at the end of the season. 

Here is where we predict Dortmund will finish in the Bundesliga this season.

How many points will Dortmund pick up?

Taking a look at Dortmund's remaining fixtures for this Bundesliga season, we've put together a prediction of sorts which can quickly label which upcoming games Klopp's side may or may not pick up points in. 

We've kicked things off with a home win over a stubborn Cologne side this coming Saturday but then predict a bumpy ride in the following games, with Hannover taking a point when Dortmund come to town after a gruelling Champions League encounter with Juventus just a few days before. 

B/R

Following that we have Bayern Munich at home and then Borussia Monchengladbach away which realistically can't be considered two likely games in which Dortmund will be looking for wins. Bayern are, well, Bayern and Gladbach have lost just one game at home in this entire campaign. One point from these two games is the best we can envisage for Klopp's side. 

Yet then things begin to balance out with a run of easier fixtures against Paderborn, Eintracht Frankfurt, Hoffenheim and Hertha Berlin which Dortmund should really be hoping to take maximum points from. Sure, there could be potential Champions League ties littered throughout these games but the calibre of these sides should still pose little problem to a determined Dortmund side. 

Then comes an away trip to high-flying Wolfsburg which may in fact prove to be far less important to the home side than a Dortmund team fighting for European qualification. Dieter Hecking's side are currently nine points ahead of third and come the second-last matchday of the season there may be very little for the Wolves to play for. As such a draw seems only fair. 

Following that Dortmund welcome Werder Bremen to the Westfalenstadion in the finale to a roller-coaster campaign. Should Klopp's side win this concluding game it would suggest—as far as our predictions go—that the Black and Yellows will pick up 21 points from their remaining 10 games. 

So where does that leave them standing?

When we take a look at the eight teams—excluding a Bayern side that are running away with the title—above Dortmund at the moment and consider how well they've done up until this point, it is reasonable to begin speculating or indeed calculating where each team will finish up on the last day of the Bundesliga season. 

B/R

Using a very simple formula that adds together each side's current points total to the points they'll pick up in the remaining games (10 multiplied by average points per game) we can quickly deduce how many points each side will finish with and where Dortmund fit in. 

Looking at the table above, which shows positions two through to 10, we can see that the table between now and the end of the season is likely to stay very similar to what we have now, yet Dortmund will make up some ground and finish seventh. 

This, however, won't offer too much solace to a side that are always in desperate need of European football to function as a club. Despite winning six of their remaining games and only losing to Wolfsburg—according to our predictions—it looks as though Klopp's side will still finish with around five points between them and a coveted Champions League position or three beyond a Europa League spot. 

What will be interesting to note between now and May is just how much emphasis Klopp puts on the club's DFB Pokal campaign. Should Dortmund really make a push for European football next season, they may be better suited aiming for the domestic cup, with the intention of picking up a qualification spot if they can indeed win the competition. 

Similarly, the Champions League would offer another route and possible qualification to the premier continental competition yet the odds of Dortmund winning the tournament this year are slim at best. 

Ultimately, it looks as though Klopp's side may finish the 2014/15 season on an incredible high having escaped the clutches of relegation, yet in the end European football may be a step too far for Dortmund. 

@Sbienkowski