Borussia Dortmund's Last-Gasp Win at Wolfsburg Shows They Can Challenge Bayern

Borussia Dortmund left two things late in Saturday's 2-1 win in the Bundesliga at VfL Wolfsburg: First, they finally conceded the equaliser that had been coming for 50 minutes. But after that, they finally finished one of their counter-attacks to score the unlikely winner. It was the kind of win that shows why Dortmund might be able to give Bayern Munich a proper challenge this season.

The build up that led to the winner was quite possibly the move of the game, but it almost never happened: Jonas Hofmann's pass to fellow substitute Shinji Kagawa was ever so close to being intercepted, which would either have ended the game or might even have opened up an opportunity for the Wolves to score a winner themselves.

Oliver Hardt/Getty Images

Kagawa, on the bench to start the game but substituted on for Ilkay Gundogan, played to Lukasz Piszczek, who managed to redeem himself for giving away the penalty that led to Wolfsburg's equaliser, as he lobbed a delicate cross to Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The Armenian had an awful lot to do, but he—as with most things he does this season—did incredibly well, as he volleyed the ball into the path of Kagawa, who remained cool, calm and collected to slot the ball beyond 'keeper Diego Benaglio and give his team the three points.

The late victory over Wolfsburg was testament to their resiliency, character and the "fantastic spirit" head coach Thomas Tuchel praised after the final whistle. It was the kind of win that can be the inspiration to go on to do great things. 

Beating the Wolves on their turf, where they had gone unbeaten for 29 matches since March 2014, was a tall task. Consider the many ways the odds were stacked against the Black and Yellows.

They were without their regular centre-back pairing, as Mats Hummels and Sokratis Papastathopoulos missed the game with a stomach bug. Julian Weigl was absent for the same reason. As sporting director Michael Zorc pointed out after the game (via WAZ, in German), Dortmund had to play without their entire central axis after Gundogan was forced to leave the pitch with problems to his lower back. 

Dortmund were unlucky to play against 11 men until the end of the game, as Wolfsburg's midfielder Maximilian Arnold should've been sent off for a punch in Matthias Ginter's face—he was already booked, so even if the referee deemed his strike not worthy of a straight red card, it would've been a second yellow.

The Black and Yellows also had to pull the win off despite star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang playing perhaps his worst game of the season: He didn't have a single shot on target, per WhoScored.com, and local paper WAZ graded him as the worst player on the pitch with a rating that translated to 0/10 (link in German).

Finally, Wolfsburg's equaliser through a penalty came in injury time itself, leaving Dortmund with only one chance to get the winner.

Michael Sohn/Associated Press

And yet, the Black and Yellows pulled it off. Their win sees them now only five points behind league leaders Bayern, who lost their first match of the season earlier on Saturday at Borussia Monchengladbach.

Jonathan Harding of Deutsche Welle wrote on Dortmund's big win and Bayern's first defeat: 

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The last time Bayern lost and Dortmund won on the same weekend was matchday 32 of last season. Back then, the title had long been in the bag for Bayern and Dortmund were an enormous 33 points behind their Munich rivals. This weekend, with 19 games left in the season Dortmund managed what they could not last season. The difference now, is the gap at the top is just five points.

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While it remains unlikely that Dortmund can hang with the Bavarian giants over the course of the entire season, their win at the fortress that was the Volkswagen Arena made one thing fairly clear: Bayern won't win the league by default this year.

Considering the big changes the Black and Yellows made in the summer, with a new head coach installing a new footballing philosophy in the team, and where they came from—at this stage last year they were 16th—that alone is an enormous accomplishment.

Lars Pollmann is a featured columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for Yellowwallpod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.