Can Dortmund Defeat Real Madrid In UCL Final: We are right on the precipice of the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League final as the biggest club football competition in Europe comes to a close with Real Madrid taking on Borussia Dortmund.
This year’s final will be one of the most exciting ones in a long time. For a few years now, either team with a lot of European pedigree or those with state backing have reached the final and won it.
In the last 10 seasons, the clubs to have won the UCL are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City. Many of them have a lot of UCL titles under their belt. And while Manchester City won the league for the first time last season, they have been one of the richest clubs in the world for over a decade.
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So what makes this season different? Yes, Real Madrid has made it to the final of the Champions League once more, but they will be taking on Borussia Dortmund, who will go into this game as massive underdogs.
Considered the favorite team of ‘true football fans’ and ‘hipsters’, the German giants arguably have the best fanbase in the world. For a team that has rarely won any trophies in the last 20 years, the Black and Yellow have some of the most dedicated fans worldwide.
But it is not only their fanbase and ‘vibes’ that make them appealing to the larger football audiences. Dortmund is also famous for being a club of global superstars of football just before they broke into the mainstream. This club is like a final step before players become superstars. The likes of Robert Lewandowski, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, and Ilkay Gundogan played here before they took over the world.
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But with all that being said, BVB has been buried in second place for a long time in Germany, with the dominant Bayern Munich winning the league for the past decade. And when Bayern’s stranglehold on German football was broken this season, it was Bayer Leverkusen who did so.
In fact, this has been one of Dortmund’s worst seasons in recent memory, as the side has finished fifth in the Bundesliga and will not even qualify for the Champions League if they lose the UCL final.
Can Dortmund Defeat Real Madrid In UCL Final?
So, does Borussia Dortmund have any chance of winning the UCL final against a powerhouse like Real Madrid?
Los Blancos come into this final as the La Liga Champions and one of the best teams in Europe. They defeated defending champions Manchester City in the quarterfinals and Bayern Munich in the semis.
The 14-time UCL winners will go into this game as strong favorites. Many fans and experts have already written off this game as an assured victory for Real.
But doing so in the beautiful sport is a huge mistake. Not only have we seen upsets take place in the Champions League, but upsets have happened before in the UCL final.
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While we consider matches like the 2004/05 final between Liverpool and AC Milan and the 1998/99 final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich as UCL final upsets, these matches have gained their legendary status because of how the winning team came from behind in the contest to win it all in the end.
If we consider the biggest proper UCL final upsets, as in the team that was heavily favoured before the match ending up on the losing end, we have to go all the way back to the 1996/97 season, where Serie A winners Juventus took on, you guessed it, Borussia Dortmund.
Many would recognize this as Dortmund’s first and only UCL win, but people tend to forget that it was not the best season for the German side. That season, they finished third in the Bundesliga, miles behind winners Munich and second-placed Leverkusen. This was better than their DFB-Pokal performance, where they lost to fourth-tier club SG Wattenscheid 09 in the first round, a club that isn’t even fully professional in 2023.
Despite that, BVB defeated Juventus 3-1 in the final of the UCL, when next to one gave them a realistic chance of winning against a team with the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero, and Didier Deschamps in the side. To add a cherry on top, Juve were also the defending champions at the time.
So, are Borussia Dortmund the underdogs going into the UCL final? Yes! But can massive upsets happen in the Champions League final? Also yes! There is even precedent for it happening, even though that happened 27 years ago.
This will also be the final game for club legend Marco Reus in the Dortmund jersey. So if for nothing else, Die Schwarzgelben would love to win it for Marco.
The 2023/24 UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund will be played in London’s iconic Wembley Stadium on Saturday, June 1 at 9:00 PM local time (Sunday, June 2 at 12:30 AM IST).
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