As if the five goal embarrassment against Bayern weren’t enough, Dortmund managed to wipe out any hope of claiming the Bundesliga title with their 4-2 collapse against Schalke.  There really isn’t much to write about on a day where everything for Schalke went right and Dortmund could manage only a brief moment of magnificence.

Credit to Schalke, they were able to exploit Dortmund’s weaknesses- 1) a central midfielder playing defense who was a bit unlucky to have a ball knock into his arm from such sort range shot with no real opportunity to react, and 2) a ridiculously lackadaisical defense on a free kick, which has plagued them all year.

Dortmund did have one moment of brilliance when Sancho lifted a perfect ball over the defense as Goetze slipped behind the Schalke defense and gracefully headed home the goal.  But aside from that moment of brilliance, Dortmund owned possession but found themselves far too easily pushed, held and knocked off the ball by Schalke, who were physical and collecting yellows, but didn’t cross the line and draw straight reds as Reus and Wolf did.  Reduced to nine, it was simply game, set and match against them as the league is reduced yet again to little more than mighty Bayern and the collective everyone else.

LIFELINE update-Bayern struggled with its Bavarian rival on Sunday, and was lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw, as Nuremberg missed a penalty late.  It was the young Canadian, Davies, who had his elbow up over his shoulder in the box that led to the Nuremberg penalty.  Unfortunately, the Nuremberg penalty taker, Liebold, beat Ulreich in the Bayern goal but caught the post.  Moments later, Coman raced past the Nuremberg defense to set up a one-on-one with Nuremberg goalkeeper, Christian Mathenia, but the German goalkeeper came up with the huge save for what was a fantastic day for the keeper.  Nuremberg saved the day for Dortmund, who remain within reach of Bayern for the title, but probably wasn’t enough to save themselves, as they remain in 17th place facing automatic relegation.