The Borussia's objective is almost fulfilled and with both Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen losing last weekend, it means there is a seven-point gap between qualification and a fifth-place finish.
Which suggests that a return to Europe’s premier club competition is very much in Dortmund’s hands and with only four games of the season left to play, it would take a monumental collapse for them to be playing in the Europa League next season.
Last weekend saw the Black and Yellow edge past an inform Hertha Berlin and although the focus is usually on the talents of Jadon Sancho, it was the former Liverpool and Juventus midfielder Emre Can who scored the game’s only goal.
There is no doubt that this was a hard fought win over the side from Germany’s capital and the challenge for Lucien Favre is to make sure his charges don’t take their foot off of the pedal, now that their title dream is all but extinguished.
If that is to be the case this weekend, then struggling Fortuna Dusseldorf will certainly be ready to pounce and with them currently occupying the relegation play-off position, they are in desperate need of additional points.
Uwe Rosler’s men were recently thumped by Bayern Munich and were it not for the fact that Hans-Dieter Flick decided to put the breaks on after the interval, if only to show Fortuna some much needed mercy, it could have got far uglier than the 5-0 loss that they suffered.
Admittedly there was a slight improvement last weekend, as they held 10-man Hoffenheim to a 2-2 draw at the Merkur Spiel-Arena. However, at this point of the season, draws really do need to be turned into wins. With Mainz 05 currently three points clear, Uwe Rosler knows he and his Fortuna players will have to conjure up something special over the next couple of weeks, if they are to avoid facing off against the third place side in Bundesliga.2