Bayern Munich's Bundesliga dominance under threat as season heads for thrilling finale

Bavarians' 11-year hold on title crown being challenged by likes of Dortmund, Leipzig and Freiburg

Manuel Neuer is off his crutches, walking gingerly. There is no date for when Bayern Munich will have their captain back in action, but the hope is that his condition, after breaking a leg while skiing in December, might improve in parallel with better health on the field at his club.

Neuer is one of the few senior Bayern players who can still remember what it is like to finish a season without lifting the Bundesliga shield. They were second in his first year at the club, 2011/12 but never as low again.

A decade of domestic supremacy would endorse Neuer’s status as club icon. His poor judgment in deciding to spend a day on skis in the post-World Cup break, and his subsequent criticisms of the Bayern hierarchy, have damaged the goalkeeper’s standing.

If this German league title, fiercely contested by up to six teams with 14 games to go, ends up somewhere else, Neuer will be among those at whom fingers are pointed. There will be regrets about the departure of Robert Lewandowski, sold to Barcelona after breaking goalscoring records while Bayern extended their monopoly on the title.

There will be pundits wondering out loud if Bayern, in headhunting Julian Nagelsmann as manager 18 months ago, identified the best young manager in Germany or if there are others just as gifted.

Among them Edin Terzic, 40, whose Borussia Dortmund can go three points ahead of Bayern if they win a 10th successive match on Friday, at home to RB Leipzig. Or perhaps Terzic’s predecessor in the Dortmund job, Marco Rose? Rose, 46, has taken Leipzig to within striking distance of the top two and a point off third-placed Union Berlin in what is a compelling battle.

Drop down the table another notch and provincial Freiburg, five points beneath Bayern and Dortmund, must regard themselves as contenders, or at least ready to pounce if others slip up.

With Eintracht Frankfurt, the reigning Europa League champions, just a victory shy of leapfrogging Freiburg, an argument can be made that Germany has the most competitive league, in its upper reaches, of the major top divisions in Europe.

The jump between first place and sixth in the English Premier League, in Italy’s Serie A and in Spain’s Liga stands at over 20 points each. In France’s Ligue 1 it is 16 points – twice as many as separate Frankfurt from the joint leaders.

Form favours the pair who meet at an expectant Westfalenstadion on Friday. Since the World Cup, Dortmund have a 100 per cent record. Since Leipzig hired Rose, who left Dortmund last summer after a single season, they have gathered more points than any rival: 37 from the 17 games Rose has been in charge. The launch pad for that run? September’s 3-0 Leipzig victory over Dortmund in what was the Leipzig-born, ex-Dortmund manager’s first match in charge.

“We’ll go there with a lot of self-confidence,” said Rose, ahead of his first trip back to the Westfalen since he left, “and it’s a big challenge. We need a brave performance.” He’d like a first half like last weekend’s, a 2-1 victory over Frankfurt, when by the 40th minute Emil Forsberg had added to Timo Werner’s sixth-minute opener, or like the second half of Leipzig’s Champions League last-16 first leg against Manchester City, when, having been dominated for the first 45 minutes, Rose’s tactical tweaks re-energised his side, earning a 1-1 draw.

Leipzig 1 Manchester 1: Player ratings

Rose seemed unfussed about going to his old workplace. “I don’t think my time at Dortmund damaged me,” he shrugged. “A few things happened that meant I am now coach at Leipzig.” Rose can hardly feel the switch is a demotion when his new club boast identical firepower to his former one – 45 league goals for each so far in the campaign – and the same defensive record: 27 goals conceded.

Both Dortmund and Leipzig also have centre-forwards coming back from lay-offs. Sebastien Haller, signed last summer to replace the departed Erling Haaland, has recovered from treatment for testicular cancer, and started three of the last five Bundesliga games. “He’s on a really good path,” said Terzic.

Christopher Nkunku, the France international who picked up a knee injury just before the World Cup, has come off the bench in Leipzig’s last three matches. Rose indicated he could start: “He’s had a good week in training so it’s an option.”

Meanwhile in Munich, where Neuer and his colleagues will watch Dortmund-Leipzig anxiously, there is another high-class striker impatient to be among the goals.

Bayern’s Sadio Mane, who picked up a serious injury in November, made his return with 25 minutes left of last Sunday’s statement 3-0 win over Union. With Haller, Nkunku and Mane all eager to have a say in it, a gripping title race is moving into higher gears.