Borussia Dortmund can still reach 71 points from 34 matches

Borussia Dortmund can still reach 71 points from 34 matches in the Bundesliga, which would be five more than last season. Since the introduction of the three-points-for-a-win system in the Bundesliga in 1995, 71 points have been enough to win the title on eight out of 19 occasions.

“There are still six points to play for, and we want to get them all,” said Jürgen Klopp in the build-up to the penultimate league game this season before adding with a grin: “We have also noticed that this season is one of the better ones.” Since the 2010/11 campaign, BVB have averaged 2.14 points per game; this season a very good 2.03 points.

During their busy schedule with three games per week, BVB earned 16 out of a possible 18 points - more than any other club in the Bundesliga. That successful spell was followed up with a 2-2 draw at Leverkusen last weekend. “We have picked up an extraordinary amount of points during that period,” said Klopp. Referring to games against Stuttgart and Wolfsburg, which they both won from behind, as well as the match against Bayern, he added: “These were nine points which could have easily gone the other way, and then we would be under a lot of pressure now.”

But they went BVB’s way and helped them to secure second spot – leaving the 70-point mark as the final target of this Bundesliga season.

Guardiola: Style of play will not change despite Bayern's loss to Real

Pep Guardiola has admitted the club will decide his future after insisting he will not change his style of play.

The former Barcelona boss saw his team beaten 4-0 in Munich by Real Madrid and were dumped out of the UEFA Champions League semifinals. They had been chasing a defense of the trophy but suffered a mauling the like of which they have become used to dishing out.

Questions have been raised as to whether Guardiola's possession-based football has had its day, or needs some fine-tuning. Guardiola says he is more convinced than ever that his style is the right one after coming in for criticism in the wake of the exit from Europe.

"All that I have are my ideas," Guardiola said in a press conference on Friday, according to Abendzeitung. "From my first day I noticed that the players here are completely different to those in Barcelona. But my ideas are my ideas. Now we've lost to a top team in the Champions League semifinals. Sometimes that can happen. It's a shame, sad for me. But I'm sorry: I only have my ideas. And tomorrow, and against Stuttgart, and in the DFB Pokal final, and next year, we will play by my ideas."

Guardiola added: "Otherwise I can't be a coach - if I had to say something that I didn't believe in. That wouldn't be good for the team and for the players, who are very intelligent and intuitive. Finally the club must decide whether this coach with these ideas is the best for the club. But that's not my issue.

"I am strong and I've received lots of criticism, not just from here but also from Spain, but that's part of my job. When you lose 4-0, you can't expect people to help me. Looking back at the first half, then I deserve the criticism. I've got to accept it. Big defeats always stick in your mind and in your heart -- you can't forget them -- but I am more and more and more convinced of my ideas."

The Spaniard has also been criticized for his possession-based style of play with Real punishing Bayern by playing on the counter-attack at the Allianz Arena. "Why did we lose? Because we didn't play well in the first half and did not have the ball."

Bayern have at least won the Bundesliga already this season.

Bayern’s demise will only help Germany in Brazil

It may come as a source of comfort as cold as your average Bavarian winter, but Bayern Munich's Champions League exit does have an up-side. Not that the soon-to-be former European champions will benefit much, but it does mean the high-grade, numerous contingent of Bayern players likely to be sunning themselves in the hope of World Cup success in this summer will be able to take part in Joachim Löw's Nationalmannschaft pre-tournament training camp in southern Tirol for ten days of blood, sweat and not much schnapps from 21 May.

That means Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm & Co. will be able to put their feet up, sit back and endure the Champions League final on 24 May in the cosy confines of a five-star hotel rather than out on the pitch of the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. And they may just ponder the reasons why they are not there?

"We didn't play well. That's my responsibility," claimed Pep Guardiola after Tuesday's 4-0 second-leg defeat to Real Madrid, Bayern's highest-ever home loss among European club football's creme de la creme, and their biggest defeat in front of their own fans since Arminia Bielefeld triumphed in similar fashion in 1979.

There is no doubt the Spanish coach has his part in the blame. Bayern bigwig Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had brashly told kicker, "Guardiola will find the key" to unlocking Madrid after the 1-0 first-leg loss. With two years left on his contract, Guardiola is unlikely to now have to find the key to unlocking the Allianz Arena door marked 'Ausgang', but he certainly failed to prepare his team to match Madrid.

Not that he could do much about David Alaba ball-watching for the first goal - perhaps the Austrian was bewitched by Luka Modric's increasingly luxurious locks, Madrid hairdressers must be in heaven! - or Mario Mandzukic being left to handle Sergio Ramos for the second with Dante and Jerome Boateng both stalking Cristiano Ronaldo to no effect.

But Madrid's third goal was really so un-Bayern-like it was scary. Yes, Madrid are a fantastic counter-attacking team and 'BBC' can do that to any side. But the Bayern team that won the treble under Jupp Heynckes last season were not just 'any team'. On Tuesday, they looked so lacking in the verve, the hunger that embodied them last season. It is often said set-pieces are a question of will, and the opening two goals showed how little Bayern had of that, while the third, which saw only half-hearted attempts to halt Madrid's upfield charge, merely backed up that theory.

Guardiola should shoulder the blame for that. With the Bundesliga title wrapped up in record time, he declared the squad's focus should be on the cup competitions, and opted to chop and change his starting XI in order to keep players fresh. While that has been enough in the Pokal - at least to reach the final where Borussia Dortmund will now have renewed optimism of denying Bayern the double - it has seen a sheer cliff-like drop-off in form in the Bundesliga, and did not pay dividends on Tuesday when key players looked short of match sharpness. That was certainly true of Franck Ribery, who was a pale imitation of the man who underpinned last season's treble after completing just one of his last five Bundesliga outings. A coincidence? Most likely not. Squad rotation comes with the benefit of creating freshness and improving recovery, but also the unwanted side-effect of breaking players' rhythm. On Tuesday, Bayern's players were badly, and so uncharacteristically, out of sync.

Interestingly, Bayern had 64% possession against Madrid on Tuesday, according to UEFA.com, yet were on the receiving end of a 4-0 aggregate defeat. Last season, they had an average of less than 50% possession in their knockout games. Perhaps another question Guardiola needs to ponder is whether or not he has the right players to put into practice the style he preaches when his philosophy comes up against a team capable of countering it. When Plan A does not work, there seems to be no Plan B, or at least there is a huge reluctance to resort to it.

"We're at the highest level in Europe, such mistakes will be punished," said Guardiola, with reference to his team's doziness at set-pieces that all but put paid to their hopes of reaching the final within 20 minutes. He could, however, just as easily been talking about his own errors. Bayern will hope he will learn from them come next season's push to dominate Europe.