Bundesliga wrap: Dortmund crowned champions

Borussia Dortmund are the 2010/11 Bundesliga champions following a 2-0 drubbing of Nurnberg and a helping hand from Cologne on Saturday.

Lucas Barrios and Robert Lewandowski piled on first-half goals to ensure Dortmund would take the points in front of a thrilled 80,000-strong home crowd at the Westfalenstadion.

Cologne dumped Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 to allow Dortmund an unassailable eight-point lead on the Bundesliga table with two games to play.

It is Dortmund’s seventh league title, their fourth of the Bundesliga era and their first since the 2001/02 season.

Dortmund fans could perhaps sense something special about to take place as play got underway, one week after their club inadvertently let Leverkusen back into the title race with a shock loss to Borussia Monchengladbach.

Though it was a while coming, their first chance of the game produced a 1-0 lead as Barrios scored in the 32nd minute.

The Paraguay international poked a rebound into the net after Nurnberg goalkeeper Raphael Schafer could only parry Mario Gotze’s shot into Barrios’ path.

With renewed confidence Dortmund surged into attack again, and two minutes from half-time Lewandowski latched on to Mats Hummels’ through-ball and dipped his shot over Schafer.

If that was not enough to lift Dortmund supporters to full voice, the announcement that Leverkusen had fallen a goal behind in the second half sent the capacity crowd into ecstasy.

With eight minutes to go it became apparent that Dortmund had secured the title, and manager Jurgen Klopp allowed himself some small celebrations on the touchline before the final whistle had even blown and the party got underway.

Milivoje Novakovic was the unsung hero of the day for Dortmund, piling a second-half brace past Leverkusen goalkeeper Rene Adler to ensure the title hopefuls would fall short in this campaign.

The Slovenia international, who now has 16 goals for the season, scored on 67 minutes and again in the 82nd minute for Cologne, who rise four points clear of the relegation places in 14th.

Elsewhere, third-placed Hannover conceded some ground in the tussle for the final Champions League place with a 1-0 loss at home to Monchengladbach, with Marco Reus (76) the lone goal-scorer.

Colombia international Elkin Soto sent 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt into the drop zone, scoring a brace in Mainz’s 3-0 defeat of the relegation battlers, while Stuttgart boosted their survival hopes with a third straight win, 2-1 at Hoffenheim.

Finally, Freiburg dumped Hamburg 2-0 on Papiss Cisse’s brace, leapfrogging their opponents into seventh place.