With the Bundesliga title already a near impossibility, even second place may be out of reach for Bayern Munich and embattled coach Louis van Gaal.

Several players have written off the season and some concede it will be difficult to recover from the stunning loss to defending champions Inter in the Champions League.

The departing Van Gaal and his team will likely finish the season without a title after sweeping the domestic double and reaching the Champions League final last season. And it’s only mid-March.

“The season is ruined,” winger Arjen Robben said when asked if there was any way the club could rescue what’s left following the loss to Inter.

Bayern players were sure they would avenge last season’s final loss to Inter and stay in the hunt for the most precious title after beating the Italian champions 1-0 in Milan. Bayer led 2-1 at home before conceding two goals to go out.

“It was a stab in the Bavarian heart,” Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.

Bayern travel to Freiburg in the Bundesliga today hoping the players will come out of their depression and cut the deficit to second place, which is now seven points. With eight games remaining, Bayern are 16 points behind Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Second place means a direct slot in the Champions League, while third place is good enough for the qualifying round.

Next year’s Champions League final is at Bayern’s Allianz Arena and it would be a disappointing if the club failed to qualify for the competition.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, Bayern plan not only to hire a new coach but apparently to completely overhaul their leaky defence.

“We have to do something in the back, because it became clear that you can win titles only with a stable defense,” Nerlinger told Thursday’s Kicker magazine.

Van Gaal, a proponent of possession-based attacking football, neglected defence and constantly changed his back four, ultimately one of the reasons for Bayern’s poor season and his downfall.Adding some intrigue to the equation, the team now in second place is Bayer Leverkusen, whose coach is Jupp Heynckes. Heynckes is reportedly the top candidate to replace Van Gaal for the new season.

Heynckes came out of retirement to coach Bayern for five games after the firing of Juergen Klinsmann before the club hired Van Gaal.

That was Heynckes’ second stint at Bayern after 1987-91 and he did such an admirable job of calming passions after the short but turbulent Klinsmann era that he promptly got hired by Leverkusen.

Heynckes still hasn’t accepted the offer to extend his contract with Leverkusen and some club officials have said they expect him to leave.

Tomorrow, Leverkusen, who are nine points behind Dortmund, host Schalke, another club going through an eventful week.

Coach Felix Magath was fired on Wednesday although Schalke are in the Champions League quarter-finals and the final of the German Cup. Schalke have been inconsistent in the Bundesliga, where they are 10th, and Magath did not get along with the some members of the board.

Dortmund are coming off their third defeat of the season, 1-0 at Hoffenheim, and face Mainz, coach Juergen Klopp’s old team. Mainz are fifth, two points behind Bayern, and have their eyes set on at least securing a slot in the Europa League.

Third-place Hannover host Hoffenheim.

Bottom-placeBorussia Moenchengladbach kicks off the 27th round with a home game against Kaiserslautern and must win to help its cause against relegation.

Yesterday

Bor. M’gladbach-Kaiserslautern 0-1

Today

Eintracht Frankfurt-St Pauli

FC Nurnberg-Werder Bremen

Hamburg-Cologne

Hannover 96-Hoffenheim

SC Freiburg-Bayern Munich

Borussia Dortmund-Mainz

Tomorrow

Bayer Leverkusen-Schalke

Stuttgart-Wolfsburg