Not content with a hugely respectable 12 goals and a league-leading 14 assists in helping his side take the title race until the final day, Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho wasted little time in looking ahead to next season by laying down the gauntlet to champions Bayern Munich.

Dortmund might have regrets when they look back at this season – they were nine points ahead of Bayern before the halfway stage – but they have improved immeasurably since last term and Sancho says they deserve credit for pushing the record champions right to the very end in the title race, the Reds taking the Meisterschale after beating Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 34.

"It’s really difficult, we played really well today and we did everything we could," the 19-year-old, whose goal set BVB on their way to a 2-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach, told bundesliga.com. "We were unlucky this season, congratulations to Bayern. We’re going to work even harder next season and hopefully win it."

Watch: Jadon Sancho looks ahead to the 2019/20 Bundesliga season

Niko Kovac's Bayern side will be under no illusions as to how hard they had to work for a seventh league title in a row, and the challenge to hold Dortmund off next season will be even tougher.

Borussia's young guns – the likes of Manuel Akanji, Abdou Diallo and Sancho himself – have taken huge steps in their development this season, and their improvement, alongside the experience of Marco Reus, Mario Götze and Axel Witsel, should make for an exciting recipe at BVB next term.

Above all, however, it is the experience of this season and the disappointment of missing out on the big prize that will drive the players to go one step further next term.

"We did everything and we believed until the end, and in that respect I'm proud to have led the team as captain this season," Sancho’s teammate and captain, Reus, told bundesliga.com at full time. "Now we'll recharge the batteries and get prepared for the new campaign, and try to do even better next season."

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