Bundesliga 2018-19, Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich: 5 takeaways from the match

The first Der Klassiker of the season lived up to the hype. With the Bavarians struggling for form, a visit to Signal Iduna Park was never going to be easy.

The crowd shrieked at the top of their voices from the first minute. They cheered their team’s counter attacks and jeered at every possession and every chance that Bayern created.

Bayern took the lead through Lewandowski twice, both times canceled out by Marco Reus. Paco Alcacer’s winner along with a late Bayern goal ruled offside, gave Borussia Dortmund the victory.

Dortmund now sits at the top of the table, seven points clear of Bayern Munich. With head coach Lucien Favre winning over the fans at Westfalenstadion, the exact opposite is happening to Niko Kovac at Bayern. The Bundesliga title slowly slipping away from Bayern’s grasp, Niko Kovac has pressure mounting on him and he has to solve a plethora of problems.

Here are five takeaways from the Der Klassiker.

#5 Borussia Dortmund’s defence: Resistant yet vulnerable

Zagadou was effective at the back barring a few incidents

With the brutal attacking trio of Gnabry, Ribery, and Lewandowski pouring on the shots, the young Dortmund defense had to be on their toes.

Ribery and Gnabry put the defence under immense pressure, creating chance after chance, shot after shot.

The resurgent defence of Zagadou and Akanji dealt well with the front three. They managed to block off most of the shots and cutbacks. The clearances from the defense always presented an opportunity for a counter-attack.

However, both the goals that Bayern scored was as a result of a defensive lapse. The first goal for Lewandowski was a piece of cake. The cross coming in wasn’t dealt with.

Lewandowski was under no pressure and easily headed the ball in for the goal. He scored his second under similar circumstances. The defense just didn’t deal with Kimmich’s delivery and again Lewandowski finished without any pressure.

Thankfully, the defensive errors didn’t cost Dortmund and they went on to win. Luck was on their side when they just caught Ribery offside in the final minute.

The defensive four of Dortmund is young and has to learn a lot. However, they have promise and can deal with attacking teams quite well.

#4 Complacency and missed opportunities cost Bayern Munich

Opportunities have to be capitalized upon. Bayern Munich started the game with a very high tempo. They had numbers forward till they got the first goal.

They had a lot of chances which were cleared by the defence. With the experience that Bayern has upfront, they were expected to bypass the defense quite easily. Bayern did attack massively till they got the goal but they failed to keep the pressure on.

Once Bayern got the goal, their high press stopped and they let Dortmund have some possession.

Bayern could have hit Dortmund hard, had they continued to press the defense and added one more before half-time.

Instead, the players were frustrated, Lewandowski in particular, that some decisions didn’t go their way. Bayern could have got more goals in the second half as well. It was seemingly lack of trying after getting the lead.

Players of Lewandowski’s stature should have enough maturity to keep onside. But he failed to do so, in turn missing his hat-trick and potentially a game-winner.

All the possession that Bayern held was for nothing in the end. They failed to make most of the opportunity in the first half.

In the defensive end, Boateng and Hummels seemed absent. No particular threat came from Alaba either. Bayern took a wrong approach when they had the lead and ended up losing.

#3 One counter-attack too many

Sancho and Reus were very effective in counter-attacking

While Bayern Munich was having lots of possession, they poured players forward leaving the defence wide open at times. Whenever Dortmund cleared an attempt they quickly managed to turn it into a counter attack without much of a hard work.

Jadon Sancho, in particular, was creating lots of problems with his pace out wide. Achraf Hakimi and Jacob Brunn Larsen also provided width out wide during counters.

Dortmund had at least three glaring opportunities to score a goal. Marco Reus’ breakaway one-on-one attempt was a feeble one.

Jadon Sancho could have run into the open field ahead, but Ribery made a tackle in the nick of time.

Mario Gotze could have broken the defence apart when Dortmund had a four on two advantage on the counter. His pass was just too heavy for Jadon Sancho to have a run at goal.

In the second half, Sancho really took the game to Bayern causing havoc in the flanks. Even after so many breakaways, Bayern didn’t seem to care about the counter-attacks.

Bayern didn’t respect the pace that these youngsters offered and it cost them in the end. In the second half, Bayern’s defence was caught out of shape again. Axel Witsel opened them up with one neat through ball to Alcacer who did the rest.

One counter too many for Bayern Munich.

#2 Paco Alcacer comes in as a clutch, again

Ever since leaving Barcelona, Paco Alcacer has been on the form of his life. He has played minimal minutes but he seems to score every now and then.

Whatever Alcacer touches turns into a goal. In just over 200 minutes, Paco has grabbed eight goals in Bundesliga.

He scored in the UEFA Champions League win over Atletico as well and he scored for Spain in the Nations League.

Moreover, Alcacer’s goals are coming more off the bench. The Spanish international scored the third and fourth goal in the comeback win against Leverkusen, in just 27 minutes.

He scored a hat-trick off the bench with a last-minute freekick to win the game against Augsburg. This is the definition of clutch.

Lucien Favre still doesn’t trust Alcacer to start, but he is using him as the super-sub. He needed only 14 minutes to make his mark in the Klassiker.

Scoring is perhaps the only thing that Alcacer is doing but it is doing just fine for his team. He is scoring the game-winner match after match in a crucial moment.

He missed a chance to score when the ball was cleared off the line, however, he did manage to score afterward.

Alcacer did very well to get to the through ball from Axel Witsel. He left the defense behind and finished with a beautiful chip over Manuel Neuer. His goal was ultimately the game-winning goal.

Paco is a clutch player.

#1 Marco Reus with a captain’s performance

Goals, dribbles, leadership. Marco Reus was phenomenal against Bayern Munich. Had it not been for the frequent injuries Reus could have been one of the top attacking midfielders in the world. His talent is not lacking anyhow.

With the captain’s armband around his sleeves, he was Dortmund’s best player in the Klassiker.

He made himself available to receive passes during counter-attacks and he tried to make most of the opportunity provided. He should have opened the scoring in the game but made a weak attempt at Neuer.

It was Reus’ run into the box that won Dortmund the penalty. He stepped up from the spot to beat Manuel Neuer.

He missed another opportunity afterward but he scored a tougher one. Reus finished immaculately from Piszczek’s cross to beat Neuer. Reus brought Dortmund on level terms twice. Missed some easy chances but scored a tough one.

Reus was the man of the match for Dortmund in the Klassiker and he should continue his great form to help his team win the Bundesliga title.