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Bayern Munich reasserted their dominance in the Bundesliga as they made easy work of the prime contenders for the title they're defending this season. Bayern Munich were in business having dominated most of the first half, but they really stepped it up in the second and took the 1-0 half-time scoreline to a 4-0 thrashing of their opponents.
Der Klassiker began with the visiting Borussia Dortmund on top, but their forward push lasted about five minutes after which Bayern dominated the rest of the 85. Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring for Bayern as early as in the 17th minute. The hosts would continue to create chances through the rest of the half but Dortmund held on till the end of the first half.
It took Serge Gnabry just a couple of minutes from the second half restart to drill Bayern's second goal of the night past Roman Burki. Any comeback expected of Dortmund, who came back from 2-0 down in midweek, was quickly put to an end as the Bavarians created chance after chance. They finally added to their tally in the 76th minute as the Polish striker doubled his tally.
Mats Hummels, who scored for Bayern when these two sides last met in April, scored once again for his former side as his attempt to clear Perisic's cross ended up in his own net. Flick's tenure as interim boss at Bayern may have been expected to be rocky but few can ask for a better start.
#4 Is there no stopping Robert Lewandowski?
Scoring for Bayern in 11 consecutive games, 16 goals for them so far and we're only through about a quarter of the season, and there are no signs of Robert Lewandowski letting up anytime soon.
He was sublime yet again for Bayern who have been less than perfect so far this season, but Lewandowski has been in the form of his life. Having even scored in the 5-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt last season, it's no surprise that he netted against Dortmund. However, he was crucial in Bayern's overall play as well and displayed good composure and awareness to bring Gnabry and Coman into play.
#3 Bayern Munich's gamble paid off
In the 5-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern started with a back four of Benjamin Pavard, Jerome Boateng, David Alaba, and Alphonso Davies. Perhaps it may have worked had Boateng not got himself sent off early in that tie, but it was still a gamble to soldier on with that plan, only replacing Boateng with Javi Martinez.
It may not be the plan for Bayern on a regular basis in future fixtures either, but it worked against Dortmund who found it difficult to deal with the Bayern winders making runs through the channels while Davies and Pavard provided the width. The wingers and full-backs exchanging roles further confused a hapless Dortmund defence as well.
Davies has publicly stated that he doesn't particularly like playing in the left-back position, but at Bayern, he's been asked to do so due to the squad's injury issues. If Bayern continue to employ this system, Davies may be well suited to it as well with having to do minimal defending and large portions of his job having to do with positioning rather than defending deep.
#2 Borussia Dortmund's non-existent midfield
Axel Witsel and Julian Weigl have both been great servants for Dortmund and have separately or together in the past been the best players on the pitch for this team. Yet against Bayern on the day, they were unable to shield their defence and they even failed to bring some calm to the game or pass out to their attack regularly to release pressure on the team.
Often, huge gaps would open up between Dortmund's defence and attack as the duo were caught too high or too deep, allowing the likes of Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry to come in off the wings and run directly at the Dortmund backline. If it wasn't the wingers, then the likes of Thomas Muller and Leon Goretzka carried the ball up the pitch for the home team and linked up easily with Lewandowski.
The two even failed to shuffle from side-to-side, making Bayern's task of bypassing Dotmund's midfield a fairly straightforward task.
#1 Individual masterclasses from Bayern
Robert Lewandowski has been on a different level for Bayern Munich all season. He simply brought that immense form into this game. However, there were plenty of other indiviual performances for the Bavarians that stood out in Der Klassiker.
Bayern's midfield has not functioned as fluently as they did against Dortmund for a long time. With Joshua Kimmich anchoring the midfield and cutting out most of the danger supplemented by Muller and Goretzka's movement off the ball, Dortmund could scarcely cope with what was happening around them.
When the Dortmund side did manage to somehow move past this triangle, the stand-in centre-back Javi Martinez was always a step ahead of them, anticipating and stepping in before Dortmund could build up any steam at all. A defensive showing that conceded no shots on target is a testament to that.
Finally, Benjamin Pavard down the right flank was an absolute joy to watch. His ability to determine when to go forward vs when to hang back provided balance and every time he went forward, he provided some direct running and quality deliveries.
