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Pep Guardiola’s first match in charge of Bayern Munich turned out to be a loss as Borussia Dortmund played some classic counter-attacking football to comprehensively defeat the Bavarians 4-2 at Signal Iduna Park.
Marco Reus opened the scoring after a goalkeeping blunder by Tom Starke but Robben equlaized in the 56th minuted with a free header from Philip Lahm cross. But within two minutes, Dortmund scored twice with a Van Buyten own goal and a piece of genius from Ilkay Gundogan.
But few minutes later Robben pulled one back after some poor positioning from Subotic and brought the deficit down to one. However, in the 86th minute, Reus scored his second goal in a well executed counter-attack as new recruit Aubameyang notched up his first assist in a goal that was wrapped in offside controversy.
Let’s look at the 5 talking points of this match:
Roman Weidenfeller
Roman Weidenfeller
This man is getting better by the day, and was one of the main reasons Dortmund got into the Champions League final last year. At 33 years of age, he seems to have reached his peak, and he put up a masterclass performance against Bayern.
While their defence was shaky, he was an assured presence at the back and made world-class saves last night. He made a double save against Shaqiri’s low shot and the rebound by Thomas Muller. His distribution was excellent as many of his balls found the wide men and his command inside the box while during corners, he is like Peter Schmeichel on work.
Arjen Robben
Whatever be the occasion, it seems like Arjen Robben cannot remain without scoring against Borussia Dortmund. In a team that was laying more emphasis on retaining possession and creating chances, Arjen Robben was more of a direct threat with his runs in the wings.
At the start of the second half, he switched to the left wing and timed a late run perfectly to head home Philip Lahm’s cross in the 56th minute as he was left unmarked. But as Dortmund scored twice in two minutes, he scored again after a few minutes.
Again, as Lahm put in a low cross, he took advantage of some poor positioning by the defenders to hit a low shot through the legs of Subotic which caught Weidenfeller unawares. But one man was not enough to beat Dortmund.
Ilkay Gundogan
Ilkay Gundogan
There are plenty of reasons why Ilkay Gundogan is one of the most sought-after midfielders in Europe, and he showed that with a brilliant performance against Bayern in the Supercup final.
The departure of Mario Goetze and injury to new signing Mkhitaryan prompted Jurgen Klopp to move Gundogan up the field to play behind the striker. Dribbling is a fairly big part of his game and the 22-year-old never shies away from taking on the opposition.
He drives through the midfield, accentuating the purposefulness of everything he does. Not only did he control Dortmund’s attack, he also capped this performance with a goal of pure class.
As he was on the edge of the box, he made an excellent dummy with his left leg to pry away Thomas Muller before scoring with a curling shot past the nervous Tom Starke.
Guardiola is implementing his philosophy
Pep Guardiola
While Bayern crashed to a 4-2 defeat, one thing was evident; the Bavarians are starting to play the Guardiola way and this was done excellently in the first half as Bayern crowded the midfield with Shaqiri playing behind the striker, leaving the left flank totally to Alaba.
Although they started misplacing passes in the second half more often, the system was in place properly throughout the first half as Dortmund were chasing shadows for good part of the half. Thiago Alcantara was the chief architect of this as he put up an assured performance as Bayern dominated proceddings earlier.
Thiago was comfortable on the ball and also made his way through their midfield and created chances, one of which was hit on the post by Thomas Muller.
Guardiola’s old demons are back to haunt him
Bayern after defeat
During his last season at Barca, even though their attack was tactically perfect, his defence was always prone to errors. While he played a compact midfield in a tight area, his defence was exposed when their opposition counter-attack with pace.
His defence struggled when they played against a team with a goal poacher who would play between the centre backs. That was just what happened against Dortmund, who are known to transform from defence to attack in just seconds and have Robert Lewandowski, a perfect fox-in-the-box who plays between the centre backs.
Daniel van Buyten could not match the pace of Dortmund and Jerome Boateng was ill-equipped to handle Lewandowski’s off-the-ball movement.
All the 4 goals conceded by Bayern were a result of poor defending and lack of co-ordination with the goalkeeper. Unless Guardiola decides to play a more disciplined defence, teams can always catch Bayern unawares on the break with both full backs regularly overlapping the wingers.
