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With over 80,000 people packed into the Signal Iduna Park and the eyes of millions of television spectators fixed on Saturday’s clash between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, it seemed almost surreal that the result was not, perhaps, of the highest importance when they met early Saturday evening. Stakes have been higher between these two rivals before and will be again.
Der Klassiker is by no means an exclusive term; it can be used to refer to a number of non-derby fixtures of gravity between a pair of Bundesliga behemoths. Bayern’s meetings with Borussia Mönchengladbach and even Hamburg, have shared the epithet in the past. Dortmund and Bayern have come to monopolise the phrase in recent years with the former winning successive titles in 2011 and 2012 and helping to inspire the latter to incredible new heights.
Yet even if 31 points and almost half the Bundesliga table separated the two at kick-off, it certainly felt like it still mattered. This was as keenly contested as ever, with possession shared equally and 55 tackles made in total during the contest. It felt, in short, as if the pair were still rivals.
If we stay with the theme of taking Saturday’s game in isolation, Dortmund’s general performance was good despite their defeat and besides, a narrow defeat to the champions and runaway leaders is no embarrassment. In the context of a deflating season, however, it was far too familiar a tale for Dortmund fans and, one suspects, Jürgen Klopp himself.
The numbers tell their own tale for die Schwarzgelben, for better and for worse. Klopp’s team deserve to be commended, for manufacturing 15 attempts at goal to Bayern’s 7 (though they only managed 2 on target each). Yet if one takes away the fact that it was against Bayern, it was more of the same in a season of frustration.
Attacking intent has never been the issue for Dortmund in this campaign. They average 16.7 shots per game, with only Bayern (17.4) managing more. The conversion rate, however, is poor, with only 34 goals scored in 27 league matches to date. They are 10th in the goals scored table, with less than half of Bayern’s 71 and significantly less than Wolfsburg (60), Eintracht Frankfurt (51) and Bayer Leverkusen (49).
At the other end, Dortmund were again undone by an avoidable goal. Mats Hummels has widely carried the can for Robert Lewandowski’s winner in the German and international media, but being caught too high up the pitch is at least partly due to a loss of confidence in his defensive colleagues, drawing him out to force matters.
On Hummels’ left, Marcel Schmelzer was far from his best (rating 6.3 and failing to make a single interception) and Neven Subotic has struggled to regain his best form on the other side. Subotic’s passing in the Bundesliga (78.7% accuracy) is more wasteful than at any point since 2010/11, despite attempting less long balls than at any season in the intervening period. The centre-back is also averaging less interceptions than at any point in his Dortmund career (1.9).
Essentially, a fifth home defeat of the season followed a similar pattern to a couple of the previous ones, notably against Hannover and Hamburg, with a lack of efficiency at both ends meaning spells of domination went unrewarded.
This wasn’t just any opposition, of course. Although they may be as comfortable as can be in terms of getting set to retain their title, Bayern have their own challenges. For one, they need to retain the intensity that waned so badly at this point last season – the title was already in the bag but the lack of sharpness cost them in the Champions League. Given that their quarter-final tie, while ostensibly one of the easier possibilities, pits them against the only unbeaten side in the competition in Porto, that is simply not an option this time around.
In terms of staying alert, Der Klassiker couldn’t have been much better preparation for the resumption of European competition. Pep Guardiola clearly expected as much before kick-off, though his shuffle to a three-man defence and a central midfield patrolled by Xavi Alonso, Bastian Schweinsteiger and the returning Philipp Lahm perhaps said as much about injury issues as it did about paying respect to the hosts.
Certainly the defensive trio of Medhi Benatia, Jerome Boateng and Dante were fully concentrated. Their brief was to soak and smother – in a similar way to which other mere mortals have at Westfalen this season – and they did it excellently. Benatia completed 12 clearances, Boateng 6 interceptions and Dante 11 of both combined. They were clear-minded at the moments they needed to be, something that Dortmund have struggled with all season.
One thing Bayern struggled to do was to counter effectively, which is always a useful tool against a defence that pushes as high as Dortmund’s. This was at least partly to do with the continued absences of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry, though Guardiola expects to have the Frenchman back for the Porto tie.
The long-awaited return of Thiago Alcântara bodes well, though. His 22-minute cameo saw him take control of the midfield quickly, taking 27 touches and supplying a key pass – and nobody else on the Bayern side managed more than one key pass in the entire match. He can keep a grip on the game’s tempo, and then switch play quickly if needed.
The level of control that Thiago provides would be welcome in any team, and certainly in Dortmund’s – they again missed the equilibrium in midfield provided by Nuri Sahin, who has been restricted to just 6 starts in this Bundesliga campaign by various fitness issues.
Composure was perhaps the major difference on the day – and the same could be argued over the season, even if a clear gap in class is clear. With DfB Pokal quarter-finals against Hoffenheim and Leverkusen respectively on the menu this week, it remains to be seen whether Dortmund and Bayern’s current modest levels of penetration are enough to fulfil their remaining ambitions this season.
