Hat-trick by LewanGOALski for the win in Der Klassiker

104th Der Klassiker came and gone, and it didn’t disappoint. Six goals, plenty of chances, running, high tempo, corners…everything an average football fan can hope for. Borussia fought bravely without some key players, managed to score two surprising early goals, but that was their biggest problem – they scored them too early. After 10 minutes it was 0-2, and Bayern had 80 more minutes to prepare four-goal revenge and defeat the Millionaires for the seventh time in a row at Allianz Arena. Can you imagine any of the top six clubs in the Premier League playing a 4-2 match? 0-0 comes to mind, but not in a German derby.

Without Sancho, Witsel, Akanji, Reyna, and Guerreiro, Borussia was already very, very handicapped and the only way they could do anything against Bayern was to use their pace and create problems for the shaky Bavarians defense, and that’s exactly what they did at the beginning of the match. And they had a powerful weapon to do it. If you ask any coach in the world how does he imagines an ideal start of the match, the probable answer would be - to lead 2-0 after 15 minutes of the game. But if you have Erling Haaland in your team, you need only 10 minutes. The fantastic striker showed all the weaknesses in Bayern’s defense when he scored within less than two minutes of the match, and he used a fantastic assist from Thorgan Hazard and scored the second just seven minutes later.

And then, Dortmund stopped. They stopped because they didn’t have any game prior to those goals, it was only 10 minutes into the match. They stopped because Bayern took the initiative and they had better and more experienced midfielders who soon took possession. And Borussia started playing like Frankfurt three weeks ago, after leading against the Bavarians 2-0. They just assumed that Bayern will score some goals just because they are Bayern, and with that state of mind, it was easy for the hosts to actually score two goals by the end of the first half, and start the second from square one. And it was Lewandowski with two goals, who else?

After the first 45 minutes, which were packed with action and goals, the second half was another story. It was the story of “let’s score the third one and show them who we are” Bayern and “let’s defend a little better and not lose this one” Dortmund. And when Haaland got a nasty bruise and left the game (Terzic needs him for other matches), Borussia’s coach made a few changes to ensure that his team won’t concede another goal. It just stopped to be Der Klassiker and became another match where Bayern is dominant and the opposition is trying to keep a draw.

And who can blame Dortmund? Without a few very important players, without their best striker and with an experienced coach, it was a logical decision. After a tackle by Dahoud in the first half, VAR decided it was a penalty for Bayern, but when a similar thing happened in the second half with Kimmich, VAR didn’t at least check the challenge. At that time, it was still 2-2. Borussia managed to hold on until the very end, but Bayern is just too dominant this season. Leon Goretzka scored a late winner before Lewandowski confirmed it in injury time. Until next season….

Hoffenheim - VfL Wolfsburg 0-1 (2-1)

/Baumgartner 8, Kramaric 41 – Weghorst 23/

Borussia M'gladbach - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0-1 (0-0)

/Schick 76/

Eintracht Frankfurt - VfB Stuttgart 1-1 (0-0)

/Kostic 69 - Kalajdzic 67/

Hertha BSC - FC Augsburg 2-1 (0-1)

/Piątek 62, Lukebakio 89 - Benes 2/

Freiburg - RB Leipzig 0-3 (0-1)

/Nkunku 41, Sorloth 64, Forsberg 79/

Bayern Munchen - Borussia Dortmund 4-2 (2-2)

/Lewandowski 26, 44(p), 90, Goretzka 88 – Haaland 2, 9/

Sunday

17:30 FC Koln - Werder Bremen

20:00 Arminia Bielefeld - Union Berlin