BVB 2 – 3 Bayern Munich
07/11/20
Bundesliga Rnd7
Bayern ended top of the first estimation over who will be champions in the Bundesliga this season, coming from behind to beat Borussia Dortmund at Signal Aduna Park.
Marco Reus put the BlackYellows ahead with a powerful finish on forty-four minutes.
David Alaba’s deflected free-kick restored parity in the last minute of injury time in the first half.
Robert Lewandowski nodded in after getting across former teammate Mats Hummels just after the break.
Leroy Sane scored a neat finish after coming on as a substitute and Haaland made it a nervy last five minutes for Bayern going round Neuer to score and bring it within one.
The destination of the Meisterschale should be decided between these two sides although Leipzig might have a say having leapfrogged both Bayern and BVB to top spot after their 3-0 win over Freiburg before kick-off.
Bayern’s win puts them top of Bundesliga, with Leipzig second and Borussia Dortmund third going into the international break.
The match was startling for many reasons including Lewandowski being denied two goals by VAR and Bayern overturning a seventeen game BVB run – the BlackYellows undefeated after taking the lead in seventeen matches.
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First half – BVB didn’t lose it
Bayern could have been ahead within forty seconds had Lewandowski not sliced Lucas Hernandez’s awkward cross just wide of Roman Burki’s post from three yards.
Surprisingly for the free scoring record holders the first save of the match didn’t come until a quarter of an hour in.
Leon Goretzka was in the perfect position to nod in Kimmich’s cross if it hadn’t been for Manual Akanji’s intervention.
From the second crack, Boateng collected the clearance and floated a ball to the back post which Goretzka nodded at goal and Burki pushed away.
The game was a typical, tightly contested top of the table clash between the two powerhouses of Germany. The football was fast, frantic and Neuer was doing that annoying thing of playing sweeper keeper better than seasoned defenders.
A lot of eyes were on Jadon Sancho with questions over the striker’s recent form after a distracting summer being pursued by Man United.
Sancho’s opening performance didn’t dispel doubters.
The English forward wasn’t getting on the ball enough, often made the wrong decisions and at times looked lost and confused, particularly when he headed out his own goalkeeper’s pass to him on ten minutes.
Nothing is left to chance in these types of games and even though Meunier’s sweep up field looked like a pass lacking ideas, it almost got Gio Reyna in behind Bayern fullback Bouna Sarr.
Meunier and Reyna pulled the trick off again playing another cross field pass into the right back area. This time Sarr was missing and Reyna slipped in Haaland one-on-one with Neuer, but the big Norwegian pulled his shot across goal.
No team in the history of Bundesliga has scored as many goals as Bayern at this early stage in the season – 24 goals in the opening 6 matches – and with Bayern not hitting the net in almost half an hour they looked like they were at least starting to get the shakes, and at most getting angry.
That’s a polite way to describe goal machine Lewandowski when he found his tap-in off an excellent Gnabry cross being checked by VAR.
Inexplicably VAR ruled the goal out for offside when TV pictures showed the Pole was level.
A seismic shift in the game came on thirty-four minutes and it was through one of those rare things – a Bayern mistake.
It’s like seeing Halley’s Comet watching Bayern being exposed at the back.
From a thrown-in in the Dortmund half the ball was tossed back to Sarr who missed it, Haaland came charging through, Kimmich took him out looking to be last man, and sustaining an injury in the process, then Reyna fed the ball to Sancho whose cross clearly hit the arm of Goretzka but referee Manuel Grafe kept his whistle in his pocket.
Kimmich’s lunge at Haaland meant the dynamo midfielder had to be replaced by Tolisso.
Bayern losing Kimmich is like a body losing its heart. With the German international off the field it was no surprise Dortmund found a way to score.
The goal was a thing of simple beauty.
Sancho played in Raphael Guerreiro who powered a low cross into the box which was finished by BVB captain Marco Reus with Germanic no nonsense.
Bayern haven’t lost a top of the table clash (first v second) in five years – versus Wolfsburg back at the beginning of 2015 – so it’s no surprise they responded, through a David Alaba freekick.
The pre-planned routine over the deadball was nice. Lewandowski was the decoy, Gnabry rolled it to Muller and Alaba ran in, but his shot took a heavy deflection to beat Burki.
Bayern equalised with the last kick of the first half.
Second half – Lewan has the final say
Every stat has been torn into and turned over in comparing Lewandowski and Haaland.
Shots, goals, chances made, chances missed, conversion rates, but what it comes down to is experience and the killer instinct to score.
Two minutes into the half Sancho played in Haaland who couldn’t decide whether to shoot or cross to Reus for a tap-in. Haaland’s cross come shot squirmed across goal and out for a goal-kick.
A minute later Lewandowski got across former teammate Hummels and nodded in Hernandez’s cross from eight yards.
Of the two finishes Haaland’s was far easier to make something of but Lewan, at 32, seems to appreciate these opportunities more. Haaland sometimes plays with a carefree attitude that blunts him in the knowledge more chances will come.
On the hour mark English prodigy Jude Bellingham was introduced for his first taste of Klassiker action, but it was Sane’s introduction, also his first taste of ‘Der Klassiker’ after moving to Bayern from Manchester City, that was more impressive.
Cameras focused on Haaland after the goal as it was him who lost the ball, which in two passes across the field was fed to Sane to score.
Haaland looked like a man who had read the pre-match hype on him and Lewandowski’s face-off.
The Norwegian was determined to score and got his deserved goal on eighty-three minutes.
The ball was lofted into the box, Haaland brought it down expertly and rounded Neuer to finish.
1-1 between the striking goliaths, but 11-6 in the league and most pertinently 3-2 on the night.
Man of the match: Robert Lewandowski
His goal alone gives him the award. The Pole is the difference between Bayern and the rest, and something that all BVB’s youthful energy cannot overcome. Very real chance this season of beating Muller’s forty-nine year record of forty league goals in a single season.
BVB, 4-5-1: Burki, Hummels, Akanji, Delaney (<-60′), Reus (c), Witsel, Meunier, Guerreiro, Sancho (<-69′), Reyna (<-69′), Haaland
Subs: Morey, Hazard (->69), Bellingham (->60), Dahoud, Witsel, Can, Piszczek, Passlack, Brandt (->69′)
Bayern Munich, 4-2-3-1: Neuer (c), Boateng (<-69′), Alaba, Goretzka, Hernandez, Coman (<-69′), Muller, Lewandowski, Sarr, Gnabry, Kimmich (<-36′)
Subs: Nubel, Martinez (->69′), Sane (->69), Costa, Choupo-Moting, Roca, Tolisso (->36), Richards, Musiala
Goals: Reus 45’, Alaba 45 +4’, Lewandowski 48’, Sane 80’, Haaland 83’
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Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 