Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Bayern Munich: Key Talking Points
Delaney, Piszczek and Guerreiro continue to impress
Before we dive into the nitty gritty of why Borussia Dortmund were undone in this game, I think it is important that we look at some of the positives first. There were three in particular that stood out, Łukasz Piszczek, Thomas Delaney and Raphaël Guerreiro. Each put in a shift on the pitch despite the result.
On Delaney’s part, The Danish international continued his fine run of form by waging war on Bayern’s midfield. He was generally very quick into the challenges and broke up a lot of Bayern’s play in the first half. It was a strange move, in my eyes, for Favre to decide to bring him off and replace him with Can, who effectively played the same role, maybe with a slightly more offensive edge.
On Rapha’s part, we saw once again the stellar job he is able to do at wing back, albeit in bursts. Yet again he was energetic and often found himself in free space on the left flank, picking up passes and trying to either dribble into the box or putting passes in to try and create chances for his teammates. He may have not scored in this game, but he still played an important role in the positive side of Dortmund’s gameplay.
As with every game since the restart, Piszczek had a massive performance at right centre-back. The veteran Polish defender kept the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Müller quiet throughout the game. In the 18th minute, Piszczek had an amazing clearance after a dangerous sequence from Bayern, back-heeling the ball off the line, coolly putting it out of compatriot Robert Lewandowski’s reach. He put in a couple of crunching challenges on Lewandowski and Muller that deserve a mention as well.
Honorable mentions should also go to Mo Dahoud and Mats Hummels, who also put in significant shifts. Dahoud has seemingly taken his chances by the scruff of the neck and provided a rather energetic performance as well, with a couple shots on goal stinging the palms of Manuel Neuer. Hummels, for his part did his best to help Piszczek keep Bayern’s attackers in check and did a good job dealing with the speed of Alphonso Davies on a couple of occasions.