Borussia Dortmund 2-3 Bayern Munich: BVB edged out in entertaining Der Klassiker clash

Borussia Dortmund may well feel hard done by as they fell to a 3-2 defeat against Bayern Munich on Saturday evening thanks to a number of missed chances.

Borussia Dortmund opened the scoring right on half-time as Marco Reus swept home after a lovely move from the home side, but Bayern weren’t behind for long, a clever free-kick was teed up and David Alaba smashed it home with the aid of a deflection from Thomas Meunier. 

The away side then took the lead in the second half through Robert Lewandowski and extended this lead to 3-1 later on through substitute Leroy Sane. Erling Haaland gave the Black and Yellows some hope as he tucked away an effort after neat play from Raphael Guerreiro, but it wasn’t enough as Dortmund fell to just their second league defeat of the season. 

Bayern started the game on the front foot and nearly found themselves ahead after just a minute on the clock as the ball found its way to Robert Lewandowski, but he could only find the side netting of Roman Bürki’s goal. Leon Goretzka also had a chance for the away side not too long after, as he climbed highest to power a header towards goal, only to see Bürki make a great save to keep the scores level.

The Bavarians thought they had taken the lead after 25 minutes as Serge Gnabry got down the side of Meunier and found Lewandowski, but his goal was ruled out for offside after a check from VAR.

Despite all of the Bayern pressure, it was Borussia Dortmund who struck first, a fantastic flowing move down the left-hand side lead to the ball finding Reus in the middle of the box as he side-footed the ball home to give BVB the lead.

Borussia Dortmund may have thought that Reus’ goal would be enough to get them to half-time a goal up, but it wouldn’t. A well worked free-kick on the edge of the box was executed by Alaba with the aid of a deflection to bring Bayern level going into the break.

Lewandowski did eventually get his goal for Bayern, as his excellent header from 12 yards out found its way into the bottom corner to give the reigning Bundesliga champions the lead just after the break. BVB did create a lot more chances in the second half but efforts from Gio Reyna, Haaland and Reus were all easily stopped by Manuel Neuer.

Leroy Sané was introduced for Bayern as he replaced Kingsley Coman and he took just over 10 minutes to have an impact as a clever pass from Lewandowski found the German international, who cut inside to give Bayern a two-goal lead.

Dortmund wouldn’t take the result lying down however, as Guerreiro found space in the middle of the park and lofted a ball over to Haaland whose first touch was sublime, his second took him round the on-rushing Manuel Neuer and he found the net to give the home side something to fight for with seven minutes left to play.

There was time for one last big opportunity in the game and it fell at the feet of Reus, a cross from the left found its way to his feet, but he lashed his volley over which would prove to be the last big chance for Dortmund. Robert Lewandowski thought he’d sealed the game for Bayern late on, but his goal was ruled out again for offside.

It ended 3-2 in Bayern’s favour, as Borussia Dortmund suffered a disappointing defeat in a game they should have won going into the international break. Lucien Favre’s side will travel to the capital next as they take on Hertha Berlin at the Olympiastadion in two weeks’ time.