Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Bayern Munich: Key Talking Points

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Jude Bellingham put in a battling shift in midfield. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images) /

Dortmund maintain high intensity displayed in the opener against Frankfurt

Because there’s been quite a bit of negative energy swirling around this result, I wanted to start off by steering the conversation away from what went wrong, to what went absolutely right for Borussia Dortmund. Because despite the result, this was not just your average loss to Bayern Munich.

In years past, Borussia Dortmund have found themselves suffering heavy defeats to Bayern. it is undeniable that in matches against Bayern, BVB have had issues coping with the pressure and showing up to play. In many instances, the team would go behind, and simply not show enough fight to get back into the game. This was far from true in this iteration of “Der Klassiker“.

From minute one, the energy and forward thinking play that Dortmund displayed screamed ” hey, we’re here to play, not to hide”, and I for one absolutely loved it. Just as with the opener against Eintracht Frankfurt, BVB didn’t start the game off sleeping. They instead made sure to put Bayern’s defense under some strong spells of pressure and even created a few chances early on that looked dangerous.

Bayern, on their end, also created quite a few dangerous chances that they failed to capitalize on, which were warning signs of what was to come for Dortmund unfortunately. But even when things were not going their way, BVB heads did not drop or slink back from the task at hand.

Players such as Jude Bellingham, Marco Reus and Mahmoud Dahoud all fought tooth and nail to win back possession high up the pitch and create dangerous chances, and a boatload at that. Both Erling Haaland and Youssoufa Moukoko found themselves in advantageous positions to put Dortmund ahead on a few occasions, which unfortunately they could not capitalize on.

One other positive I’d like to highlight is Gregor Kobel. You usually don’t highlight a keeper as having a standout performance after letting in 3 goals, but if we’re perfectly honest, they weren’t his fault to begin with. Kobel had several actions in the game that once again displayed his ability to play in a more sweeper-like fashion, which was something that was previously not something he really displayed as part of his game and skillset often. He was also very communicative once again, doing his best to help a makeshift defensive line stand firm against what Bayern threw at them.