Schalke 04 have spent the summer celebrating 25 years of the Veltins-Arena, so Sunday evening was supposed to be the centrepiece of all that. Real Madrid put three past them.
Kylian Mbappé and Dean Huijsen had the game finished by the interval. Carlos Espí added a third afterwards.
Any Dortmund supporter who watched will have enjoyed himself enormously. The Ruhrgebiet is under no obligation to pretend otherwise.
The trouble starts a little further down the fixture list.
What die Borussen have been missing since 2023
The last Revierderby finished 2-2 at the Veltins-Arena back in March 2023. Ask a Dortmund fifteen-year-old what he remembers about that afternoon and you'll get a blank look.
Königsblau dropped into the second tier and stayed there for three seasons. The Yellow Wall coped with their absence rather well.
Then they won the thing back at a canter last term by eight points. That's no fluke promotion, however much anyone in black and yellow would like to call it one.
So the fixture list has two dates on it worth ringing. BVB Buzz set out the confirmed derby dates the day they landed. Gelsenkirchen hosts the first in December. Dortmund get the return in April.
Plenty of younger supporters have never seen a Bundesliga Revierderby. They've made do with second-hand versions from older relatives.
The unsentimental case for keeping them up
Six points off a promoted side would look extremely handy in April, particularly if the Champions League race is tight again. Two derby weeks are worth more.
The Südtribüne has spent three seasons singing songs about a club it never has to face. The songs keep going anyway. They land differently when eleven men from Gelsenkirchen are standing in front of it.
Is that sentimental? Slightly. The club hasn't hidden the commercial side of the derby either. BVB Buzz reported a Dortmund chief looking forward to the derbies the moment the fixtures landed.
Now picture the other version of it. Schalke go straight back down. Die Schwarzgelben bank one derby double, then everybody waits another three years.
So the position ends up slightly contradictory. Dortmund should want to win both derbies comfortably, then want Königsblau to pick up enough points elsewhere to survive.
That has nothing to do with goodwill. Beating Schalke is one of the better afternoons a Dortmund supporter gets, though it was off the menu for three seasons running.
Niko Kovac's side has Bayern Munich in the Supercup on the 22nd August, before any of this becomes relevant, but December will come round fast.
Verdict: Dortmund should want Schalke safe but thoroughly beaten in both matches, because the Revierderby is worth far more to this club than two comfortable victories.
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