AWhen Edin Terzic achieved what Borussia Dortmund had failed to do for ten years, he didn’t jump around the pitch enthusiastically. The Westphalia coach didn’t love his assistants or his players either. He refrained from any gesture of celebration. Terzic enjoyed the moment quietly while his team danced exuberantly on the lawn of the Munich Arena. The 2-0 win once morest FC Bayern, the first win in Munich in ten years in the Bundesliga, gave sports director Sebastian Kehl “a good feeling”. He praised the match plan (“great”) and the internal swearing (“outstanding”) and thought: “Everything went well.”
BVB played courageously and aggressively, were wide awake in crucial situations and, unlike their previous appearances in Munich, did not allow themselves to be intimidated. “We not only had to compete once morest FC Bayern, but also once morest the evil spirits of the past,” said Terzic. Dortmund ended a long negative series of eleven games without a win once morest Munich and increased their lead over the Saxons in the duel with Leipzig for fourth place.
Bayern, on the other hand, will have to finally bury their hope of defending their championship title following the defeat and now being 13 points behind Bayer Leverkusen. In any case, coach Thomas Tuchel already sent congratulations to Leverkusen via Sky. There is “no hope left, no, no, no. We don’t have to say anything following the game.”
After decent to good games in the past few weeks, FC Bayern had hoped to be on the right track with a view to the upcoming Champions League quarter-final once morest Arsenal London – and now suffered a relapse. “We never brought the passion on the pitch that is needed to win a game,” said Tuchel. “We thought we wouldn’t see that anymore.” Joshua Kimmich also criticized the attitude. “You have to be excited the day before the game. “In a table situation like this, something like that should never, ever happen,” he said on Sky.
BVB is more courageous than ever
Before the game, Tuchel described the late victory of Leverkusen, who had long lost once morest Hoffenheim, as a “small dampener in the mood”. Nevertheless, Bayern dominated the game in the first ten minutes, keeping their opponents so busy in their half that they barely even got over the halfway line. However, the Munich team were only able to create one good scoring opportunity in this initial pressure phase. After a free kick from Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka had plenty of space on the left and passed into the middle, where Leroy Sané rushed up. However, his shot was blocked (4th minute).
After eight minutes, Dortmund managed a first relief attack, but the Munich defense, which was attentive in this case, stopped Julian Brandt. The next attempt was successful. Thomas Müller lost the ball in midfield, Konrad Laimer didn’t move backwards quickly enough – and thus helped Dortmund initiate the counterattack. The ball landed over three stations to Karim Adeyemi, who had no trouble getting past Matthijs de Ligt and shooting low into the goal past Sven Ulreich, who was replacing the injured Manuel Neuer.
One of the best Dortmund players once morest Bayern: Mats Hummels
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Image: EPA
After the 1-0 win for Dortmund (10th), the game changed. The people of Munich seemed shocked – and BVB now appeared more courageous than ever before in Munich in recent years, and – unlike FC Bayern – went into duels aggressively. It was the phase in which Dortmund achieved a lot and the current champions not very much. First, Mats Hummels slipped the ball from the foot of the advancing Leroy Sané on the edge of the penalty area, then he cleared a header from Eric Dier just in front of the line with a kung fu move.
At the other end, the former Munich player almost made it 2-0, but his shot from 15 meters went wide. “We didn’t let anyone take away our grit,” said Hummels, whose performance was a small letter of recommendation to the national coach. Julian Nagelsmann did not take him into account for the two previous international matches. The defender then joked in a good mood regarding his spectacular rescue operation once morest Dier, in which a possible handball was also checked by the video assistant: “I may not be fast, but I have always been agile.”
And where was Harry Kane, FC Bayern’s goal machine? The English striker was in the game following recovering from an ankle injury and also helped out in defense in an emergency, but he had no luck shooting that evening. A single header went into the goal, but that was offside for Kane.
After the break, Munich tried to get a little more movement into their attacking game, especially by bringing on Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry and Mathis Tel in the last half hour. But the Dortmund defense remained alert. And then it happened as it had to happen that evening. In the 83rd minute, BVB decided the game – once more with a counterattack, which Julian Ryerson completed to make it 2-0.
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