Sublime Klassiker suggests there's finally life in the Bundesliga again | Andy Brassell


Borussia Dortmund’s victory despite an impressive Bayern Munich performance shows how far they have come and how competitive the German league is this season

The 95 minutes-plus of Der Klassiker – and every extra second of the 47 over the 95, which was felt keenly by Borussia Dortmund’s coach Lucien Favre, pushed up tensely on to the edge of his technical area, waving his arms maniacally – were part of such a dizzying swirl of fluctuating momentums and emotions that it’s hard to pick a moment to distil it.

If we were going to try, though, how about 13 seconds before Paco Alcácer’s winner hit the net as Dortmund, typically for a Favre side, tore Bayern apart at the seams on the counterattack? This was the moment when Jadon Sancho – whose second-half display of incandescent talent and industry eclipsed a flat first period and fully justified his hype – dispossessed Franck Ribéry, so often the focal point of bustling energy in this fixture and rolling back the years to his irrepressible best in Bayern’s lusty first-half display.

Related: Paco Alcácer the hero as red-hot Dortmund down Bayern in thriller

Related: European roundup: Barcelona suffer first home defeat in more than two years

Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 Schalke, Leipzig 3-0 Leverkusen, Dortmund 3-2 Bayern, Fortuna Dusseldorf 4-1 Hertha Berlin, Freiburg 1-3 Mainz, Hoffenheim 2-1 Augsburg, Nürnberg 0-2 Stuttgart, Werder Bremen 1-3 Borussia Mönchengladbach, Hannover 2-1 Wolfsburg

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