The serial Bundesliga champions were two goals up and strolling before they were taken apart by Marco Rose’s team Few would have blamed Marco Rose for being self-congratulatory or even a bit smug. That is not really the Borussia Mönchengladbach coach’s style, so he went for plainly, patiently and concisely explaining his tactical plan that worked to perfection for the benefit of viewers after the match. A plan, by the way, that worked on not just any opponents, but on Bayern Munich.Any time Bayern stumble it’s a shock, and particularly so in the thus far imperious Hansi Flick era. There are, however, degrees of shocks and if any team was going to not just wrestle the champions to the floor,...
Leipzig are moving gently towards making inroads into the current hegemony as Borussia Dortmund fail to step upThere has, for some time, been a deal of irritation in parts of Germany’s football-following community over the international marketing of Bayern Munich’s clashes with Borussia Dortmund as Der Klassiker. The epithet can’t truly pretend to be equivalent to its Spanish – or even French – counterpart, being more a way of framing Bayern versus current next best than reference to some historical struggle.That Dortmund have grown into their role in the would-be rivalry is a post-2013 Champions League construct, a natural fit with BVB’s own global appeal and their consistent pitching up just shy of throwing distance from Bayern’s windows. What repercussions...
Florian Kohfeldt’s team might have beaten Bayern. They also might have lost but settled for their now habitual 1-1 scoreline Werder Bremen arrived in Munich with the possibility of setting a peculiar record. Having drawn 1-1 in their last four Bundesliga meetings, they had equalled a 40-year-old run by Bayer Leverkusen and had, in theory at least, the opportunity to supplant Die Werkself in the most niche of trivia categories. With Bayern to face, nobody thought it would actually happen, of course. Related: Fifa bans head of African football for five years after misappropriation of funds Related: European roundup: Haaland scores four in second half to lift Borussia Dortmund Hertha Berlin 2-5 Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 RB Leipzig, Arminia Bielefeld...
The carrot of genuine competition will continue to be dangled, even if the latest edition of Der Klassiker was less one-sided“It is as unexpected as Christmas,” wrote 11 Freunde’s Tobias Ahrens, “but still leaves bitterness.” There are Bayern Munich victories over Borussia Dortmund and there are instances of Bayern Munich winning Der Klassiker, as it is now internationally branded, and there are many different shades of the story to point to with Dortmund having won three and drawn three of the pair’s last 17 Bundesliga meetings.Yet Saturday night’s latest edition of the fixture, however you want to describe it, requires further nuance in the description, from both sides. After five goals and a see-saw contest in which BVB scored first...
The treble winners have withdrawn their contract offer and the only questions now are when and where the Austrian will goThe gulf between the two parties has been clear for a while but when the news dropped on Sunday, it still felt jarring. Bayern Munich’s president, Herbert Hainer, has steered the ship through largely tranquil times since taking the helm just under a year ago, with a second treble in seven years to crown it all at the end of the season under the guidance of Hansi Flick.Now, one could say that Hainer has genuinely started the job as Bayern president, having had to make a tough public stance. Speaking to Bayerischer Rundfunk, he confirmed suspicions that negotiations to extend...