Bayern crush Dortmund in five-goal display en route to topping Bundesliga

Defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich roared back to the top of the table with a dominating victory over Borussia Dortmund in a 5-0 dismantling at Allianz Arena.

The 100th instance of “Der Klassiker” started with a missed opportunity for Borussia Dortmund early in the match to put Bayern on its heels when midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud failed to connect on a Marco Reus cross from 16 feet out in the sixth minute.

Dahoud’s shot smashed against the post and Dortmund would rue the missed opportunity as four minutes later, in the tenth minute, former defender Mats Hummels headed a perfectly placed Thiago Alcantara corner into the back of the net to give Munich an early lead.

This proved to be the beginning the scoring for the Bavarians, as Robert Lewandowski made it a two goal lead seven minutes later.  His 200th Bundesliga goal came from stealing a lazy pass from Dortmund’s Dan Axel-Zagadou and chipping the ball over the advancing Dortmund keeper and into the back of the net.  Lewandowski joins esteemed company as only the 5th player to score 200 goals in the history of the Bundesliga and only German great Gerd Muller has done it faster.  He is also the only non-German born player to achieve this feat.

Bayern essentially put the game out of reach in the final minutes of the first half with goals from midfielder Javi Martinez and winger Serge Gnabry.

The second half fizzled to the final whistle as Munich took its foot off the pedal and a dismayed Dortmund looked to avoid further embarrassment.  Lewandowski put a final punctuation on the match with a goal in the 89th minute to close out what was an embarrassing evening for Dortmun.

This was a defining fixture in deciding the Bundesliga title this year and the comfort that Munich displayed in a fixture of this magnitude was evidence of the deep divide in experience between the two clubs.  Many of the Bayern’s starting eleven are veterans of such high pressure fixtures like today whereas the young Dortmund side seemed to struggle with the pressure that comes with a fixture of such gravitas. Youngsters like Jadon Sancho and Jacob Bruun Larsen had little to no impact on the match.

Dortmund’s makeshift backline struggled mightily against a Bayern attack that has been in form as of late (having scored 17 goals in their last three domestic matches).  The fullback pairing of Lukas Piszczek and Abdou Diallo struggled mightily after coming off injuries. Munich’s wingers Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry were able to blur past them and the Dortmund pair never looked quite fit on the pitch.  Dortmund defender, Zagadou, looked especially overwhelmed by the speed and skill that Munich had on display tonight.

With six matches to play and a one point lead in the league table, Bayern’s Bundesliga destiny is now in their own hands. However, with difficult fixtures on the horizon against Leipzig and Frankfurt, the Bundesliga title is anything but decided.