Can Borussia Dortmund Stop Bayern Munich? Klassiker Preview

On Saturday (3:30 p.m. CET), Bayern Munich will host Borussia Dortmund for the 138th edition of Der Klassiker. Whether it will be a true Klassiker, though, remains to be seen; after all, Dortmund has won just four of the last 26 Klassikers, six games have been draws, and the rest were all dominated by Bayern Munich.

One has to go all the way back to the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons to find four Dortmund wins in a row. Back then, Dortmund under head coach Jürgen Klopp briefly challenged Bayern Munich’s dominance over the Bundesliga.

The Rekordmeister, however, quickly turned things around. In 2012/13, Bayern won the treble and then started a series of 11 Bundesliga titles in a row. During that stretch, Dortmund has only one twice in Munich. During the 2013/14 season (3-0) and in 2024 (2-0).

Ironically, Dortmund’s win over Bayern in March 2024 helped end Bayern’s dominance over the Bundesliga. But it wasn’t Dortmund that won the title; it was Bayer Leverkusen under head coach Xabi Alonso.

This year, Bayern once again looks to dominate the Bundesliga. The Rekordmeister has won all six of its games in the league and has scored an incredible 25 goals. That’s 4.166 games per game.

Just to put that in perspective, the next best team in goalscoring is Eintracht Frankfurt with 17. Dortmund, together with Leverkusen, ranks third with 12 goals scored to start the season.

That contrast is also highlighted by the two clubs’ top goalscorers. While Harry Kane has had an incredible start to the season, scoring 11 goals in his first six Bundesliga games this season, Dortmund’s top goalscorer Serhou Guirassy has somewhat struggled, scoring just four goals in his first five games.

“At the moment, Harry is leading, but we are of course trying to push Serhou forward as well,” Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac said in an interview with Bundesliga.com (cited by Gegenpressing). Why has Guirassy struggled? “At the moment, he tends to set up goals rather than score them himself, but that will come again. We know exactly how important Serhou is for us.”

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While Kane has been scoring goal after goal after goal, Dortmund’s star striker has been struggling to find last year’s form. Some of it might be down to fitness. Guirassy missed the World Cup qualifiers for his country, Guinea, but did train for Dortmund this week.

The return of the star striker to form would be a massive asset for Dortmund. But even with Guirassy misfiring, Dortmund has emerged as Bayern’s only challenger in the Bundesliga this season.

Much of that is down to Kovac’s tactical discipline. Dortmund has conceded just four goals this season. Only Bayern (three goals) ranks ahead of Dortmund in that statistic. Three of those goals came in a single game—the chaotic 3-3 draw against St. Pauli on matchday 1.

Defensive stability has become crucial for Dortmund under Kovac. The Croatian bench boss has established a 3-4-2-1 system in which both wing-backs help stabilize the defensive lineup.

Indeed, while there has been significant focus on the matchup between Guirassy and Kane, the focus should be on Dortmund’s Daniel Svensson. The Swede has quietly become one of Dortmund’s most important players, leading the league in distance covered and intensive runs.

Svensson holds together both the backline and is an important player to get the attack rolling. The ability to transition the ball forward quickly has helped the likes of Karim Adeyemi and Maximilian Beier to unleash their full potential this season.

As for Bayern, make no mistake, the Rekordmeister will be the absolute favorite at the Allianz Arena in Munich this Saturday. Much of that is down to Kane. The England captain has been one of Europe’s best players this season.

Not only has Kane scored 11 Bundesliga goals, but tallied 21 goals and provided four assists in 15 games across all club competitions. On top of that, Kane also scored a brace in England’s 5-0 win over Latvia midweek.

Stopping Kane will be a priority for Dortmund, but it won’t be enough. After all, the addition of Luis Díaz has provided Bayern Munich with an asset that was missing last season. The Colombian’s pressing play is a great compliment to Michael Olise and allows Kane to operate even deeper and be more dangerous from different moments.

Overall, this Bayern Munich attack has become a machine. Stopping it will be Kovac’s main task this Saturday. It seems almost an impossible task.