Full-time
A breeze for Bayern, who need only one more win to lift the title. They will have played far better than that and lost, and their task was made so easy by the pathetic resistance that Dortmund put up. Tough to fancy Peter Stoger’s chances of landing the Dortmund job on a more permanent basis, while Bayern probably still wish that Jupp Heynckes would give up on his retirement plan. The evidence of that game is that whomever takes the Bayern job will inherit true riches while Dortmund look like a club in need of a rethink.
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90 min: Into added time, of which there is only 16 seconds given. Merciful release for Dortmund.
88 min: Bayern decided they wanted a goal there and so stepped it up. All night, they have been able to score at will. They have utter superiority over Dortmund, and the rest of German football for that matter.
Goal! Bayern 6-0 Dortmund (Lewandowski 87)
Kimmich in acres of space centres the ball for Lewandowski to collect his hat-trick. He cannot have score many easier hat-tricks than tonight.
85 min: Do players in Germany do those Twitter apologies that have become fashionable in England these days?
83 min: Batshuayi, in a game that will have had a vast worldwide audience, has done little to convince Antonio Conte that he might have been wrong about him. He hasn’t, though, been given much to work with.
81 min: Schürrle got away down the left but could only direct his pass at Rafinha, who nodded down for Ulreich to collect. The attacking has been almost as bad as the first half’s defending.
79 min: Here’s how Dortmund’s official account greeted the fourth goal. A living nightmare indeed.
#FCBBVB 4-0 pic.twitter.com/p4luJWa6Mg
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) March 31, 2018
78 min: Piszczek, one of the long-time survivors at Dortmund, fizzes a shot in. Sven Ulreich deals with that quite comfortably.
77 min: Götze departs the scene, as Nuri Sahin comes on for him. A chorus of boos and jeers for the cherubic goal-scoring hero of the Maracana.
75 min: Pulisic, who had a game to forget, has been subbed off for Maximilian Philipp. America’s young hope learned some real lessons tonight.
73 min: Lewandowski forces a fine save from Roman Bürki, the best piece of work yet from the Dortmund goalkeeper, who was, to be even-handed, left completely unprotected in that first half.
71 min: Götze fails to control the ball in the corner. Jeers from the home fans for their former player, who didn’t do much for Bayern after joining them from Dortmund in 2013.
70 min: Bayern have made all their subs, and are also conserving energy. They seem happy to allow Dortmund to pass the ball around.
67 min: Ribery also departed the scene, to a warm handshake from Heynckes. Sebastian Rudy came on for him.
67 min: Off goes James, and on comes Thiago.
66 min: Götze rattles the base of the post, to remind he is in the game. Pulisic was offside for the rebound. Better from Dortmund, but it barely matters.
65 min: Bookings for Weigl and Ribery. Nasty foul from Weigl and then Ribery reacted to the foul.
64 min: Nice and easy for Bayern, who do not seem to be reaching to match or equal their 11-0 record scoreline.
61 min: First proper attack of the half? Muller escapes down the right, James fires in a shot and Sokratis blocks the ball. Good defending from Dortmund.
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59 min: Dortmund’s Twitter account reduced to thanking the fans for their loyal support.
🙏 Was wir dennoch nicht vergessen wollen: Danke! #FCBBVB 5-0 pic.twitter.com/WxWmtDk99E
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) March 31, 2018
58 min: On the sidelines, Jupp Heynckes doesn’t look too happy and is urging Bayern to step it up. That’s a measure of his competitive nature and he clearly doesn’t want any slacking off.
55 min: Robben, in fetching red tights/hosiery is even slowing himself down now. Rafinha is the latest player to take a blow to the face, this time from Weigl. Perhaps Dortmund are stepping up the rough stuff, but that looked inadvertent.
52 min: Mats Hummels is changing his shirt but not a lot else happening. Ribery, though, looks like he still fancies having a go at Dortmund’s right flank.
50 min: Kimmich does his best to increase the pace. He’s on a mission to impress his manager, but the rest of his colleagues are on Easy Street. Javi Martinez takes a blow to the face from Dahoud, but he’ll be ok, barring sore lips.
49 min: Something of a testimonial tone to this half so far. That’s possibly a combination of a bit of respect for fellow pros from Bayern and keeping Sevilla in mind.
48 min: Dortmund go on the attack. Full credit to them for that, they could just sit deep, though on second thoughts, that’s possibly an even more dangerous policy. Still, there is no Gonzalo Castro to try lollipops and nutmegs in midfield now.
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47 min: Bayern made a half-time sub. On came Joshua Kimmich for David Alaba. Heynckes is already in resting and rotation mode.
46 min: It is almost a surprise that Dortmund came out for the second half but here they are, facing the music. Bayern get the half underway.
The banter is already flying from Bayern.
How many have we scored, @lewy_official? 😉#FCBBVB 5-0 pic.twitter.com/yMymi2pySL
— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) March 31, 2018
John McEnerney has his say on Bayern: They are the biggest threat to FCB for the CL. Nearly men for a few years this cud be their time. Possibly a great ending again for The Lightbulb Heynckes.”
In a season where Barca and Real don’t quite look at their best, then Bayern have to be a decent punt. Jupp has reached the final on every attempt at the Champions League.
Wayne Symes tweets in on the state of Dortmund’s kids. He asks: “does that mean Bayern will have to start scouting other Bundesliga teams to find their next buys? What price Timo Werner ends up playing for them before long?”
Werner, of course, scored the winner when Leipzig beat Bayern two weeks ago. Can’t be too long until he is in Bavaria.
That’s half-time. Bayern have scored five first-half goals and might have had another if it wasn’t for VAR. This has been a destruction, a shellacking, a pummelling, a punishment beating of frankly horrible defending. Peter Stoger had not lost a match before for Dortmund, but that half may have undone all his previous work. That was humiliating.
45 min: For both those goals, Ribery was allowed to skate through Dortmund from the flank. The first saw Lewandowski score from a yard out, the second saw Ribery cut inside in his customary way. Dortmund offered no resistance.
Goal! Bayern 5-0 Dortmund: Ribery (45)
Amazing stuff and so easy for Ribery to score.
Goal! Bayern 4-0 Dortmund (Lewandowski 44)
There is a delay for VAR again as there was a suspicion of handball from Ribery.
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41 min: Mats Hummels bludgeons forward after breaking up an attack. Panic sets into Dortmund as Robben cuts inside in the fashion the world and his grandmother know he is going to apply, but they get lucky. He can’t get enough on his shot.
39 min: Schürrle penalised for a foul on Ribery, and has a face of resignation. So too does Mario Götze. Neither of them were in Germany’s squad this week. In fact, nobody joined up with Jogi Löw’s from Dortmund. That’s a measure of the club’s problems, having been a previous factory of talent.
37 min: With Sevilla to come this week, it looks like Bayern are trying to get the job done now so that they can take a rest in the second half. Meanwhile, André Schürrle makes a terrible hash of his ball control and is roundly booed by the home fans.
36 min: The old firm of Robben and Ribery are making hay. Really enjoying themselves.
34 min: Batshuayi always knew there’d be days like this, but he is feeding off scraps. At the other end, Dortmund predecessor Lewandowski had another sniff of a chance, but for once there was some alert defending from Dortmund.
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32 min: Dortmund mount an attack, but David Alaba sweeps up the danger. Then, Dahoud plays a hopeless ball out wide to Piszczek, who is neither tall enough or quick enough to reach it.
30 min: Weigl was one of Germany’s bright, young things a while back, but is no longer in the German national team and couldn’t get into this midfield. He has, though, managed to pass to a team-mate, which is something Castro found beyond himself.
29 min: To nobody’s surprise, Castro is hauled off. Substitute Julian Weigl comes on. Getting the hook before the half hour is as humiliating as it gets for a pro footballer.
27 min: Poor Michy Batshuayi is chasing shadows as forlornly as he used to look at the Chelsea team sheet.
25 min: Bayern have their cigars on, and are passing it about with the arrogance of a team who know they can almost score at will, VAR permitting.
24 min: Gonzalo Castro in midfield, ahead of the defence, has had an absolute nightmare. Looks like Dortmund are considering a change.
Goal! Bayern 3-0 Dortmund (Muller 23)
Muller scores from close range again. Lovely work from James to set him up.
21 min: The Bayern fans are in full voice. If there is not to be a title party, then humiliating your rivals is a pretty close second.
19 min: Pulisic makes a burst down the centre. He was a little greedy there, and shot straight at Ulreich. Dortmund cannot afford to be so wasteful.
18 min: The damage is being done by the left side of Bayern’s team, where Ribery is rampant. Thomas Muller, meanwhile, goes close.
16 min: Rodriguez got on the end of that to score. Dortmund were all at sea. Like that disallowed second, Bayern were queuing up. There needed to be nothing of sophistication to score.
Goal! Bayern 2-0 Borussia Dortmund: (Rodriguez 14)
This one does count....
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11 min: VAR is not very popular in Germany, where 45% of players told a Kicker survey that they wanted the TV ref turned off, but it seems that was the right decision in ruling it out. James didn’t touch the ball. The first, though, still looks dubious.
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Goal chalked off by VAR
10 min: James looked to be off, but missed the ball, but Bayern were queueing up to score, having been shown the way by calamitous Dortmund defending.
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Goal! Bayern Munich 2-0 Borussia Dortmund (Ribery 9)
Ribery scores from close range.
6 min: More than a hint of offside there, and Akanji looked to have stepped out to put Lewandowski off. The goal stands, though, and the referees were happy with it. No call for VAR there.
Goal! Bayern 1-0 Borussia Dortmund (Lewandowski 5)
Lewandowski bites the hand that used to feed him.
4 min: At the other end, Batshuayi gets an early sniff after some nice work from Pulisic, but Bayern were wise to the danger.
3 min: Franck Ribery trying to force the issue down the flank. The ball loops into the area and Thomas Muller steals in, but fails to control the ball.
2 min: It’s cagey stuff but Bayern are strolling in the style you might expect champions-elect to do.
And away we go....Dortmund get us underway.
The Allianz Arena stage is set as the teams make their way out from the tunnel. The handshakes are in session here. Uli Hoeness is in situ, probably still hoping Heynckes stays on.
This fixture last season saw Bayern win 4-1, with two goals from Lewandowski, plus strikes from Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.
Dortmund last won at Bayern in the Bundesliga in the April of the 2013-14 season, a 3-0 win, in which Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcos Reus and Jonas Hofmann were the scorers. Two players now long gone, and Reus lost again to injury.
The word is that Bayern will announce their new coach at the end of April and he will be a German speaker, which probably rules out Alan Pardew and Mick McCarthy. The source: Karl Heinz-Rummenigge, speaking on Sky Germany just now. He also said that Thomas Tuchel turning down the job is “not a problem”.
It is a measure of Bayern’s strength that Thiago Alcantara is on the bench. Thiago was one of the stars and a goalscorer for Spain as Argentina were spanked 6-1 on Tuesday night.
What delayed Bayern’s party was Schalke’s sixth win in succession, which came in today’s 2-0 defeat of 10-man Freiburg. That run is dangerous for third-placed Dortmund, with Champions League qualification being a factor. Good news for them came in Bayer Leverkusen, in fifth, slipping up with a goalless draw with against Augsburg. Leipzig had a scare but managed to escape with a 3-2 win at Hanover 96.
Arjen Robben hoped Bayern might be able to secure the title at home but they have been denied. He has had some kind words for today’s opponents, though, on a 12-game unbeaten run since Peter Stöger came in. “They’re doing better now, with a new coach,” he said this week. “Dortmund is and will always be a very good team. Even though they haven’t been all that consistent this season, they have shown their abilities in certain games. So it’s sure they’ll put in a good display.”
Sokratis Papastathopoulos is in defence for Dortmund, a player who was recently linked with a move to Manchester United and Chelsea in a couple of organs, even though the word on der strasse is that the Greek has not had a good season for his club.
Jerome Boateng is playing for Bayern despite picking up a knock against Brazil in midweek but there will be no Arturo Vidal, who has a thigh injury sustained in playing for Chile against Denmark.
So, it’s a battle of Lewandowski v Batshuayi. The Batman has converted himself from being odd man out at Chelsea to one of Europe’s most sought after striker. Romelu Lukaku could tell him a few things about that.
And here’s Dortmund:
BVB: Bürki, Götze, Akanji, Dahoud, Schürrle, Pulisic, Sokratis, Piszczek, Castro, Schmelzer, Batshuayi #FCBBVB pic.twitter.com/tfSVFxEyXW
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) March 31, 2018
The teams are in
Here’s Bayern, looking daunting.
Here's your #FCBayern line-up for Saturday's blockbuster! 🔴⚪ #packmas #FCBBVB pic.twitter.com/31rNV9nNal
— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) March 31, 2018
Der Klassiker becomes die Krönung?
No, it won’t be a coronation for Bayern, after Schalke delayed the celebrations of a sixth successive Bundesliga title by beating Freiburg. No panic, though. Bayern have just the 14 points in hand on Schalke. Dortmund, meanwhile, kick off a full 18 points behind the permanent champions, and their last title, back in 2011-12, under shiny, happy Jurgen Klopp, now feels like a long time ago. Coming up against Robert Lewandowski will be a reminder of those good old days.
Present day Dortmund have had a bad time this season. Peter Stöger has righted the ship somewhat after Peter Bosz was binned in December, having failed to adequately replace Thomas Tuchel. And Marcos Reus is missing here through injury, a sentence which has been written far, far too often about one of Europe’s most talented players.
For Bayern, who have Sevilla in next week’s Champions League in mind, there is the rarity of coming off a domestic defeat, having been beaten 2-1 by RB Leipzig two weeks ago. Still, though, they have recovered far better from replacing a manager in Carlo Ancelotti for Jupp Heynckes than their closest rival of recent years. Mind you, these days there is one hell of a drop-off between the two.
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