Bundesliga
Dortmund vs. Bayern: How do they stack up?
The likes of Erling Haaland, Robert Lewandowski, Gio Reyna and Thomas Müller will be vying for Supercup hero status when Borussia Dortmund host Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
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As is tradition, the Supercup sees the winners of the previous season’s DFB Cup take on the Bundesliga champions for the chance to lift the first silverware of the new campaign.
Dortmund and Bayern have both won the Supercup against each other in the previous two years, so who’s going to be key to lifting it in this third straight Klassiker Supercup? bundesliga.com takes a closer look…
Erling Haaland vs. Robert Lewandowski
Comparisons between these two striker supremos have been building for a number of years – and will continue to do so given their scoring prowess. Lewandowski, now 32, looks to be at the peak of his powers after breaking the late Gerd Müller’s single-season scoring record in the Bundesliga with 41 goals in only 29 appearances, earning the European Golden Shoe in the process.
Watch: Robert Lewandowski's record-breaking season
And he opened his account for 2021/22 at the first time of asking on Matchday 1 in the 1-1 draw at Borussia Mönchengladbach. It was the first time since the end of June and Poland’s elimination from UEFA Euro 2020 that Lewandowski had played 90 minutes, but did see him extend his scoring run in the Bundesliga to a personal best-equalling 11 straight matches.
By contrast, Haaland has had an almost full pre-season, and has kicked off the new campaign in an even richer vein of form. The 21-year-old has already scored a hat-trick in the DFB Cup and a brace (plus two assists) in the first Bundesliga match against Eintracht Frankfurt. It means the Norwegian has 11 goals in his last six competitive BVB appearances.
His overall record in black and yellow is equally as frightening. Haaland has had a direct hand in 80 goals in only 61 games for Dortmund, while it’s an average of 1.33 goal contributions every game in the Bundesliga. "Erling is an unbelievable team player," was what new Borussia head coach Marco Rose said in the wake of the 5-2 win over Frankfurt.
Watch: Dortmund 5-2 Frankfurt - match highlights!
The pair have a combined eight goals in the four Klassikers since Haaland joined the Bundesliga in January 2020. You’d put good money on that total growing again in the fifth encounter.
The two local boys, youth products and on-field leaders, Marco Reus and Müller are the beating hearts of their respective teams. They are also two of the players who are most familiar with the Klassiker stage, the former having faced Bayern 23 times as a Dortmund player and Müller making 27 appearances against BVB.
After taking the summer off, 32-year-old Reus has also started the campaign in impressive form. A goal and three assists from two games is the headline stat, but he’s looked fresh and ready to take the fight to Bayern for the title, saying that Dortmund "don’t need to talk about coming second or third" on the day he brought up 100 Bundesliga goals for the club.
Coach Rose was also full of praise for the BVB skipper: "He’s unbelievably important to us and led the charge today. I’m glad to have him as a captain here at Dortmund. It’s true that it did him good to get a full pre-season, and he worked hard and was a big part of things."
There is now talk of Reus – who also holds the distinction of scoring more goals against Manuel Neuer than any other player – getting a Germany recall, with new head coach Hansi Flick in attendance on Saturday night. Having earned his last cap in October 2019, it would see him reunited with Müller, who himself was restored to the national team in the summer after a lengthy hiatus.
The Bayern playmaker has long proven his immeasurable value to club and country, and the 31-year-old also looks to be only getting better with age and every so-called expert writing him off. The most decorated player in German football history has 214 goals from his 582 Bayern appearances – and around the same number of assists to go with it. He’s been the Bundesliga’s top provider in the last two years, with his 18 in 2020/21 coming from 32 games and following his league record of 21 the previous campaign.
The Raumdeuter will no doubt be given a free role in new coach Julian Nagelsmann’s side, being allowed to exploit those spaces only he seems to be able to see. No opposing team has ever been able to get to grips with him and his inimitable style of play.
Watch: All of Thomas Müller's Bundesliga goals and assists in 2020/21
Bayern have enjoyed incredibly consistency in goal since signing Neuer from Schalke in 2011, with the 35-year-old earning the right to be named one of the best goalkeepers in history and also revolutionising the game with his sweeper-keeper approach. The club captain is one clean sheet away from surpassing the legendary Oliver Kahn and claiming the record for most shutouts in the Bundesliga outright.
Neuer spent the best part of the last year lifting trophies into the air, including the Supercup. Victories over Dortmund are no doubt particularly special for the Gelsenkirchen native, who has won 21 of his 37 senior matches against Die Schwarzgelben going back to 2006. After years of coming up against Roman Weidenfeller in the BVB goal, the role of Dortmund goalkeeper has been somewhat unsettled.
Watch: Manuel Neuer, the world's No.1
Roman Bürki and Marwin Hitz have both had spells as the club’s first choice, and now they’ve brought in a third Swiss goalkeeper in Kobel. The 23-year-old seriously impressed last season at VfB Stuttgart, despite being the youngest regular goalkeeper in the Bundesliga. "I came here to develop myself further, to take the next step, and to be able to enjoy success with Dortmund. I want to be a part of this and to play my part, but I know that I have a lot of hard work ahead of me," Kobel told bundesliga.com ahead of the season.
The Zurich-born stopper saved an impressive 68 per cent of shots in his 33 league games last year, keeping five clean sheets for promoted Stuttgart. He also saved two penalties, which was a division high with three other goalkeepers. After several years of inconstancy with Hoffenheim and Augsburg, Kobel looks to have matured into a top-class goalkeeper. He faces the first real test of his credentials as Dortmund’s No.1 when the champions and one of the greatest goalkeepers ever come to town.
Manuel Akanji vs. Dayot Upamecano
Regardless of goalkeepers, defending proved an issue for both clubs last season, with Bayern having only the fifth-tightest defence (44 goals conceded) and Dortmund the sixth (46). By contrast, they had the best and second best attacks.
Things did improve for BVB as the partnership between Akanji and the experienced Mats Hummels found its legs. The latter is missing at the start of this season due to injury, leaving Akanji as the only senior centre-back fit to play. The Swiss defender is now 26 and has 124 Dortmund appearances under his belt, of which eight have come against Bayern. He doesn’t have great memories of facing the record champions, with only two wins and conceding three goals or more on six occasions.
He had a strong season last year and is a calming influence in the Dortmund team, being able to move the ball quickly and confidently. He had the 10th most touches in the league in 2020/21 and a pass completion rate of approaching 94 per cent (second highest after Nico Elvedi), while also remaining robust in defensive duties by winning 55 per cent of his challenges.
Boasting similar figures but four years younger, Dayot Upamecano helped RB Leipzig maintain the division’s tightest defence last year, winning 61 per cent of challenges and completing 91 per cent of passes. He’s now followed Nagelsmann to Munich and looked to take a step up. Bayern’s defence is in transition given the departures of Jerome Boateng and David Alaba, but the 22-year-old looks to be the new first choice at the back.
Nagelsmann knows and trusts him, with the current debate whether it’s Niklas Süle or Tanguy Nianzou who partners the 6’1’’ centre-back. Upamecano has had a full pre-season and his fitness – as well as his surprising turn of speed – will likely prove crucial in a high-tempo fixture where he faces his first big test as a Bayern player.
Watch: Why Dayot Upamecano is the perfect signing for Bayern
Jude Bellingham vs. Joshua Kimmich
At the heart of a solid, successful team you need a functional distribution centre, and in Jude Bellingham and Joshua Kimmich, Dortmund and Bayern have two of the very best in the business – even if their combined ages add up to less than 50.
Kimmich started out as a full-back, but it was clear in his early Bayern days under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola that there was something special about the young German. His propensity to get forward combined with an outstanding distribution and link-up play meant he was pre-destined to move into a more influential role at the centre of the field, and he has now played more than half of his Bundesliga games from the No.6 position.
Before turning 25, he had already followed in the footsteps of the likes of Luka Modric and Kevin De Bruyne by being named Midfielder of the UEFA Champions League season 2020. Even seasoned star Thiago Alcantara learned a thing or two playing alongside Kimmich at the heart of a midfield which helped Bayern win six titles in a single year.
Watch: Joshua Kimmich under the tactical microscope
Bellingham is over eight years Kimmich's junior, yet he is wasting no time setting records of his own, and establishing himself in the Bundesliga. At UEFA Euro 2020, England's third youngest player of all time became the youngest player to appear in the tournament's history, aged 17 years and 349 days.
An athletic, box-to-box midfielder, Bellingham hardly looks like a teenager forging a path in a man’s game. He simply eats up ground – whether in his defensive duties or while supporting the attack – and has proven more than capable of coping with the physical intensity at the highest level. At the heart of the Dortmund midfield, Bellingham is already making strides, and he can already get his hands on his second piece of silverware with the Westphalians this Tuesday, after lifting the DFB Cup last term.
Watch: A Jude Bellingham highlight reel
Two more outstanding young players who have already made waves in German football complete this head-to-head analysis. Reyna and Jamal Musiala excited fans in front of their TV screens during the pandemic-led absence of fans from stadiums, but now the spectators are back in the grounds, they can admire two of the most exciting prospects in world football come face to face.
Reyna may well benefit from the departure of Jadon Sancho to Manchester United in the summer to play a more prominent role under Rose this term, though his statistics were already quite spectacular. A goal in the opening game of the new season took him to five in 48 Bundesliga appearances, with a further seven assists.
Watch: Gio Reyna on Dortmund's fresh start in 2021/22
His partnership with Haaland could become one of the most thrilling teenage double-acts in world football, with both showing a growing understanding in Dortmund's sweeping 5-2 win over Frankfurt, and their youthful exuberance is likely to leave jaws dropping with regularity.
Musiala already has more goals – six – from his first 28 Bundesliga outings, and is another 18-year-old to keep an eye on. Having pledged his allegiance to Germany, having also represented England at youth level, he was whisked off to Euro 2020, where he edged onto five senior caps.
" I'm completely convinced by him," Serge Gnabry said of Musiala earlier this summer. "His time will come, it's just a case of when. His footballing qualities are exceptional."
Watch: Jamal Musiala in action
With his sleight of foot, Musiala's trickery is one of Bayern's not-so-secret weapons, but one which can not easily be defended against, and Dortmund will have to keep a very close eye on him if they are to lift the Supercup this Tuesday.