Bayern beat BVB, so what next?
There's no catching the champions now they have opened up a gap at the top of the Bundesliga
Just a quick one from me on Saturday’s win for Bayern Munich and the gap between them and the rest.
And just like that, the Bundesliga title race was over. Probably. A 3-2 win at the Westfalenstadion on Saturday evening left Bayern Munich very much en route to a tenth league title in a row.
That might sound a bit dramatic with more than half the season remaining and just a four-point lead over Borussia Dortmund, but Bayern have won in Dortmund, they’ve won in Leipzig against last season’s second-placed side, and they’ve won in Leverkusen against the team currently third in the table. They even took a point from their trip to Borussia Mönchengladbach, who have become something of a bogey side for the biggest team in Germany, before losing heavily there in the DFB Pokal.
That’s 10 points from a possible 12 in, all likelihood, the four biggest challenges Bayern will face this season.
Saturday’s win in Dortmund came amid some controversy but also, impressively, without Joshua Kimmich. It would be a stretch to say Bayern ever show a soft underbelly but they at least have the makings of one in the midfielder’s absence.
If anyone was likely to take advantage it was Dortmund, who went going toe-to-toe with the champions but shot themselves in the foot more than once and found themselves on the more unfortunate end of the game’s biggest refereeing decisions.
The match itself was exciting, even if that was in part due to errors on both sides: football is at its most enthralling when punctuated by mistakes. But Bayern, even without Kimmich, didn’t pay for theirs. Dortmund did. The result, unfortunately for the league, maintains the status quo. Despite the 100-odd minutes of end-to-end action on the pitch, the Bundesliga won’t have won many longer term fans and the ever-lessening appeal of the league only serves to aid Bayern’s hegemony.
Dortmund themselves remain a work in progress that takes two steps forward, then two steps back. Erling Haaland was some way from his best, still regaining fitness, but will once again have a starring role in Dayot Upamecano’s nightmares before Christmas. But the Norwegian is almost certain to leave the club next summer. That leaves an enormous hole up front, just as an enormous one appears at the back with Mats Hummels, who never seems to be near full fitness anymore, becoming increasingly inconsistent. Just as Dortmund edge closer to building a team that can compete with Bayern, two key players, one at each end of the pitch, will have to somehow be replaced. The rebuild never ends.
Bayern — bigger, richer, more successful — have no such issues. There are teething problems for new signings from time to time but transfer market misses can be replaced by the league’s deepest pockets and key players stay and keep performing in the meantime. They never really have to pay the price for working out the kinks.
And so, just like that, a tenth consecutive Bundesliga title is now closer than ever. The Bundesliga loses a bit more of its appeal with each passing year.