Bayern 0:3 Dortmund

Bayern – Dortmund 0:3 (0:1) , 12/04/14, Alianz Arena, Munich

Guardiola had almost full squad available and opted for Martinez rather than Boateng at the back. Muller and Kroos were only on the bench.

Dortmund are without long term absentees Gundogan, Subotic and Kuba. Bender and Shmelzer are also out for the moment. Surprisingly, Lewandowski and Piszcek were only among subs, probably being rested for the DFB Pokal semi-final on Tuesday. Therefore, Jurgen Klopp named makeshift XI.

Starting XIs

Guardiola´s experiment

Pep Guardiola named familiar players, but continued with his experiment from the game against Man Utd. In possession, Lahm dropped deep, even behind the centerbacks at times, forming a back-three. Fullbacks Alaba and Rafinha moved higher, but inside the pitch, rather than keeping their width. Sweinsteiger and Gotze played in the middle, trying to find space between Dortmund´s front four and holding midfielders. Robben and Ribery stayed close to the touchlines, providing the width. 

Bayern in possession, 1st half

This plan didn´t really work in Champions League and Bayern went back to their usual shape after going behind and managed to score three goals in 30 minutes. They played this way during the first half here, going back to standard system for the second half.

We can see the difference in positioning of Alaba, Rafinha and Lahm during the first and second half below. In the first half, Alaba and Rafinha receive most of the passes in the central positions. 

Alaba,Lahm,Rafinha-passes received,1st half

In the second half, in the positions where fullbacks are expected to be. 

                                                               Alaba,Lahm,Rafinha-passes received,2nd half

Guardiola probably wanted to try this system against the side with different style than the one of Man Utd during the week. While Man Utd set deep and tried to play on counter, Dortmund played their usual game with intense pressing, disturbing Bayern´s build up. Bayern found it difficult to find a way out of their own half and it often took them a lot of time. The players looked really uncomfortable with Dortmund´s pressing and it was obvious it took them longer to find a free player who could receive a pass and actually get a ball forward. Dante, in particular had a big problem with his distribution, misplacing three passes in the opening 10 minutes. 

Dortmund´s counter-attacks

One of the Dortmund´s trademarks is their fantastic pressing. The other one is their ability to counter once the ball is won in their own half. They created numerous opportunities on the break, mainly through Aubameyang who exploited the space on the flanks. Reus did the same when he switched positions with Aubameyang. That space was free since Bayern´s fullbacks pushed towards the centre of the pitch and couldn´t get back into positions on time. Situations when Dortmund switched the ball from one flank to the other quickly were the most problematic and Aubameyang wasted a good chance from one of these situations in the first half.

The best example of Dortmund´s counter-attacking was a second goal when they won the ball after Bayern´s corner, Mkhitaryan sprinted forward with a ball, played a great ball into the space for Aubameyang who cut back for Reus to finish. 

High lines

Both teams played a high line. While it worked quiet well for Dortmund, it wasn´t so effective for Bayern. Reason for that is simple. Bayern play possession football with lots of short passing and they really lacked penetration here. Dortmund are one of the best counter-attacking teams and play direct football, trying to get behind the defence quickly, if possible. Since Bayern had problems to work the ball forward, Dortmund´s defender had plenty of time to drop deeper. But Bayern never looked to get behind them quickly anyway. Dortmund on the other hand, always looked for a ball in behind that high line and especially Reus and Aubameyang made runs to receive such a ball very often.  Dortmund were flagged offside 9 times, but more importantly, third goal came after a long ball from Socratis and perfectly timed run by Hofmann. 

Second half and substitutions

As mentioned earlier, Bayern returned to their usual shape for the second half. It didn´t work this time as Dortmund scored within 5 minutes after the break and went 3:0 up after 11 minutes into the second half.  Despite conceding twice in the second period, they looked much more dangerous. Best chances came after quick combinations of Muller and Gotze in front of the penalty area, but neither Mandzukic nor Gotze could beat Weidenfeller.

Dortmund continued the same way and caused problems even at 3:0 up. They created some promising situations, but couldn´t get that final ball right.

Bayern were forced to remove Neuer at half time. Muller came on for Ribery. He played just behind Mandzukic until Kroos came on for Robben. After that final change he went right, Gotze left and Kroos played in the midfield trio with Lahm and Sweinsteiger.

Klopp´s first change was Lewandowski for Hofmann. Surprisingly, he played behind Reus, with Aubameyang on the right and Mkhitaryan on the left. Other subs were strait swops with Friedrich replacing Hummels at the back and Jojic coming on for last 15 minutes in the place of Aubameyang.

Tactically, substitutions didn´t change anything.

Conclusion

It was interesting to see Guardiola giving this concept another chance, but Bayern could afford it as they won the title already and a result wasn´t going to be important in terms of the their position in the table. However, first half was really disappointing from Bayern and they had problem to work the ball forward. They spent too much time in their own half, looking for the passes as Dortmund pressed them intensively. They improved after the break as they returned to their usual system, but Dortmund put the game beyond them before the hour mark.  Dortmund´s pressing was impressive and counter-attacks purposeful and they deserve a credit for such a performance with so many players missing. However, Bayern would probably approach the game in a different manner if it was a title-decider. Rather than result, Bayern and Guardiola would be looking at how this system could improve their game as it seemed to be rather contraproductive than conducive. 

Highlights: Bayern 0:3 Dortmund