Julian Brandt and Erling Haaland scored for Borussia Dortmund while Robert Lewandowski netted on either side of Kingsley Coman's goal to seal the win for Bayern Munich.
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Bayern Munich defeated rivals Borussia Dortmund 3-2 in a thriller courtesy of a brace from Robert Lewandowski in the Bundesliga fixture at Westfalenstadion on Saturday. The win helped Julian Nagelsmann’s side to take a four point lead over their rivals at the top of the table. Julian Brandt opened the scoring for the hosts inside the opening five minutes before Bayer Munich equalized through Robert Lewandowski. Although Kingsley Coman put Bayern’s nose in front on the stroke of half time, Erling Haaland leveled the score three minutes into the second half. Meanwhile Lewandowski converted a controversial penalty to secure Bayern’s win, 16 minutes from time.
It was a thrilling match at Signal Iduna Park as it had goals, drama and controversies. Both sides scored off defensive mistakes before a couple of debatable refereeing decisions helped the visitors. Early in the match, Jude Bellingham cut inside from the left and played the ball to Brandt, just outside the box. The German midfielder smashed the ball in from inside the box to take the lead.
However, five minutes later, the Bavarians equalized courtesy of an error from Mats Hummels. The central defender’s clearance was blocked by Thomas Muller at the middle of the park and the forward chased the loose ball before heading it into the path of Lewandowski. The pole smashed the ball past Gregor Kobel and into the goal from the right side of the box.
The 33-year-old striker could have doubled his tally a few minutes later, as Emre Can’s miss-pass fell to him on the edge of the box. But the Poland international’s shot deflected off the defender before looping over the crossbar.
It was an end-to-end action as Haaland was released on goal at the other end, but the Norwegian’s shot missed the target by a whisker. A minute before the break, Dortmund failed to clear left-back Alphonso Davies’ low cross and it fell nicely for Coman inside the area. The Frenchman’s shot deflected off Marco Reus before going into the goal.
Three minutes into the second half, Dortmund leveled the score courtesy of yet another defensive mistake. Centre-back Dayot Upamecano didn’t clear a cross from the right flank and Bellingham laid the ball to Haaland on the left side of the penalty area. The 21-year-old curled the ball past Manuel Neuer with a delightful right-footed effort.
Few minutes later, controversies started as Reus was brought down inside the box by Lucas Hernandez but the referee didn’t award the spot-kick. Replays clearly showed that Dortmund were unlucky not to get anything from it. Meanwhile at the other end, Hummels handled the ball inside the box and Bayern were awarded a spot kick after VAR intervention.
Dortmund boss Marco Rose was furious with the decision but Lewandowski made no mistake as he stepped up and converted the penalty to score his 22nd goal against Dortmund. The win helped Bayern Munich to 34 points from 14 games.
