Borussia Dortmund Beat Bayern Thanks to Complete Team Performance, Tactical Plan

Borussia Dortmund won the biggest game the Bundesliga has to offer each year on Saturday evening, beating perennial champions Bayern Munich 1-0 at home in Westfalenstadion. With their win, the Black and Yellows moved to within three points of the Bavarians and pushed promoted side RB Leipzig to the top of the table.

Even though Bayern dominated the match for the last 60 minutes, one cannot call Dortmund’s victory undeserved. For all their command over the game, Carlo Ancelotti’s men created next to no clear-cut scoring chances.

Midfielder Xabi Alonso hit the crossbar on the hour mark, his brilliant effort from distance making goalkeeper Roman Burki perform an involuntary mannequin challenge as the Switzerland international could only look on in the hope of the ball not finding the net.

Other than that, though, the Black and Yellows managed to keep the visitors at bay. “We did allow Bayern a few half-chances towards the end, but very few gilt-edged chances—perhaps none at all,” head coach Thomas Tuchel told German broadcaster Sky after the match, per the club’s official website.

A look at the expected-goals map, provided by football writer Michael Caley, confirms the 43-year-old’s analysis of the game:

xG map for Der Klassiker. Dortmund played an excellent match without the ball, limited Bayern to volume with little quality. pic.twitter.com/GIh3LeSMXn

— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) November 19, 2016

Tuchel naturally was delighted with his team’s efforts against the league leaders. “You need to hold your ground,” he told Sky. “That was our motto. No matter what happens, no matter how much we are struggling: never give up, keep giving support, always remain brave and continue to defend.”

What he meant by that was that it would take a team effort to inflict a first Bundesliga defeat on Bayern under Ancelotti’s rule, and that was just what Tuchel got from his players.

Not one of the 14 men used in the game took the day off. Dortmund got big efforts from all of them.

To illustrate that, ESPN FC’s Stefan Buczko rated only two of their players, Lukasz Piszczek and Andre Schurrle, at six out of 10, and no one higher than eight out of 10. It was a true group effort from a team working as a cohesive unit.

Whether it was the aggression of defensive leader Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who physically dominated the matchup with the imposing Robert Lewandowski throughout the 90 minutes, or the intelligence of Matthias Ginter, who had the awareness to play Franck Ribery offside when the Frenchman scored in the 55th minute—the defence held its ground.

And whether it was Marcel Schmelzer’s relentless work against the ball or Julian Weigl’s intelligent movement to fill the holes before the back line—the midfield, while ceding possession to Bayern, worked diligently.

Finally, whether it was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s incredible speed running rings around Mats Hummels or Adrian Ramos’ strong work as a target man up front—Dortmund’s two strikers were a constant nuisance to Bayern’s world-class back line.

“It was a really hard match for us,” Aubameyang said, again per Dortmund’s website. “But the whole team worked very, very hard for …

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