Borussia Dortmund offered reasons to suggest it won’t simply be another Bayern Munich procession in this season’s Bundesliga as they impressively beat their Bavarian rivals in the Super Cup.
Goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang secured victory in the curtain-raiser at Signal Iduna Park as Bayern were bossed from start to finish.
But how much can we really read into this result? 12 months ago, Jurgen Klopp’s side beat Bayern 4-2 on this same ground in the same competition and duly went on to finish a distant 19 points behind, as well as losing to them in the Cup final.
Clinical: Dortmund midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan (right) beats Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer to open the scoring
First blood: Borussia Dortmund celebrate after winning the German Super Cup on Wednesday
And the Bayern side that lost here were well below full strength, with Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger among the absentees from the squad and World Cup heroes Mario Gotze and Philippe Lahm starting on the bench.
The team that lines up on the opening day of the Bundesliga season against Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena on Friday week will be a completely different proposition.
But this is a result for Dortmund to hold on to and their fans certainly celebrated as though the result is a good omen for the nine months to come.
They fielded Ciro Immobile, the top scorer in Serie A last season who moved from Torino, and he troubled Manuel Neuer with a 10th-minute effort that flew narrowly wide.
The World Cup-winning goalkeeper was forced into action when Oliver Kirch found space to shoot inside the box, diving to his left to deny the Dortmund man.
With the vocal home crowd encouraged, it wasn’t long before Borussia took a deserved lead for their early pressure. It was a move started and finished by Mkhitaryan, who ghosted past youngster Gianluca Gaudino before playing in Aubameyang down the left.
The striker’s effort was blocked but it came out invitingly for the Armenian, who rattled the ball past Neuer and into the bottom left corner.
Dortmund continued to dictate the pace, with Thomas Muller surprisingly anonymous and Bayern’s midfield unable to gain any control. Gabon forward Aubameyang tested Neuer at his near post, but the goalkeeper produced a low reaction save.
There was plenty for Pep Guardiola to be worried about and it got worse when Javi Martinez was forced off on a stretcher after landing heavily on his knee.
Setback: Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski suffered defeat in his first game against former club
Dante replaced him but the defender was unable to stem the yellow tide. Shortly before the break, Neuer saved well from Kirch and Jonas Hoffman in quick succession, though both efforts were aimed straight at the German No 1.
Back on his old ground, Robert Lewandowski was well shackled but at least he was spared the ear-splittingly negative reception given to Mario Gotze when he came on. He may have delivered Germany the World Cup exactly a month ago but old club loyalties die hard in these parts.
Three minutes after the midfielder’s introduction, Dortmund scored a match-killing second goal. Neat build-up down the right led to Lukasz Piszczek swinging in a perfect cross that Aubameyang headed home. The striker celebrated by pulling out a Spiderman mask, before he was swiftly replaced by Adrian Ramos.
Bayern’s spirit faded and Immobile, quiet for long spells, burst into life to drag wide. But there was no late rally from the champions and Dortmund saw out time to land the first blow of the season.
But, even as they lifted the trophy and paraded in front of their jubilant fans, they know the struggle to catch Bayern is only just beginning.
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