Der Klassiker lacked do-or-die drama but Bayern will feel the consequences | Bundesliga

The words left Joshua Kimmich’s lips at around 9pm on Saturday night in the lower corridors of the Allianz Arena but could easily have done so four days before in exactly the same place. “We aren’t really efficient,” chided the captain with the familiar scowl that follows a Bayern failure to win, “and we are not defending well enough.”

Despite having been a worthy Topspiel and satisfying in terms of entertainment, this edition of Der Klassiker was not what it has been to either side in previous contexts; a do-or-die, sink-or-swim moment in the sprint to the finish line. There were consequences for both Bayern and Borussia Dortmund but not decisively so. What there were, however, were frustrations, and acknowledgments of the prevailing winds and infuriating habits. It is not often in the context of an intense, highly contested highlight of the season that there is room for reflection on what today lacks and what must be achieved tomorrow but here, now, there was alternative to surveying the vista.

Bayern are in the middle of a pivotal eight days in their season but the two home games just completed demand self-analysis, even if it is only as brusque as Kimmich’s. For the second straight game at the Allianz Bayern gave a faithful impression of themselves and of other great, insatiable Bayern teams, rampant in their garden. Yet ultimately they won neither. Here they had three times as many efforts on goal as Dortmund but managed only a 2-2 draw – and it could have been a late defeat as against Inter, had a Pascal Gross lob dipped not only over Jonas Urbig but under the bar rather than onto the top of the net. It would have been cruel, just as Davide Frattesi’s late strike to win the game for the Serie A champions had been on Tuesday.

And this is what was eating Kimmich. Not so much the dropping of two points in the Bundesliga’s unfurling coda – Bayer Leverkusen’s drab performance in a goalless draw with Union Berlin earlier meant the gap at the top remained at six points, with Bayern retaining a superior goal difference and Bayer now having one game less in which to catch them – but the reminder of the chance, and chances, they had spurned in the Champions League.

For Harry Kane, it has perhaps been a good week to be overshadowed by Thomas Müller for once as the veteran and the Bayern universe have responded to the confirmation that he will not play here next season. Müller has responded as one would expect, coming on to score an equaliser that briefly offered hope of salvation against Inter and then busying himself in typical style against Dortmund, creating Raphaël Guerreiro’s leveller with a characteristically canny pass (“I would have had even more opportunities in the game if I were as agile as Maxi Beier,” he mock-lamented, referencing BVB’s opening goalscorer. “Of course, I also realise that I’m not 20 any more”).

Yet it was Kane who might have really made the difference in both of these matches. It is difficult to criticise a player who has produced relentlessly for Bayern since his arrival in late summer 2023, but it is also a fact that he had more than presentable opportunities to win both games with Inter and Dortmund, and he has not taken them. England’s captain will have to be more clinical in Milan for this week’s return leg.

Just looking at it from a Bundesliga perspective, you could even sell this as a bonus for Bayern, maintaining their lead even while not winning. It was certainly a bonus point for Dortmund. They may be adrift of the top four – they now trail RB Leipzig, who won at Wolfsburg, by six – but this was a spirited display at a stadium that he been the graveyard of so many of their recent hopes (and, bizarrely, means a second straight season of not losing in Munich, despite deeply disappointing Bundesliga campaigns).

Dortmund also had Champions League ghosts to put to bed after the midweek humiliation at Barcelona, which felt like the latest of many final straws in a chastening season. Building on recent wins over Mainz and Freiburg here was a small but significant victory. Though the chance for Gross could have given BVB victory a draw felt like decent reward for a bolder second half display – the season in microcosm perhaps, where reaching the Champions League is still possible but gaining any sort of European competition for next season should be comfort from a rocky campaign. Despite losing the lead given to them by Beier, heads didn’t drop and Waldemar Anton’s equaliser rewarded their appetite.

Having been roundly criticised for his tactics in Barcelona (and he spoke with some frankness after the game about erring in picking a back four for that game, a mistake not repeated here), returning to Munich and performing creditably was good for Niko Kovac. He might not seem like the typical profile for a Dortmund coach but he may well be the right Dortmund coach for now, when the job is essentially high stakes whack-a-mole.

There are well-salaried puzzles to be solved when the season ends, from Julian Brandt to Karim Adeyemi, and the futures of Jamie Gittens (dropped here on the back of a below-par effort at Montjuic) and Gregor Kobel (who made more saves this week than he would ideally care to) among those to be decided, and for different reasons. Yet finally it seems like Kovac’s toughness is starting to be absorbed by this group of players, and he is buying himself the chance to head up the rebuild.

Like Kovac Vincent Kompany, having given a good impression throughout the season, is now under examination to see how big a part he should play in the future. Whatever is next hosting the Champions League final at home has not been written off. If the first leg performance against Inter was laudable, slips at both ends were punished and injuries will not be seen as the sole explanation.

“We’ve already let a lot slip in the last few weeks,” said Kimmich, “especially against Bochum and Union Berlin, and again against Dortmund. I’d say we were better in all of them, yet we still haven’t managed to win. That’s what annoys me, that I have the feeling that we’re almost always the better team, but it’s not reflected in the result.” That has to end this week. Even if it feels like the die has largely been cast for Bayern and Dortmund’s respective seasons, there is plenty left to prove.

Talking points

• Leverkusen have looked spent since Bayern dumped them out of the Champions League, and it felt like Xabi Alonso’s decision to give his players two days off after the disappointment against Union was a sensible one. Florian Wirtz returned from injury to play half an hour from the bench but his future, with revived speculation over a summer switch to Bayern, remains a source of tension. The result of Real Madrid’s return leg with Arsenal is keenly anticipated at the BayArena with reference to what Alonso himself might do next.

• Leipzig got a vital win in the chase for Champions League; their first away in four months, 3-2 at Wolfsburg, which was Zsolt Löw’s second in two Bundesliga games since taking temporary charge. Eintracht Frankfurt got a firmer grip on third ahead of hosting Tottenham on Thursday with a 3-0 victory over Heidenheim in which Hugo Ekitiké was again outstanding, scoring and assisting.