The greatest rivalry in German football is set to be renewed on Saturday and one particular man won’t be involved in the fixture for the first time in 12 years.
Der Klassiker pits Borussia Dortmund against Bayern Munich as the two prepare for their 107th battle in the Bundesliga and 132nd overall.
This weekend’s #DerKlassiker will be the first for 13 years in which neither Bayern nor BVB have been top of the league. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/3gyWfsKduf
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) October 7, 2022
From 2010 until this year Robert Lewandowski featured in 40 consecutive editions of the rivalry, across four different competitons, with 14 fixtures coming before he joined Bayern on a free transfer from their Klassiker foes.
Now the 34-year-old striker has departed from the realms of the Bundesliga to try his hand at succeeding in the Spanish LaLiga with FC Barcelona. The upcoming Klassiker will have no Lewandowksi in the mix for the first time in a dozen years.
On the 26 occasions he faced Dortmund, the Polish attacker scored 27 goals at the expense of his former club, including 23 in 16 league meetings. Together with his five goals for BVB against Bayern, Lewandowski scored a total 32 times in 41 instalments of Der Klassiker, more than anybody else in the history of this rivalry. For context, that is more than double the tally of the next highest scorer, Bayern legend Gerd Müller (15).
(Photo by Guenter Schiffmann/AFP via Getty Images)
Lewandowski’s numbers suggest he was not as lethal for Dortmund and it was during his time in Bavaria that he became a truly world-class centre-forward. Lewa netted a total 344 times in 375 appearances for Bayern, translating to a goal every 92 minutes, while at BVB he averaged a goal every 139 minutes with 103 strikes in 187 outings.
Lewandowski scored in six consecutive Klassiker clashes over the course of four Bundesliga campaigns between April 2017 and November 2019, and he found the net in all but one of his last 11 league derbies versus Dortmund. The Poland skipper is the 2nd-highest scorer in Bundesliga history with 312 goals in 384 games, but he is some way shy of Gerd Müller’s record tally of 365 goals in the German top flight.
Lewandowski won’t be the only potent goalscorer missing from the upcoming Klassiker, as Dortmund are also without their star man from the past two-and-a-half years. Erling Haaland bagged 86 goals in 89 matches for Die Borussen, including four in five league games against Bayern. The Norwegian forward completed a megamoney move to Premier League champions Manchester City in the summer, and BVB are unquestionably a lesser outfit without Haaland.
(Photo by Andreas Gebert/AFP via Getty Images)
The saying goes when one door closes another one opens, and while Lewandowski and Haaland have called time on their stints in Germany there are several others who are only just getting started in the Bundesliga. Sadio Mané, Matthijs de Ligt, Ryan Gravenberch, Noussair Mazraoui, and Mathys Tel are all geared up for a first taste of a Klassiker derby.
BVB’s Karim Adeyemi, Anthony Modeste, Salih Ozcan, and Nico Schlotterbeck prepare to partake in this special fixture for the very first time. For either side there will also be a host of Europe’s brightest young talents on display including the likes of Jude Bellingham and Jamal Musiala, who play an integral part in the Dortmund and Bayern setups, respectively.
It’s a bittersweet feeling in the Dortmund camp for as they breathe a sigh of relief at not having to contend with Lewandowski antagonising their defence, they too will be without a key player in captain Marco Reus.
The 33-year-old is ruled out with an ankle injury which sees him miss this Klassiker and, in the grander scheme of things, the BVB stalwart is at risk of missing out on a major international tournament yet again. Reus and Lewandowski were together on the losing side when Bayern beat Dortmund, 2-1, in the 2013 Champions League final.
(Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos via Getty Images)
Bayern are unbeaten in the last eight Klassiker ties (all competitions) and the Bundesliga champions have lost just twice in their last 16 league meetings with BVB. The last six Klassiker derbies have produced a total 29 goals, with 14 of those scored by either Haaland or Lewandowski.
Bet365 have Bayern Munich at 1.66 for the win, Borussia Dortmund 4.20 to win, and 4.75 for a draw.
Sadio Mané is 5.50 for first scorer and 2.20 to score anytime. Serge Gnabry is listed 6.50 to bag the opening goal and 2.50 for a goal anytime during the match, while Leroy Sané is 8.50 for first scorer and 3.10 anytime scorer.
Kick-off is from 18H30 CET at Signal Iduna Park.
