With the 3-2 top-of-the-table win at Borussia Dortmund, Bayern have taken an important step towards topping the pile at Christmas, opening the gap between themselves and their biggest league rivals to four points. fcbayern.com gives you three reasons why the reigning champions once again came out on top.
1. Bayern run persists; BVB's does not
Julian Nagelsmann's team could once again rely on their outstanding attack in Dortmund. "We flipped a switch, were incredibly active and aggressive, and should have led earlier. The lead at the break was highly deserved and should have been more," said the 34-year-old coach after the game, describing how his team once again went on turbo charge going forward. Bayern have now scored at least once in each of the past 61 Bundesliga games and 41 away matches in this competition. In the match in Dortmund, they netted three times - and that was enough to end Borussia's strong run of 11 consecutive Bundesliga wins at their Signal Iduna Park home.
2. 'Klassiker experts' decide it
It's always good to be able to go into a match of this stature with two real Klassiker experts. Kingsley Coman played against BVB in the Bundesliga for the eighth time in his career on Saturday evening and came off the pitch as the winner for the eighth time - no other player has managed a 100 percent record in Der Klassiker after so many meetings. But even for the Dortmund nemesis there was a first: the Frenchman scored to make it 2-1 (44'), the first time he's done so against BVB in the Bundesliga. Perhaps that's also due to the man between the sticks he came up against: the 25-year-old scored past goalkeeper Gregor Kobel for the fourth time - he's not scored more than twice against any other 'keeper in the Bundesliga.
And then there was Robert Lewandowski. The Pole scored his 25th and 26th competitive goals against Dortmund. Against no other team has he scored so often. "We know that he can score goals," Nagelsmann said of his star striker, saving special praise for the scorer of the brace: "He decided the game."
More facts about Lewandowski's performance in Dortmund:
3. Müller's experience pays off
"I've got a few games under my belt," Thomas Müller joked, in his typically relaxed manner after the game. Strictly speaking, the clash between first and second in the league in Dortmund was his 397th Bundesliga appearance for FC Bayern, which saw him overtake none other than Franz Beckenbauer (396). Only three players have played more games for Bayern in the Bundesliga. With numbers like that, the Bavarian-born attacker was able to take the liberty of addressing the team in the changing room before the match, hyping his teammates up ahead of the game, as he later revealed.
"But personally I try to focus only on the salient points," Müller said of the his talk, which seemed to have been effective considering the win. To that end, the 32-year-old also backed up his words with his actions: Müller set up Lewandowski's equaliser to make it 1-1 (9') and has thus been directly involved in at least one goal in each of his last seven Bundesliga games (two goals, nine assists). With a total of 11 assists, he is the top provider in the German top flight so far this season.
Reaction from the match in Dortmund here:
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