Borussia Dortmund earn morale-boosting win ahead of Der Klassiker against Bayern Munich
Borussia Dortmund rode their luck at times against Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 7, but their narrow 1-0 victory - and the manner of it - will have given Niko Kovač and his players a timely confidence boost ahead of a crucial week for Die Schwarzgelben.
Maximilian Beier’s magnificent 80th-minute drive earned Dortmund all three points at Signal Iduna Park on Saturday evening, as Kovač’s troops bounced back from successive Bundesliga draws against Werder Bremen and Union Berlin.
Borussia lock horns with Werder again in the second round of the DFB Cup on Tuesday, before travelling to perennial rivals Bayern Munich in the first Bundesliga Klassiker of the 2026/27 campaign next Saturday.
Watch: Playmobil meets Der Klassiker
Having edged past Azerbaijani outfit Sabah in the UEFA Champions League in midweek - a mere six days after losing 1-0 at Bodø-Glimt - the mood among Kovač’s squad is lifting again. And not a moment too soon.
“It was a lot of fun tonight,” Nico Schlotterbeck told Sky Germany. “We didn’t give anything away in the second half. If we had survived the final two minutes against Bremen, we would have won six of our first seven league games, which is really good.
“We’re not playing as well as we can at the moment, but we’re improving. We’re heading to Bayern next week and want to put in a good performance there too.”
Saturday’s slender win lifted Dortmund back above the champions at the top of the Bundesliga standings. Bayern still have a game in hand on BVB - but that happens to be against Julian Schuster’s Freiburg, who sit just a point behind the Bavarians in third place.
Bayern needed three late goals to get the better of Schuster’s side at the Europa-Park Stadion back in April, somehow battling back from 2-0 down to salvage an unlikely victory.
If they fail to get all three points on Sunday, BVB will head to the Allianz Arena next weekend as Bundesliga leaders - something they have not had the pleasure of doing since Matchday 26 of the 2022/23 campaign.
“We’re obviously hoping for a repeat [result] in the coming days,” Kovač said after watching his side overcome his former employers. “After three tough away games, it meant a lot to me to see us beat a strong footballing side tonight.
“Those are the positives we’ll take from this game.”
Having the likes of Beier waiting in the wings certainly helps. The 24-year-old forward has often been deployed out of position this season but is developing a happy knack of popping up with crucial efforts.
Just last month, the forward scored the all-important goal in a hard-fought 1-0 victory at VfB Stuttgart. His latest strike - a curling drive into the top corner of Noah Atubolu’s goal - was arguably the goal of the Bundesliga weekend so far.
Watch: Dortmund 1-0 Frankfurt
“I practise those shots a lot in training,” he told Sky. “I’m obviously happy if they end up going in like that.
“Believing in yourself [in those situations] is the most important thing. If you don’t, you won’t get anything out of them.”
If Beier and his Dortmund colleagues can carry that mindset into their next two games, they stand a good chance of taking another step closer to the DFB Cup final in Berlin - and getting one over their Klassiker rivals on Matchday 8.
