Borussia Dortmund ended Bayern Munich’s 14- match winning run in the Bundesliga in a Champions League final dress- rehearsal on Saturday at the Signal Iduna stadium. The match which finished in a fiery 1-1 draw had so many talking points. Five Bayern Munich’s players were booked as full- back Rafinha saw red. Dortmunds coach Jurgen Klopp lost his cool in a heated exchange with the visitors’ sporting director Matthias Sammer (an ex- Dortmund footballer.) With Bayern already champions of the 2012/13 Bundesliga season and Dortmund already sure of a Champions League automatic promotion, a low key match was expected. Dortmund were without the injured Mario Goetze, Mats Hummels and Lukasz Piszczek, while Marco Reus appeared as a late substitute.
Bayern were without Philip Lahm, Bastien Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez. Thomas Muller came off the bench. Dortmund went ahead through Kevin Grosskreutz after 11 minutes, but Mario Gomez drew level after 23 minutes. Jerome Boateng was judged to have handled the ball in the area as he tried to block Nuri Sahin’s shot for the referee to award a penalty to the home team. The decision brought about the first moment of controversy as the traveling Bayern fans felt cheated. Robert Lewandowski’s effort from the spot kick was saved by Manuel Neuer, for the match to boil over again a few minutes later when Rafinha, who had just been booked, elbowed Jakub Blaszcykowski as they tussled for the ball. The incident prompted an animated discussion on the sideline between Klopp and Bayern sporting director Sammer.
“It’s normal for these things to happen,” said Klopp. “People were talking about a friendly but once the game gets under way, it’s different. It was a tough battle, situations arise, these things happens. “I told Rafinha that he should stay away from Jakub, Sammer then told me that I should not talk to the players. Then I said that Rafinha poked him in the face.” Both Bundesliga meetings have now ended in draws, it implies that Bayern are unbeaten in four meetings with Dortmund this season after beating Dortmund in the Super Cup and German Cup. “After last week’s result (beating Barcelona in the Champions League) it wasn’t easy to get back into the swing of things,” Bayern manager Jupp Heynckes said. “It was a very intensive game where neither side gave anything away. Beforehand, people said that it would be a boring match with so many Bayern players missing, but that clearly wasn’t the case.”
