Borussia Dortmund were held by RB Leipzig which allowed Bayern Munich to end the weekend four points clear after they brushed aside Frankfurt
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s Saturday afternoon morphed into evening, Bayern Munich showed themselves to be currently inhabiting their role as Big Bad Bayern, all but untouchable and provoked into their top gear by proper competition, as they were in the later game at rising Eintracht Frankfurt. This framed what had happened further north immediately before even more succinctly.
Even if Borussia Dortmund’s meeting with RB Leipzig had the statute of a defining match of the early part of the Bundesliga season, with second facing third, on the ground expectations were more modest in North Rhine-Westphalia. Whether it was Dortmund’s Niko Kovac quoting his fellow former Bayern manager Giovanni Trapattoni (“if you can’t win, you can’t lose,” he reflected at full time) or his opposite number Ole Werner talking of his “still developing” side, it felt as if a 1-1 draw was just, leaving both parties partially sated, partially frustrated.
This is a game, to remind, that matters, and has always mattered since Leipzig’s 2016 promotion. These two clubs are chalk and cheese in outlook and what they feel they represent. If the Bundesliga is by now used to Leipzig – rather than having fully accepted the club conceptually – there is a special level of hostility that meets the club when they arrive at Signal Iduna Park. Now, settled and established in the top flight, Leipzig feel able to clap back.
