Borussia Dortmund channeling Bayern Munich lore to attempt Klassiker shock

Ronan Murphy

• Updated: 16 Oct 2025 05:36 CDT

News

Sandwiched between two disappointing performances against Borussia Dortmund, one of the most legendary press conferences in football history took place.

In March 1998, Bayern Munich followed up a scoreless draw with Dortmund in the Champions League quarter-final with a 1-0 defeat to Schalke in the Bundesliga, leading Italian head coach Giovanni Trapattoni to go on one of the greatest rants of all time.

In his broken German, the decorated manager slammed his squad, banging his fist on the table while insisting: "A trainer is not an idiot! A trainer can see what is happening on the field. In this game, there were two, three or four players who were weak like an empty bottle!"

A week later, Bayern were knocked out of Europe thanks to an extra-time goal from Stephane Chapuisat and the writing was on the wall for Trapattoni's tenure in Munich.

Back in 1998, Bayern Munich versus Borussia Dortmund was not yet known as 'Der Klassiker', a clever marketing tool developed by the Bundesliga to help promote the game outside Germany. With Dortmund becoming the first team to win the rebranded Champions League and Bayern often dominating domestically, these games began to take on more and more significance.

This weekend, Bayern Munich host Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena with Niko Kovac sitting in the away dugout rather than the spot he held during the 2018-19 season when he was the head coach of Bayern, a club he had previously played for in the early 2000s.

The match sees the team in first place take on the team in second in the Bundesliga, with both teams undefeated after six games. This desire to avoid defeat was one of the reasons Kovac was brought in to steady the ship at Dortmund last season, incredibly taking them from a mid-table battle back into the Champions League with one of the best records in BVB managerial history.

This conservatism never sat well with Bayern Munich fans who always wanted Kovac's side to be more ruthless and win big rather than just win when he was their head coach, but it is something that he has taken from mentor Trapattoni who also famously said: "If you can't win, then you mustn't lose."

Dortmund under Kovac are much more consistent, much more reliable with one former Bayern boss channeling another to make them hard to beat. "That saying of his really stuck with me," Kovac told the Bundesliga's official website this week. "That one point can be very valuable at the end of the season. It’s about the atmosphere, but it’s also about the point you take with

you."

Having made Borussia more solid at the back, especially thanks to the leadership qualities of Nico Schlotterbeck, the 54-year-old has also adjusted the team's attack with Karim Adeyemi given a freer role behind Serhou Guirassy to unlock opponents and drag defenders out of position.

This has especially paid dividends in the Champions League where Dortmund have scored four goals in back-to-back games, giving Bayern a warning sign ahead of the first Klassiker of 2025-26.

Dortmund have come away with points on the last two visits to Munich including a 2-2 draw with Kovac in charge in April, but Vincent Kompany's Bayern Munich this season have been an unstoppable force winning every game in all competitions, becoming the first Bundesliga side to win their first 10 games of a season.

In that time, Harry Kane has scored 18 times, including 11 in the league. Will Dortmund's new approach under Kovac be able to stop the Englishman as well as star attackers Michael Olise and Luis Diaz?

Kovac expects a close game: "These games are always very emotional, very tight. And I think the upcoming match will be the same.”

Will he be able to channel his inner Bayern Munich legend and cause a shock at his former home? We'll find out on Saturday evening. It should be a classic.

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