What a year it's been for Hansi Flick.
The Bayern Munich coach marked 12 months in charge on Wednesday with a vibrant 6-2 win over Salzburg in the Champions League. Next up is the “Klassiker” against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. Last year, victory in that fixture put Flick on course for a trophy-filled season.
Initially he was a caretaker, tasked with picking up the pieces after Niko Kovac left Bayern stuttering in the Bundesliga following a humbling 5-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt. Flick was meant to hand over to a bigger name after a few weeks.
Dortmund's head coach Lucien Favre prepares during a training session prior the Champions League group F soccer match between Club Brugge and Borussia Dortmund at the training ground in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The match will be played in Bruges, Belgium on Wednesday evening. (AP PhotoMartin Meissner)
Six days into his tenure, Flick's team hammered Dortmund 4-0 as Robert Lewandowski scored twice in a rampant victory. The extra intensity in Bayern's high pressing and non-stop attacking intent, compared to the same players under Kovac, helped Flick make his case to Bayern that he deserved to be more than just a stopgap.
Flick has won 44 of 48 games during his year in charge. Bayern has won every single trophy it's played for during his tenure — the Champions League, the Bundesliga, the German Cup and both national and continental Super Cups. Flick's all-action tactics appear well-suited for a coronavirus-interrupted year in which defenses around Europe seem to lack their usual cohesion.
And just when it looked like Bayern was finally being worn down by fatigue from the sheer weight of fixtures, the team responded with a statement win.
Thrashing Salzburg 6-2 followed lumbering and clumsy play — at least by Bayern's standards — in 2-1 wins over Lokomotiv Moscow and Cologne. After a shock 4-1 defeat to Hoffenheim in September, Bayern responded by beating Dortmund for the German Super Cup and embarking on its current nine-game winning run.
Bayern and Dortmund are level on 15 points at the top of the Bundesliga after six games apiece. A win for Bayern would put the Munich club firmly on course for a record-extending ninth consecutive title, and it could push Dortmund coach Lucien Favre closer to the exit.
Favre has lost all three of his games against Flick and hasn't beaten Bayern since August 2019 in a German Super Cup game against Kovac's team. The Swiss coach's contract with Dortmund is up at the end of the season and there's no sign of a new deal yet.
Dortmund is on a four-game winning run after losing its opening Champions League game at Lazio 3-1.
Defender Mats Hummels is a doubt for the Bayern game with a muscle injury he picked up in last week's win over Arminia Bielefeld which kept him out of Dortmund's 3-0 Champions League victory at Brugge on Wednesday.
Bayern may have to do without defender Niklas Süle, who has been in isolation after a positive test for the coronavirus stopped him traveling to Salzburg.
It will be the third Klassiker in a row with no spectators after German soccer moved back into empty stadiums under a new partial lockdown nationwide amid rising coronavirus case numbers. That ended a six-week trial period with fans in varying numbers at different venues, depending on the local situation.
Dortmund had 11,500 spectators against Freiburg on Oct. 3 for the biggest Bundesliga crowd since play was suspended in March. However, Dortmund was soon required to reduce crowd sizes sharply as infection rates rose. Bayern wasn't allowed spectators at any of its home games because of a higher infection rate in Munich at the time.
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Bayern Munich is used to winning the Bundesliga title. Even so, this one is special.
Not only would it be Bayern's 10th in a row — a feat never achieved in any of Europe's top five leagues — but the club can clinch the title at home on Saturday with a win in the “Klassiker” against Borussia Dortmund.
Bayern's stadium will be packed for the match, making a difference from twice celebrating titles in empty arenas amid the pandemic.
Bayern's Serge Gnabry, left, and Arminia's Manuel Prietl challenge for the ball during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Arminia Bielefeld and Bayern Munich in Bielefeld, Germany, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP PhotoMartin Meissner)
The mood in Munich on Thursday was relaxed, with Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann already discussing his players' tradition of celebrating league wins by pouring beer over the coach.
“Beer is supposed to be quite good for your hair,” he joked.
Still, Nagelsmann admitted that winning the Bundesliga again has “perhaps a little bit less meaning in Munich" than the Champions League, where Bayern was eliminated in the quarterfinals with a surprise loss to Villarreal.
Bayern's Jamal Musiala, down, is celebrated by Bayern's Alphonso Davies, up, after scoring his side's third goal during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Arminia Bielefeld and Bayern Munich in Bielefeld, Germany, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP PhotoMartin Meissner)
“On Saturday, it's still a special situation to do it against Dortmund, to do it against your direct competitor in your own stadium with a full house,” he said.
Ten titles in a row would be a historic achievement for Bayern but less helpful for the Bundesliga. Stagnation at the top makes it a harder sell to international audiences.
Winning the league is just meeting minimum expectations for Nagelsmann in the first year of a five-year contract.
Dortmund's scorer Erling Haaland sits on the grass after winning the German Bundesliga soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and VfL Wolfsburg in Dortmund, Germany, Saturday, April 16, 2022. (AP PhotoMartin Meissner)
“I think that if I didn't win it with the team, then I wouldn't be the coach here any more," he said.
Dortmund trails Bayern by nine points with four games remaining and would need a big win Saturday and a dramatic Bayern collapse to have any hope for the title. Still, they would love to spoil Bayern's party.
Bayern has won its last seven meetings against Dortmund, though the last encounter was a hard-fought game which ended amid bitter recriminations. Bayern won 3-2 with two goals from Robert Lewandowski but all the focus was on referee Felix Zwayer after Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham used a post-game interview to recall Zwayer's links to a 2005 match-fixing case. Bellingham later was fined.
Freiburg's Lucas Hoeler, Ermedin Demirovic, Nico Schlotterbeck and Christian Guenter, from left, celebrate after winning the German Soccer Cup semifinal soccer match between Hamburger SV and SC Freiburg in Hamburg, Germany, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (AP PhotoMartin Meissner)
It could be the last "Klassiker" for Dortmund striker Erling Haaland, with the Norwegian linked with a move to Manchester City at the end of the season. He is coming off a period of poor form after missing February with muscle problems — a worrying repeat occurrence for the 21-year-old striker — though he ended a scoring drought with two goals in last week's 6-1 rout of struggling Wolfsburg.
Outside of the top two, there's still a fight for the other Champions League places. Leipzig is in third place and Bayer Leverkusen is fourth, and both are under pressure from fifth-place Freiburg.
Freiburg, which has also reached the German Cup final, takes on Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday in a game which could make or break its Champions League chances.
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