The words left Joshua Kimmich’s lips at around 9pm on Saturday in the lower corridors of the Allianz Arena, but could easily have done so four days before in the same place. “We aren’t really efficient,” said the captain with the familiar scowl that follows a Bayern failure to win, “and we are not defending well enough.”
Despite having been a worthy Topspiel and satisfying in terms of entertainment, this edition of Der Klassiker was not what it has been to either side; a do-or-die, sink-or-swim moment in the sprint to the finish line. There were consequences for Bayern and Borussia Dortmund, but not decisively so. What there were, however, were frustrations, and acknowledgments of the prevailing winds and infuriating habits. It is not often in the context of an intensely contested highlight of the season that there is room for reflection on what today lacks and what must be achieved tomorrow but here, now, there was alternative to surveying the vista.
