Fc bayern münchen vs borussia dortmund

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have Germany's fiercest football rivalry.Martin Meissner/Associated Press

Der Klassiker, Germany's answer to the Clasico between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, does not have the history of its La Liga counterpart, but Saturday's 95th meeting between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich—and their 20th in all competitions in the last four-and-a-half years—is just as intense, keenly contested and passion-filled.

With 500 kilometres separating Dortmund in the industrial Ruhr heartland and Munich in sophisticated and austere Bavaria, the rivalry is not based on geography or politics, but on pure, unadulterated sporting success. And there has been plenty of that in recent years.

Since Dortmund picked up their first Bundesliga title in 1994/95, one of these two clubs has been crowned German champions on all but four occasions, and few would bet against the result of Saturday's game at Signal Iduna Park making a significant contribution to one of them picking up that crown again.

Here, we take a look at some of the defining moments from German football's biggest rivalry.

1971/72: Bayern 11-1 Dortmund

At the time, a Borussia was the dominant team in German football, but it was Monchengladbach rather than Dortmund whom Udo Lattek's Bayern had to contend with.

Dortmund were struggling when they headed to Bavaria, and their fragile confidence would receive no succour from their unforgiving hosts.

With Sepp Maier in goal, Franz Beckenbauer in defence and Gerd Muller in attack, Bayern had the spine of the side that would go on to win the first of three successive Bundesliga titles to which this win—still their biggest Bundesliga triumph—contributed.

With Uli Hoeness and Muller unbridled, Dortmund were 2-0 down after 20 minutes, 4-0 down at the break, and 6-0 adrift 11 minutes into the second half with Beckenbauer also on the scoresheet.

Another Bayern legend, Paul Breitner, would also get among the goals, while Muller ended the game with four as BVB were sent home with tails between their legs and heading for relegation at the end of the season. They would not return to the top flight for four years.

The 1990s: Der Klassiker begins

Dortmund were not a genuine nuisance to their Bavarian counterparts until the 1990s, but, boy, did they quickly become a huge problem for Bayern.

With Ottmar Hitzfeld in charge, Die Schwarzgelben even surpassed the Bavarians, winning back-to-back titles in 1995 and 1996.

"The heat was definitely on back then," former Bayern captain Lothar Matthaus told Deutsche Welle. "We knew we had to react to the Dortmund challenge. We had to drive the message home to them: 'You had your bit of fun, but now it's over.'"

Matthaus did that during the 1-1 draw between the pair in Dortmund in 1996/97 with some pure theatre at the expense of Germany international team-mate Andreas Moller.

Matthaus, who made 302 league appearances over two spells in Munich, told DW:

Andy Moller – good grief! He's a nice guy. We get along fine. We both played in the national squad that won the World Cup in 1990. But on the pitch? He played in a yellow jersey and me in red. We all knew that he was a bit soft. And then he went down again after a foul when we were playing them in Dortmund and then I made this gesture to say "Stop making a fuss, you crybaby!" But that was nothing personal.

Incredibly, Matthaus took the same view on Oliver Kahn's kung-fu challenge on Stephane Chapuisat, his attempt to bite Heiko Herrlich and—here comes the football—a penalty save from Lars Ricken in a 2-2 draw in Dortmund that has to be seen to be believed from the 1998/99 season.

Bayern came back from 2-0 down to earn a point, while Stefan Reuter and Sammy Kuffour were sent off as both sides finished with 10 men.

Having seen Dortmund win the UEFA Champions League in 1997 and then triumph in their all-Bundesliga European quarter-final duel the following year, Bayern would reassert their dominance in the 1996-97 season, winning the title as BVB finished fourth. How? They appointed Hitzfeld as coach.

2011/12: Borussia Dortmund 5-2 Bayern Munich

Before the Jurgen Klopp reign at Dortmund started in earnest with the Bundesliga title of 2010/11, Bayern had won the title five times in the preceding eight seasons, doing the double on each occasion. Things were getting a little too easy.

If Klopp's first title with BVB did not provide the wake-up call they needed, then the domestic double he achieved the following season certainly did, particularly with a thumping win in the DFB-Pokal final.

"This was not bad luck nor a coincidence, this was an embarrassment," Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said in front of sponsors and VIPs following the 5-2 drubbing at the Olympiastadion  in Berlin, per the Guardian. "Every Dortmund goal was like a slap in the face today."

From Luiz Gustavo's early mistake that all but presented Shinji Kagawa with the opening goal just three minutes in, Bayern endured a nightmare day.

"Our defensive behaviour was catastrophic," Bayern boss Jupp Heynckes said, per the Guardian. "If you don't concentrate from the start, you don't deserve to win. We've only got ourselves to blame."

Described as "a monster of efficiency" by Kicker, Robert Lewandowski helped himself to a hat-trick, Mats Hummels scored a penalty, and Bayern would also go on to lose the Champions League final at their own Allianz Arena to Chelsea in painfully dramatic circumstances.

Twelve months later, however, Bayern had picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and come out fighting, and Heynckes steered them to an unprecedented treble haul of Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League titles.

2013/14: Borussia Dortmund 0-3 Bayern Munich

"I'm very excited about my return," Mario Gotze said, per Kicker, ahead of the game, which came in the November following his acrimonious summer move to Bayern. "It will be one of the hardest moments of my career, but I have to deal with that, because it was my decision to go."

Even though Klopp embraced his former charge upon their reunion at Signal Iduna Park, "excited" was not exactly the adjective that could be used to describe the emotions coursing through Dortmund fans.

Having not got over his transfer to their bitter rivals, nor his absence from the Champions League final against Bayern the previous May, they were fully prepared to make it even more difficult for Gotze than he might have dared imagine.

When Bayern boss Pep Guardiola asked him to warm up, Gotze was forced to do so in the tunnel given the reaction he would have received from the Sudtribune, packed with 25,000 Dortmund fans yelling "Judas" from behind Manuel Neuer's goal.

"Then came the change. [Mario] Mandzukic out, Gotze in, and I thought to myself: 'Cool move,'" Klopp said of the moment Gotze, who had joined Dortmund aged eight, came off the bench on 56 minutes, per Focus.

"It wasn't very pleasant to come off the bench to a stadium full of catcalls," Gotze recalled, per Bundesliga.com. "It has to mark you to a certain extent. I won't forget that feeling in a hurry, when everyone in the stadium seems to hate you."

What happened 10 minutes later marked not only Gotze.

"We just lost sight of Mario for a moment," Klopp added, per Focus. 

That, though, was enough time for Gotze to improvise a toe-poked finish from the edge of the area, and then—literally—hold up his hands, shouldering yet more vitriol for having set Bayern en route to victory.

2015/16: Bayern Munich 5-1 Borussia Dortmund

With a four-point gap separating leaders Bayern and pursuers Dortmund ahead of the international break and both teams in optimal form, this game was supposed to provide confirmation that Thomas Tuchel's men would be more than just the best of the rest. The 90 minutes that followed suggested they may not even be that.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reduced the visitors' deficit to one before the break, but Dortmund old boys Lewandowski and Gotze—the latter with his first goal in 1,316 Bundesliga minutes—showed Tuchel just how much catching up he and his side had to do.

"He did what a goalscorer has to do," was how Kicker described Lewandowski's contribution as he struck twice—the first coming, crucially, just 44 seconds into the second half—to rip Dortmund's ambitions to shreds.

Bayern's victory made it eight wins from eight from the start of the Bundesliga season to reinforce their stranglehold on the German game.

"It really hurts. We came here to win and we didn't succeed," Tuchel told Bundesliga.com.

"We've beaten one of the best teams in Europe," said Guardiola. And how!