DORTMUND: English winger Jadon Sancho starred for Borussia Dortmund on Saturday to help his side beat rivals Bayern Munich 2-0 to win their sixth DFL Super Cup and claim early bragging rights in the curtain raiser for the German Bundesliga.

The teenager was the key man, assisting one goal and brilliantly setting up Paco Alcacer for the other in front of the Dortmund faithful against a Bayern side looking a little lost without departed greats Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.

“We absolutely wanted to win this match, it was very difficult,” said Dortmund coach Lucien Favre. “Bayern were very strong and had a lot of possession but we defended well and stayed very compact. We knew that we had to go on the counter-attack and we did that very well.”

Bayern, who pipped Favre’s side to the Bundesliga title last season and lifted the German Cup, were without World Cup winning left-back and new signing Lucas Hernandez due to a knee problem.

Dortmund’s big name summer arrivals of winger Thorgen Hazard and Julian Brandt, as well as defender Mats Hummels, returning the club after three seasons in Bavaria, were also ruled out due to injuries.

Bayern captain Manuel Neuer said errors proved costly.

“We gave Dortmund the match by making too many mistakes,” Neuer said. “We made the mistakes all on our own, we gave them possession and that’s why we conceded the goals.”

More than 81,000 fans at the Westfalenstadion were barely given time to settle as the game began with an outstanding save from Neuer to deny Dortmund counterpart Marco Reus.

The next big chance also fell to Dortmund. Neuer rushed out of goal and Alcacer tried scooping the ball over him toward the unguarded net. Fans stood up and watched as the ball went wide.

Alcacer made amends for his miss shortly after halftime. Sancho dazzled the opposition with his footwork on the right before teeing up the Spanish striker on the edge of the box who found the bottom right corner.

Dortmund’s lead was doubled with 22 minutes to go from a clinical counter-attack. Sancho was free once again on the right wing, he burst into the box beyond Bayern’s back-four and nutmegged the experienced Neuer to make it 2-0.

Bayern start the defence of their league title by hosting Hertha Berlin on Friday August 16 and Dortmund play Augsburg a day later.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2019