Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben and the Klassiker all-time XI
Robert Lewandowski up front with Gerd Müller, Lothar Matthäus and Arjen Robben playing with Michael Zorc, and Mats Hummels and Oliver Kahn in the same side: it can only be a Klassiker classic XI.
bundesliga.com has rifled through the annals of the game Hummels himself describes as the one "everyone wants to see", and picked out some of the men who have made the most impact on the German top flight's showstopping encounter.
Goalkeeper: Oliver Kahn (Bayern)
If Bayern were ever to honour their iconic goalkeeper with a statue, they would have so many bubblegum memories to chew over in their minds. The facial expression on all of them would show one thing though: his unquenchable thirst to win. And win. And win. His 13 triumphs in his 27 Klassikers — the second-most of any player from either club — means no-one tasted victory more in the fixture. Described as "impatient, disciplined, ambitious" by Bayern's official website, he forgot himself in the infamous second meeting of 1998/99 in which his kung fu kick leap at Stephane Chapuisat and apparent attempt to bite Heiko Herrlich's ear are writ large in Klassiker folklore.
Right-back: Stefan Reuter (Bayern/Dortmund)
Only Dortmund's all-time leading appearance maker, the evergreen Michael Zorc, has appeared more times for the club in a Klassiker than the 1990 World Cup and EURO 96 winner, who — along with Dede, Roman Weidenfeller and Günter Kutowski — featured in 18 encounters. But though the most glorious chapters of his legend were written in yellow-and-black, the opening one was in red: the Bavaria-born defender — now Augsburg's team manager — was in the second of three years at Bayern when he became world champion, and played six Klassikers with them to leave himself third on the all-time list of overall appearances — behind one-club men Zorc and Kahn — in the fixture.
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Centre-back: Thomas Helmer (Dortmund/Bayern)
Another EURO '96 winner, Helmer made the opposite journey to Reuter — one that would be made by several others too since — making his name in six years at Dortmund before making his medal collection by winning three Bundesliga titles in seven years at Bayern. The intelligent, ball-playing centre-back made double-digit Klassiker appearances for both clubs — 10 for BVB, 12 for Bayern — to leave himself fifth in the all-time chart. Now a German TV pundit, he always predicts a 2-2 draw when his ex-clubs meet so he doesn't upset anyone: "I still have good contact with them both."
Centre-back: Mats Hummels (Dortmund/Bayern)
There are many similarities between Hummels and Helmer: stylish centre-backs whose ability on the ball might have seen them play further up the pitch. They also share a past on either side of the Klassiker divide, though Hummels actually made a round trip. After coming through the Bayern youth ranks, he became first-choice…for the club's reserve team, and made just a solitary first-team appearance. A 2008/09 loan to Dortmund morphed into an eight-year association that brought two league titles under Jürgen Klopp. Two more have followed since his 2016 return to Bayern, and his Klassiker record is also balanced: eight wins and as many defeats in 19 appearances, the most of any player currently in either squad.
Left-back: Philipp Lahm (Bayern)
Barring a loan spell at Stuttgart, there was only ever one club for the Munich-born Lahm, who is the modern era player with the most Klassiker appearances at 20. Half of those ended in victory — only Kahn has won more — while he also lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy after a European summit Klassiker at Wembley in May 2013.
Right midfield: Arjen Robben (Bayern)
The Dutchman strikes terror into the heart of most defenders, and the Dortmund ones are no different. And with good reason. With seven, Robben — along with Thomas Müller — has the highest number of Klassiker wins to his name among current players, though he has played five fewer than his Bayern teammate. He is also the Borussia bogeyman for his 89th-minute winner at Wembley that dashed Dortmund's European ambitions in the competition's first all-German final. "It just had to be," he said following his trophy-clinching strike. "I can't put into words the feeling of scoring a goal in the last minute." Nor could either set of fans, though for very different reasons…
Watch: Arjen Robben's top 5 Bundesliga goals!
Central midfield: Michael Zorc (Dortmund)
If Lahm can lay claim to being Mr. Bayern, Zorc is most definitely Herr Dortmund. The club's sporting director is also its record appearance maker, which makes it no surprise he also tops the chart for Klassiker games. He featured no fewer than 28 times making him part of the furniture in German football's biggest fixture, though not that he was really all that comfortable: he won just five of those matches, and lost 13.
Central midfield: Lothar Matthäus (Bayern)
“You have to have 11 players who are warriors," is the blueprint for Klassiker success Germany's 1990 World Cup-winning captain laid out after Bayern's 3-2 defeat to their arch-rivals in the first half of the 2018/19 campaign. Matthäus felt Niko Kovac's men hadn't been combative enough, which was never an accusation that could be levelled at him. In his prime, Matthäus was THE complete player in the middle of the park: goals, energy, tackles and unflinching determination. He was a fearsome force of nature who drove Bayern to seven wins — suffering just two losses — in 17 Klassikers, scoring four goals to boot. But mention 'Matthäus' and 'Klassiker' in the same breath, and most fans' minds will go to 1996 when the Bayern man provocatively called Dortmund's Andreas Möller a crybaby, and got a slap in the face for his troubles.
Left midfield: Lothar Emmerich (Dortmund)
Young Dortmund fans probably think Emma, the club's bee mascot, just has a nice name; their fathers and particularly their grandfathers know better. Emmerich is a German football legend, who — along with Gerd Müller — is the only man in this side who was there at the start. Emmerich was on the winning side as Dortmund claimed the first Klassiker 2-0 against Müller's Bayern in Munich in October 1965, and he scored twice himself as BVB triumphed 3-0 at home later the same campaign. Only Robert Lewandowski boasts a better strike rate among the Klassiker's leading goalscorers with Emmerich averaging a goal a game from his eight appearances.
Forward: Gerd Müller (Bayern)
Did someone say 'Goals'? Müller spoke that language, and not only talked the talk, but walked the walk with devastating style. 'Der Bomber' is the Bundesliga's all-time leading scorer, so no prizes for guessing who has the most Klassiker strikes…In 19 meetings with BVB, he bagged 14 goals, including four — with current Bayern president Uli Hoeneß scoring twice — in an 11-1 win in 1971 that is the fixture's biggest win.
Forward: Robert Lewandowski (Dortmund/Bayern)
Just as he caught and overtook Claudio Pizarro as the Bundesliga's all-time foreign-born leading scorer, so the prolific Pole is poised to overhaul Müller. In eight Klassikers for BVB between 2010 and 2014, he scored just once, but has wreaked a terrible fate on his former club in Bayern colours, netting a phenomenal 12 times in just nine matches — including a hat-trick in last season's 6-0 schooling as well as both Bayern goals in the 3-2 loss in the 2018/19 Hinrunde — to leave himself just a single strike shy of Müller's mark.
Watch: What makes Lewandowski so special?
Coach: Ottmar Hitzfeld (Dortmund/Bayern)
Between 1991 and 2004, Hitzfeld was the one constant on the sidelines in Der Klassiker. Appointed boss of Dortmund in 1991, like Klopp he won back-to-back league titles — BVB's first Bundesliga crowns — between 1994 and 1996 before earning messianic status with the UEFA Champions League final win against Juventus in Munich, of all places. Having established Dortmund as genuine challengers to Bayern domestically, his work was so good the Bavarian giants thought he would be a good fit for them. Four league titles in six years — as well as a UEFA Champions League final win in 2000/01 — would more than suggest they were right. He also came out on top in Der Klassiker too — no surprise there — winning 10 and losing only six of his 26, a tally he embellished thanks to a second spell at Bayern between 2007 and 2008.
Substitutes
Goalkeeper: Jan Koller (Dortmund)
The Czech Republic international was a striker by trade, but after Jens Lehmann was sent off and all Dortmund substitutes had been used in the November 2002 Klassiker, the 6'6" forward picked up the gloves for 24 unforgettable minutes in a valiant 2-1 defeat.
Sebastian Kehl (Dortmund)
One of Klopp's first acts in charge of Dortmund was to make Kehl captain, which says it all, and the ex-Germany international was an inspirational figure in 17 Klassikers, a total bettered by only four BVB players ever.
Mehmet Scholl (Bayern)
One of the most underrated players of his generation, Scholl lost just three and won eight of his 20 Klassikers, scoring eight times — the same number as that of the Bundesliga titles he won.
Carsten Jancker (Bayern)
A figure of fun for some notable misses, you don't get to be a burly presence in the Bayern squad for six years — winning the league four times and the UEFA Champions League — without talent. Jancker scored three goals in his nine Klassikers, which is not as impressive as his boast that he never experienced a defeat in any of his appearances, winning four times and drawing five.
Watch: The history of Der Klassiker!
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