Borussia Dortmund's Champions League hopes in the balance as BayernMunich loss highlights their shortcomings

Undone: Dortmund were deflated by Bayern's late burst

Dennis Grombkowski

At the final whistle on a bitterly cold evening in Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park, the home players looked stunned, deflated by a brutal late burst of Bayern Munich quality that definitively settled a match that was in the balance for most of the afternoon. The loyal fans standing behind the south goal making up the mighty Yellow Wall were still singing, of course, but Jurgen Klopp's normally ebullient side are in real need of a lift.

The reverse to Bayern was bad enough on its own, leaving Dortmund seven points behind the champions at the summit and seriously compromising their hopes of reclaiming the title - or at least of keeping Pep Guardiola's charges sweating into spring this time. Yet it threatens to have even further implications for the success of Dortmund's season, or otherwise.

This game marked the beginning of two crucial home games in four days for Die Schwarzgelb, with Napoli the next visitors in a Champions League tie that last year's losing finalists really need to win after the home defeat to Arsenal last time out. The problem is that at the point of the season when Dortmund should be at their strongest, they appear to be anything but.

Klopp's problems begin at the back, where the entire back four from the Wembley final were absent in the starting XI against Bayern. The heavy Dortmund involvement in Germany's win at Wembley shows how far this team has come, but the cost of such prestige has been ruinous.

While Bayern's Manuel Neuer and Philipp Lahm were allowed home for a few days with their feet up, five of Klopp's players started on Tuesday night, which ended with Marcel Schmelzer facing three weeks out and Mats Hummels ruled out until the new year.

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So this week saw 34-year-old centre-back Manuel Friedrich - without a club since being released by Bayer Leverkusen in the summer having featured in only 11 league games last season - signed until the end of the campaign and pitched straight into the XI here, an experience he described as "surreal" after the game. Understandably, he looked rusty. 21-year-old Erik Durm, who came through the academy at Klopp's old club Mainz as a striker, looked all at sea at left-back, and new signing Sokratis held it together from the other centre-back slot for most of the game.

That fact that first-choice right-back Lukas Piszczek, out since summer after hip surgery, was rushed back to the bench after a brief run-out for the under-23s in practice game this week, showed exactly how pressed Dortmund are.

The current scratch defence may well play again on Tuesday, which will surely have Rafael Benitez rubbing his hands given that he has Gonzalo Higuain, Jose Callejon and a host of other attacking talent at his disposal.

More concerning for Klopp ahead of Tuesday's crunch match is that his men seem a little short of their sparky selves. This was not a mere tale of defensive woe - the final two goals were cosmetic and a consequence of chasing a game they dared not lose.

Dortmund created enough to have got something out of Bayern but lacked the conviction to make the most of their opportunities. "We're not scoring decisive goals at decisive times," was how goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller put it after the game. With three successive defeats now, confidence seems low.

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Reuters

Robert Lewandowski missed two presentable chances to open the scoring, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan later hesitated fatally in front of goal when an equaliser loomed, after the returning Mario Gotze had opened the scoring.

Such tentativeness will not do for the resumption of the Champions League. Should Dortmund stall again on Tuesday when Benitez and company arrive, Arsenal's final group game trip to the San Paolo might look a lot less daunting than it threatens to be at present.