Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern Munich 2-0 to win German Super Cup
Frankfurt: Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the German Super Cup on Wednesday to win the first domestic title of the season.
Dortmund shut down former teammate Robert Lewandowski, while on the other side Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored in the 23rd minute and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang sealed the victory in the 62nd.
"We defended sensationally and allowed very little," Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said. "We stayed with it for 90 minutes, but we are still a long way from being where we want to be."
Both teams played without many of their World Cup stars, who have only recently returned to duty.
Dortmund also beat Bayern 4-2 in last season's Super Cup, but Bayern went on to sweep the domestic double ahead of Dortmund. The Bundesliga season kicks off on Aug. 22.
Lewandowski, the Bundesliga's top scorer last season with Dortmund, stayed scoreless in his official debut for Bayern. He had one shot on goal that was well saved by Mitch Langerak. Lewandowski moved to Bayern on a free transfer in the offseason and was greeted with boos from the mostly partisan crowd of 80,667 at Dortmund's stadium.
"It was our first game and our attack was not good. Dortmund played better," Lewandowski said.
Bayern's defensive midfielder Javi Martinez, who played as one of three defenders, left the match on a stretcher after 31 minutes with a left-knee injury. Winger Franck Ribery also sat out the match with a reported knee injury, after announcing earlier that he was quitting the France national team. Netherlands winger Arjen Robben also missed the match for Bayern.
Dortmund went ahead after a one-two between Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang and some clumsy defending by David Alaba. Mkhitaryan drove into the roof of the net from inside the penalty box.
Aubameyang headed in the winner from a cross by Lukasz Piszczek — then put on a Spiderman face mask before being substituted.
Manuel Neuer, one of Germany's three World Cup winners to start for Bayern, turned away shots from Sebastian Kehl and Jonas Hofmann late in the first half to prevent his team from falling behind by an even bigger margin.
Neuer also had to race back to clear from the line when a back pass from Martinez nearly took him by surprise earlier in the match.
Lewandowski had his only chance at the start of the second half but Langerak, usually a backup for Roman Weidenfeller, stood his ground and saved with his chest.
Langerak also turned away a free kick by Alaba, the only other time Bayern came close to scoring despite bringing on Mario Goetze, who scored the only goal in Germany's 1-0 win over Argentina in the World Cup final in Brazil. Neuer had to race far out of his area to foil a last-gasp Dortmund attempt.