Bayern Munich edged past Borussia Dortmund 2-1 to win the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup on the back of goals from Nathaniel Brown and Michael Olise, overcoming a late rally sparked by Fábio Silva at Signal Iduna Park.
The official opening of the 2026/27 German football season began with reigning champions of the league and DFB Pokal, Bayern Munich, travelling to Borussia Dortmund for the Franz Beckenbauer Super Cup. Though it is natural as a Bayern fan to jump into the season with glee and fully anticipate the wonderful football the Bavarians played last season after such a long summer break, it takes time for the team to shake off the rust, achieve full match fitness again and rediscover the mechanisms built over the course of the season. It is not all going to come back in the very first game. This was very much evident in an imperfect display from both Beckenbauer Supercup finalists. And yet… Bayern outclassed Dortmund in first half.
Somehow, the venue of the Supercup was set to be the Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund’s home stadium, turning this match into a Dortmund home game and a chance for last season’s Bundesliga runner ups to send a signal to the rest of the Bundesliga: This Bayern team can be beaten. Armed with multiple intriguing new faces and their 80,000+ fans behind them, Dortmund set out to make a point. The first 45 minutes saw them make the wrong one, though. Dortmund failed to register a single shot on target as Bayern scored twice and could have had more goals. Serhou Guirassy had the best chance of the first half but was unable to convert, whereas Gregor Kobel had to make several saves to keep out the reigning Bundesliga champions.
Signal Iduna Park
The home team showed too little initiative, instead allowing the Bavarians to camp out in their half and set their goal under siege. Bayern may have lined up with a makeshift solution at the #10 position in Brown because Lennart Karl, Serge Gnabry and Jamal Musiala were unavailable for the game (and Ismael Saibari was presumably not fit to play the entire 90 minutes), but Dortmund could not use that to their advantage. Meanwhile Bayern were still fighting their rust, Brown scored a goal, showed a lot of promise but put in an ultimately inconsistent performance while Michael Olise and Harry Kane shown that this was their first start since the World Cup. But they still registered 11 shots, created many chances and looked multiple levels above their rivals. It would be Bayern who opened the scoring when Michael Olise chested a ball in the direction of Nathaniel Brown, who was playing as a number 10 and, after scoring in his first World Cup game for Germany, he scored in his first ‘competitive’ game for Bayern to make it 1-0. Dortmund then had a Ramy Bensebaini goal disallowed due to offside. But, just before the break, Bensebaini found himself at the scene of the crime as he was unable to win the ball off Michael Olise, who beat Bensebaini and Waldemar Anton to make it 2-0, signaling what was supposed to be a comfortable end to the match for the Bavarians.
Giannis Konstantelias
But Dortmund grew in the second half. One can assume Niko Kovač gave his team the hairdryer treatment during half time, because they put pressure on Bayern from the off. After the break, and the introduction of Giannis Konstantelias, Dortmund were more positive, but they still struggled to challenge Manuel Neuer in the Bayern goal. It was far from perfect and, too often, their attacks ended with poor technical execution. But they made Bayern sweat more in the opening period of the second half than they did in the first half. And they never really went away. It would be Konstantelias again who would kick Dortmund into gear and bring them back into the game when his pass found Daniel Svensson, who cut the ball back, and it was converted by Fabio Silva to make it 2-1.
Ramy Bensebaini
As it looked like Kovač’s side would get back into the game, Bensebaini got himself sent off with a straight red card. Right at the end of the game, Dortmund had a clear-cut chance to equalise when Anton played in Maximilian Beier, but despite the German being one-on-one with Manuel Neuer, he skied the ball after being put under pressure by Jonathan Tah.
Bundesliga
Overall, Bayern were deserved winners; they were in total control for much of the game, and held die Schwarzgelben at bay only until the final 20 minutes or so. From what was shown today, it will take a lot to displace the reigning Bundesliga champions at the top of the table. For Dortmund, it showed the gap in quality between them and Bayern.
