Klopp: Bayern still the team to beat

Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp said Bayern Munich ‘are the favourites in every game’, ahead of the DFB-Pokal final.

The two Bundesliga heavyweights will battle it out for the German cup on May 17, with Bayern having already sealed the league title.

Pep Guardiola’s side are reeling, though, after an embarrassing 4-0 loss at home to Real Madrid saw them crash out of the UEFA Champions League at the semi-final stage.

Klopp said unless cup ties are between teams from varying divisions, then he is unable to decisively favour the match one way or another – unless Bayern are involved.

“I think that in a cup final, unless the champion plays a team from the second league, there is no favourite. So that’s not important.

“But Bayern Munich are the favourites in every game I can think of.

“And that hasn’t changed at all because of some results from the last couple of games.”

Referring to Bayern’s worst loss in European competition at the Allianz Arena, Klopp said the German outfit showed they were human by making basic errors.

“I’ve read things concerning the Real-Bayern match, where they totally forgot about how the two goals happened.

“They made it hard for Bayern to turn the game again.

“Those were two standard situations and they have nothing to do with football, but Real have done a great job and Bayern didn’t defend those situations well, but that’s all.

“It doesn’t change anything about my opinion, that Bayern are the best team in the world at the moment.

“But even they can lose a game sometimes.”

On departing striker Robert Lewandowski, Klopp said Dortmund helped develop his game ahead of his move to Bayern next season, although he came to the club from Lech Poznan with plenty of ability as a goalscorer.

“If I think about how Robert (Lewandowski) was still playing in Poznan, and the four times I saw him, he always scored and I missed his goals three times because I left in the 85th minute. And it never looked like he would score but I got a call in my car three times saying ‘1-0 Posnan, Lewandowski’,” Klopp said.

“He already had outstanding quality – playing with his back to the opponent.

“But he didn’t participate in the game that much, he was more just a striker.

“And his development to me will always be a good example for how you can observe someone and then think about his future development.”