Robert Lewandowski is a name that will always be synonymous with Borussia Dortmund, considering that is the club where the striker had his big break out in the early 2010s, but it is his record against the club that now lingers in the memory.
Despite being a legend at the club, helping them to two Bundesliga titles and a Champions League final, Lewandowski left under a cloud on a free transfer to Bayern Munich, and then became the scourge of the club for many years.
Here, Sports Mole goes back through the archives to look at Lewandowski's record against his former employers.
© Imago
Robert Lewandowski's record vs. Dortmund
Played: 27
Won: 20
Drawn: 1
Lost: 6
Goals: 27
Assists: 3
Following the infamous move in 2014, Lewandowski would go on to score a staggering 27 goals in 26 matches against Dortmund - more than he has managed against any other opponent.
In all eight home Bundesliga fixtures, Lewandowski scored, totalling 16 goals in those matches, many of which were crucial in title races, with Bayern winning the Meisterschale every season he was at the club.
Also, at the expense of Dortmund, Lewandowski's Bayern won four German Super Cups and the DFB-Pokal, with the Polish striker often having a central role in those successes.
Lewandowski's first season at Bayern saw some of their most intense clashes with Dortmund, but he had a huge role to play in two narrow league wins during 2014-15, including scoring the only goal in the victory at the Westfalenstadion.
The striker was left red-faced in the Pokal semi-final later that season though, which went to penalties, because after Philipp Lahm, Xabi Alonso, Mario Gotze and Manuel Neuer all missed, they never got around to the fifth taker, with Dortmund going through 2-0 in the shootout.
Lewandowski ensured he scored in his first four games against Dortmund by bagging a brace in a 5-1 win early the following season, and he did not make the same mistake in the Pokal final, taking the second penalty instead of waiting for the fifth, when Bayern won 4-3 on spot kicks.
A first league defeat against his old side occurred early in the 2016-17 season, and they would go on to lose in Pokal semi-finals to BVB again, but a brace in a 4-1 home win in the Bundesliga helped the Bavarians to yet another title.
Between 2017 and 2019, Lewandowski was as clinical as ever, netting eight league goals against Dortmund in just two seasons, including a hat trick in one of BVB's darkest-ever days - the 6-0 defeat at the Allianz Arena in March 2018 when they were still in the title race.
The goals kept flowing for Lewandowski even when Bayern could not find the win, as he scored both in a 3-2 defeat at the Westfalenstadion later that year, before netting another brace in the 4-0 home win the following season.
It was becoming difficult to keep up with amount of goals Lewandowski was plundering against his former club, and he added to that with yet another hat trick in the behind-closed-doors 4-2 win in 2021, overshadowing Erling Haaland, who was now on the radar of everyone across Europe.
Haaland was still around in the Yellow and Black of Dortmund during Lewandowski's final season at Bayern in 2021-22, but still could not usurp the veteran Pole.
Lewandowski scored twice in both a Super Cup win for Bayern, and at the Westfalenstadion early in the league season, including the late winner, while also netting a farewell goal in Der Klassiker when Bayern won 3-1 at the Allianz later in the campaign.
Fast forward to late 2024, and Lewandowski finally faced BVB for a club other than Bayern, following his move to Barcelona, but he made little impact in a thrilling 3-2 win for the Blaugrana in the Champions League, being substituted in the 70th minute with the score at 1-1, just before the impending drama that ensued in the final quarter of an hour.
Andrew Delaney
