Borussia Dortmund edged past Bayern Munich in Der Klassiker on Saturday to close the gap between the two sides to three points"?.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's first half goal was enough to give Dortmund their first home win over their historic rivals since 2012.
It was a high tempo start in a typically atmospheric Westfalenstadion, and the home side took the lead after just ten minutes. Aubameyang stretched to get just enough on a Mario Gotze cross to open the scoring with what was the first effort of the game.
Dortmund were certainly on top after the goal, the already raucous fans turning the volume up another notch and spurring on the players as a result.
But Bayern started to offer a threat in response as the half wore on after an out of sorts start to the game.
Dortmund had impressively managed to deny Carlo Ancelotti's side any notable opportunities, however, and - other than a few half chances for the visitors (and a somewhat speculative overhead kick from Thiago) - went into half time with their narrow lead comfortably intact.
A relatively leaky defensive record this season meant that maintaining that lead for the entirety of the game would be a considerably more difficult challenge for Thomas Tuchel's men.
Aubameyang had two good chances to double his side's lead and take some of the pressure off the defence early in the second half, but failed to test Manuel Neuer with both.
Bayern, who had lacked some of their usual creativity, were almost level on the hour mark when Xabi Alonso lofted a sublime curling effort at goal, only to be denied by the underside of the bar.
The pattern of the game had begun to shape itself up for a Bayern onslaught, although Aubameyang had another golden opportunity to potentially put the game to bed with 20 minutes remaining.
The Gabonese striker was set clean through after a misplaced Alonso pass, but his disappointingly weak effort was straight at Neuer.
It looked increasingly less likely that the missed chances would prove costly for Dortmund as the game entered its latter stages, with goalkeeper Roman Burki still yet to be really tested.
Robert Lewandowski had Bayern's best chance of the game in injury time, however, but placed his header wide of the post.
The win moved Dortmund up to third in the Bundesliga, while defeat for Bayern meant that they missed the chance to replace RB Leipzig at the top of the league
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