Flick emulates Guardiola's Bayern Munich feat with Klassiker victory

Bayern Munich head coach Hansi Flick

Hansi Flick has tasted victory in 15 of his opening 18 Bundesliga matches in charge of Bayern Munich - a feat only Pep Guardiola has previously managed in the club's history.

Bayern beat second-placed Borussia Dortmund 1-0 in the behind-closed-doors Klassiker at Signal Iduna Park through Joshua Kimmich's outrageous first-half strike to move seven points clear at the top.

In doing so, the reigning champions made it seven Bundesliga wins in a row and 13 victories in their last 14 since losing 2-1 to Borussia Monchengladbach towards the end of last year.

That is one of only two losses for Bayern under Flick, who initially replaced Niko Kovac on a caretaker basis in November before taking over permanently last month.

15/18 - Hansi #Flick has won 15 out of his first 18 #Bundesliga games in charge of @FCBayernEN , the only other manager to do so was #Pep Guardiola. Decisive? #BVBFCB pic.twitter.com/2vr1AtbbhN

— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) May 26, 2020

Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig are the only other teams to have taken points off the league leaders during that period, winning 2-1 and drawing 0-0 respectively.

Guardiola, whose team won 16 of their opening 18 games in 2013-14 - drawing the other two, went on to enjoy three trophy-laden seasons at the Allianz Arena that saw Bayern win seven major honours.