Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich: ‘Der Klassiker’

Club football returns after the international break and this time much is at stake in Germany as the two behemoths of German football, Dortmund and Bayern face off in ‘Der Klassiker‘. It will be a matchup between the two Bundesliga giants who pride themselves on distinctly different ideologies and strategies. Four points currently separate the two sides in the table, and Bayern would love nothing more than to push that lead to seven with their first win in Dortmund in the Bundesliga since the 2009-2010 season. The ‘German Clasico’ will see the best attack in the league (Dortmund - 32 goals scored) against the best defence (Bayern - 7 goals conceded). Bayern had set a new league record on matchday 12 by reaching their 37th game without defeat and would want to extend it against their fierce rivals. Their last league loss (2-1 at home to Leverkusen) was almost 13 months ago.

Dominant Bayern, who beat Dortmund 2-1 in last season’s Champions League final en route to winning the first treble by a German team, would want revenge for their season-opening German Super Cup defeat to their fierce rivals. That 4-2 Super Cup defeat is Bayern Munich’s only defeat in a competitive match this season under Pep Guardiola. They will, however, be without their inspirational winger Franck Ribery who was injured in France’s 3-0 win over Ukraine on Tuesday.Bayern will also be without injured Bastian. The Bavarians are also without Claudio Pizarro, Xherdan Shaqiri and Holger Badstuber but Arjen Robben nad defender Jerome Boateng are fit to take part after they have shrugged off their injuries. Mario Goetze will return to Signal Iduna Park for the first time since his 37 million euros transfer to Bayern Munich this summer. The 21-year-old may be on the receiving end of some hostile reception from an 80,000 strong Dortmund crowd.

Borussia Dortmund have a huge task at hand if they are to disrupt Bayern’s 37 match unbeaten streak. If BVB win, they will not only end Bayern’s 37 game unbeaten streak, but also shorten the gap to one point reasserting their status as the only team definitively on Bayern’s level. But Borussia has an injury crisis with none of their first choice back four will be available for the most important game of the season. With Neven Subotic already ruled out until the end of the season and Lukasz Piszczek still waiting to return, Dortmund could ill afford to lose one more defender to injury, let alone two. But two they did lose, with both Mats Hummels and Marcel Schmelzer taking knocks against England which rule them out for today’s crunch clash. The full back positions are likely to be filled by two midfielders in Jakub Blaszczykowski and Kevin Grosskreutz, while in central defence, BVB will enlist the services of veteran free agent Manuel Friedrich to play alongside Sokratis. To add to their misery midfielder Ilkay Gundogan also remains sidelined with a back injury.

Despite the injury issues, there is a sense leading up to this game that there will be no excuses. The Borussia Dortmund supporters are one of the most vociferous supporters in the world and there is no doubt that the more than 80,000 supporters will electrify the atmosphere for the Dortmund players to play their best game.

Probable Lineups

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller; Blaszczykowski, Sokratis, Friedrich, Grosskreutz; Bender, Sahin; Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Reus; Lewandowski

Bayern Munich: Neuer; Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Alaba; Martinez; Robben, Müller, Kroos, Goetze; Mandzukic