Borussia Dortmund will host Bayern Munich as the first Klassiker of this new season is about to get underway this weekend. And the circumstances couldn’t have been any better! Ten matchdays gone, Bayern Munich are leading the table with 23 points but stakes are even high, knowing the fact that a win for Borussia Dortmund will be enough to pip Bayern for the top spot, come the end of this matchday.
That being said, it might be a quite a bad time for Dortmund to be facing the mighty Bayern as the Black and Yellows are in a mini-crisis at the moment. The Ruhr giants have managed to win only one game in their last five matches, the only victory came against third-tier opponent FC Magdeburg in the DFB Pokal. Therefore, Jupp Heycnkes’ men are firm favourites to win the first Klassiker of the season.
However, it’s very difficult to predict games of these nature, especially when both the teams have suffered a mini-crisis at some point this season. And even though Bayern are getting away with all three points under Jupp Heynckes, the Bavarians still have a lot of flaws in their game, which was quite evident in their game against Celtic this midweek.
The guys in the Yellow Wall Pod also remained very sceptical of BVB’s chances against Bayern this weekend. You can listen to the latest episode of the YWP podcast here.
Team News
Borussia Dortmund will be missing a lot of star players this weekend. Key players such as Marco Reus and Lukasz Piszczek. Both the players have been a key part of Dortmund throughout the years and their absence will certainly be a huge blow for the home side.
Sebastian Rode and Erik Durm are amongst the other long-term absentees for Dortmund. While youngster Dan-Axel Zagadou will miss the game due to suspension. Andre Schurrle and Raphael Guerreiro’s return from injury will be a big boost for Dortmund however, even though none of them are expected to start this weekend.
As for Bayern, they too will miss a handful number of first-team regulars as Manuel Neuer, Thomas Muller and Franck Ribery are all sidelined due to long-term injuries. Juan Bernat is recovering from his lack of fitness but will also miss out the game along with Joshua Kimmich, who is highly doubtful.
Fortunately for Bayern though, Robert Lewandowski has been given a green signal to play against his former club after taking a knock against Leipzig.
Predicted Lineups
Borussia Dortmund (4-3-3 formation): Roman Burki; Lukasz Piszczek, Sokratis, Omer Toprak, Marcel Schmelzer; Nuri Sahin, Mario Gotze, Gonzalo Castro; Christian Pulisic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Andriy Yarmolenko.
Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1 formation): Sven Ulreich; Rafinha, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, David Alaba; Arturo Vidal, Thiago Alcantara; Arjen Robben, James Rodriguez, Kingsley Coman; Robert Lewandowski.
Prediction
Dortmund 1:3 Bayern
Odds (as per Oddschecker)
Bayern – 11/10
Dortmund – 5/2
Draw – 3/1
