Bundesliga PREVIEW | Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich

On Saturday, Bayern Munich travel to Dortmund as they face Borussia Dortmund in the first match up between the two teams, in what is usually dubbed as the ‘Der Klassiker’. Dortmund currently sit fourth, joint on points with Bayern who are third.

This will be Dortmund’s second test against a very strong side after they played Manchester City in the Champions League. However, BVB have shown that they struggle against weaker teams. Earlier on in the season they had collapsed against Werder Bremen and more recently losing 3-2 to FC Köln after leading 1-0.

Dortmund will be going into this match having beaten Sevilla 4-1 in the Champions League. The first half of that game saw goals from Raphael Guerreiro, Jude Bellingham, and Karim Adeyemi. This was arguably the best half of football Dortmund have played the whole season. The second half saw Dortmund struggle to keep hold of the game and if it was not for some poor finishing from Sevilla, they could of easily threw away this game as well. This is an area that could easily be exploited by a team that possess the quality that Bayern have.

Bayern on the other hand are coming off a 4-0 win against a struggling Bayer Leverkusen where they seemed to have rid their poor form that they experienced ahead of the international break. While in the Champions League they easily dispatched of Viktoria Plzen 5-0 with Leroy Sané x2, Serge Gnabry, Sadio Mané, and Eric Maxim Choupo Moting all scoring. For Bayern, this game will show if the win against Leverkusen was just a one off and they are still struggling.

A positive for Dortmund is the return of Gregor Kobel and Mats Hummels. Kobel provides a more stable and safe pair of hands compared to the likes of Alexander Meyer. However, one player they will be without is Marco Reus who remains sidelined, but Gio Reyna returns following a muscular injury.

The eyes on this game will be on the youngsters. Youssoufa Moukoko (17) is staking a claim for a starting place over the underperforming Anthony Modeste in the win against Sevilla whilst Bellingham and Jamal Musiala, both 19, continue to prove that they are generational talents.

Dortmund have not beaten Bayern since 2019 which saw a 2-0 win at the Signal Iduna Park with goals from Paco Alcacer and Jadon Sancho. Last season both games saw Bayern win 3-2 and 3-1.

Predicted Lineups:

Borussia Dortmund:

Kobel – Meunier, Süle, Schlotterbeck, Guerreiro – Özcan, Bellingham, Can – Brandt, Malen, Moukoko

Bayern Munich:

Neuer – Pavard, Upamecano, de Ligt, Davies – Kimmich, Sabitzer – Sané, Musiala, Mané – Gnabry

GGFN | Jack Meenan

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