The game of the day is taking place in Germany in the early evening kick off and there is plenty at stake, Bayern might have lost their lead at the top of the table by kick off if Leipzig win this afternoon and Dortmund are coming on strong for that Champions League spot and have scored 13 goals in their last five starts. They gained great and renewed confidence from that win away to Sevilla in the CL which we have spoken of a couple of times and seasonal xP , ITB and BC stats put them very close and arguably superior to Bayern, who, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, have gone backwards defensively. Ahead of a trip to Frankfurt two weeks ago which they lost 2-1 I wrote ...........

 

 

Bayern have travelled without Corentin Tolisso (ruptured tendon), Benjamin Pavard, Thomas Müller (both self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19), Serge Gnabry (rehabilitative training following a torn muscle), Alexander Nübel (rehabilitative training following an ankle ligament injury), Tanguy Nianzou (rehabilitative training following a torn thigh muscle) and Douglas Costa (hairline fracture of the right metatarsal) . The energy of Müller ,who is rarely sidelined, was sadly missed on Monday and you do feel that right now Bayern are forced to look at the bigger picture and upcoming games, not just today. They also know that defensively they are not good enough which is why they have already made "summer signings" in an attempt to tighten up next season.

 

My confidence has waned a little as Dortmund picked up some further injuries in a midweek DFB-Pokal tie, which with the league and CL to play for, I just do not get, why take risks ? But they did anyway win away to BMG to progress in a third competition. Dortmund have scored twice in the two h2h meetings this season , lost both 3-2 and something similar would not surprise, in the second of those in Dortmund in November, Borussia had a field day offensively again the high Bayern backline and really ought to have scored four goals and that offers great encouragement today and I said my confidence had waned and not evaporated ! At the very least this should be great fun to watch.