Bundesliga matchday 11 preview: Der Klassiker

It’s the week after Champions and Europa League again. The Europa League games went surprisingly well but Dortmund and Leipzig are all but out of the Champions League and will most likely drop into the Europa League. This matchday, however, has a game to offer that is better than most Europa League games: Dortmund v Bayern.

The matchday starts today at 8.30pm with a match between Frankfurt and Bremen. Bremen still haven’t won a match which led to Alexander Nouri losing his job, being replaced by Florian Kohfeldt. He could have wished for an easier first game than Frankfurt but their home form has been pretty patchy so the first Bremen win of the season is entirely within the realm of possibilities but they would probably take a 6th draw too.

Saturday afternoon (3.30) features a few interesting games but the one I would recommend to watch is probably Leipzig v Hannover. Leipzig have established themselves as a top-four team in the League and are on course to get another shot at the Champions League next year after most likely getting knocked out this season. Hannover are THE surprise of the season and are in high spirits after just beating Dortmund 4-2 and they also beat Schalke earlier in the season. If you don’t want to watch Leipzig (again), Schalke v Freiburg and Augsburg v Leverkusen are both solid options that should provide good entertainment. The afternoon is completed by a match between relegation fight specialists Hamburg and Stuttgart.

The real highlight of the matchday kicks off at 6.30pm on Saturday and it’s Dortmund v Bayern and the omens for both teams couldn’t point in a much more different direction. Bayern have just qualified for the Knockout-Stages of the Champions League after beating Celtic and Dortmund are all but out of the Champions League following yet another draw against Nicosia and they lost their place at the summit of the league last matchday. If Bayern wins this, they would be 6 points ahead of Dortmund and Leipzig cut take their place as Bayern hunter #1. Dortmund’s main hope is Bayern’s recent weakness in Dortmund and their strength at home.

Sunday football starts at 3.30pm with a match between two Europa League contestants. Hoffenheim almost got their second win against Basaksehir but conceded in the last minute of stoppage time. Two hours later Köln smashed BATE 5-2, finally getting their first home win of the season. They’ll try everything to repeat that against Hoffenheim but it’s doubtful that they’ll be able to get more than a draw from this one – even with Kevin Vogt being injured.

Bundesliga action concludes with a 6.00pm game between Wolfsburg and Hertha. Hertha finally got their first Europa League win and are on an up after beating Hamburg a week ago. Wolfsburg just keeps drawing games with equalizers in the dying minutes so it’s not unlikely that something along those lines is happening again.