Saturday’s Der Klassiker has surprisingly turned into a high-value game following Bayern Munich’s stunning midweek loss. Bavarians are coming to Dortmund with five points of advantage instead of eight and Tuchel’s side have the great opportunity to put a spin to the Bundesliga title chase.

Dortmund’s dream

The 2-0 win at Darmstadt has added some excitement to the Bundesliga title race as Dortmund are now just five points adrift of the leaders in second place at the table. Adrian Ramos and Erik Durm struck to secure a comfortable win, which saw Tuchel’s men take full advantage of Bayern’s loss. With their confidence fully restored, Borussia Dortmund are feeling optimistic regarding their chances on Saturday, despite the fact they were hammered 5-1 in Munich during the first part of the current season. A win in the derby would see Dortmund cut the gap and significantly increase their title chances. Thomas Tuchel has been an instant hit with Borussia Dortmund this season doing his best to soften the transitional period of an emotional farewell with Jurgen Klopp, who went on to take over at Liverpool. Borussia Dortmund are enjoying their best football at the moment and are winless in their last ten games in all competitions. Dortmund are the most prolific team in the league having scored 59 goals so far, as many as their Saturday’s rival, and Tuchel will be hoping his team’s top scored Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be on top of the game to increase his 22-goal tally against great rivals.

Hosts will have almost full crop of players to choose from with the exception of Roman Burki, who is suffering from an illness, and Sokratis, who has hamstring and the adductors problems.

Guardiola’s struggles

Pep Guardiola’s announcement of the summer departure has seemingly brought unrest to the squad. Coincidently, his team started to suffer and record set backs in 2016, which ultimately saw them lose at home for the first time this season at the weekend. Bayern Munich entered the Wednesday’s clash with Mainz as overwhelming favourites as they have been on the perfect record of 11 wins in as many games at home turf. Mainz still managed to pull something far more impressive than just win. They won after conceding an equalizer, thus putting a lot of pressure to Bayern Munich, who have now scored just one win in their last three matches. The Karlsruher defeat during the winter break was a bad sign for Guardiola’s men. A draw against Bayer Leverkusen, a disappointing 2-2 stalemate against Juventus in Turin are the results uncharacteristic for the reigning champions. Bayern Munich have conceded just 13 league goals thus far in the season, but they failed to keep the clean sheet in four of their last five games across competitions and defensive problems are beginning to be visible. The Bavarians are struggling without Jerome Boateng and Guardiola has been forced to improvise with Alaba and Kimmich as centre-backs.

Mehdi Benatia has returned to the fold, but Jerome Boateng, Holger Badstuber and Javi Martinez remain sidelined with injuries.

Verdict

Borussia Dortmund will be highly motivated to make an impression against the struggling champions and inflict their revenge for the last year’s hammering in Munich. Bayern have plenty of problems in the backline and they could very well suffer back-to-back defeats in the league.

Top pick: Home win    3.25 (9/4) @888sport

Alternative pick 1: Both teams to score – yes     1.67 (4/6) @Bet365

Alternative pick 2: Over 2.5 goals     1.8 (4/5) @10Bet