The giants of German football collide in the first Der Klassiker of the Bundesliga 2016-17 season on super Saturday. Ruhr's Signal Iduna Park remains the destination as Borussia Dortmund hosts champions Bayern Munich for another classic showdown.
Bayern, who usually dominate the top spot in the German league football table, are second in the Bundesliga points table going into the match, while Dortmund, who usually stay in the top four, are fifth at the moment with 18 points -- just six points separating them and their Der Klassiker rivals. Both teams have played 10 matches so far.
Gone are the days when the rivalry spiked between the sides when Jupp Heynckes (Bayern Munich) and Jurgen Klopp (Borussia Dortmund) were in charge some years back. With both the football managers moving on with their life, the showdown between Dortmund and Bayern may have lost that punch but nevertheless, this indeed is the biggest game the Bundesliga can offer.
Thomas Tuchel, Borussia Dortmund head coach and Carlo Ancelotti, Bayern Munich coach, would agree that none of the interest or the intensity level of the match has dropped.
Team news
Dortmund: Unavailable - Marco Reus, Sebastian Rode, Sven Bender, Erik Durm, Neven Subotic.
Doubtful - Raphael Guerreiro.
Bayern: Unavailable - Arjen Robben, Javi Martinez, Kingsley Coman.
Doubtful - Arturo Vidal, Douglas Costa.
Expected starting XI
Dortmund: Bürki; Piszczek, Papastathopoulos, Ginter, Guerreiro; Weigl, Dembelé; Castro, Götze, Schürrle; Aubameyang.
Bayern: Neuer; Lahm, Boateng, Hummels, Alaba; Alonso, Thiago, Kimmich; Ribery, Müller; Lewandowski.
Schedule
Dortmund vs Bayern kicks off at 5:30 pm GMT (11 pm IST, 12:30 pm EST) on November 19.
Where to watch live
India: TV - Star Sports Select HD2. Live streaming - unavailable.
UK: TV - BT Sport 2. Live streaming - BT Sport Live.
USA: TV - Fox Network, GolTV. Live streaming - Fox Soccer2Go.
Germany: TV - Sky Bundesliga 1/HD. Live streaming - Sky Go Deutschland.
Live scores: Bundesliga twitter, Bayern twitter, Dortmund twitter.
