Bayern hand favourites' role to Dortmund in Bundesliga classic

For once the roles are reversed as Borussia Dortmund take on Bayern Munich in the stand-out game of the Bundesliga weekend.

In the last 12 matches of the German classic, Bayern were league leaders and Dortmund the team giving chase.

Now the roles are reversed, with Lucien Favre's side enjoying a four-point lead at the top of the table and Bayern lying third, level on points with Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Unlike recent seasons, record champions Bayern are adopting a more modest tone ahead of the trip to Dortmund on Saturday in view of the two teams' contrasting form.

Bayern president Uli Hoeness said the team could not claim it was going out to get the three points in Dortmund, indicating he would be perfectly happy with a draw against the Bundesliga's only unbeaten side after 10 matches of this campaign.

"We are not going to Dortmund as favourites, but as outsiders," he said.

Bayern at least approach the match on the back of a 2-0 win at home in the Champions League over AEK Athens to give coach Niko Kovac some breathing room and his players a confidence boost.

A win would be the perfect tonic after an indifferent phase which continued with a 1-1 home draw last week against Freiburg, while Dortmund went 15 competitive games without defeat until losing 2-0 at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Under 61-year-old Favre, Dortmund's attacking form has produced 30 goals in the first 10 league games and is drawing comparisons with the 2011 and 2012 title-winning years under Juergen Klopp.

Another victory would put them seven points clear of the champions of the past six seasons, increasing the pressure on Kovac in his first season in charge despite a vote of confidence by Hoeness, who has also called for patience.

"We are not as arrogant as you all believe," he said after the victory over AEK. "We always want to have the championship but if it is not the case for once it's not going to be the fall of FC Bayern," he said.

Striker Robert Lewandowski, who scored both goals against AEK to take his Champions League tally to 49 and comes up against his former club, said the win was important.

"We know the last two matches weren't perfect but it was a good step forward today," he said.

"This success is good for me, for the team and for our confidence. It was a good display even if we lacked certain things. We want to do better on Saturday."

Dortmund though remain confident despite the defeat in the Champions League, where their prospects of reaching the last 16 remain good.

"We know Bayern are now more under pressure to beat us," midfielder Thomas Delaney said.

"But this game is also a very important step this season for us. We're on good form and have a good feeling."

And Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel, like Delaney a summer signing, told bundesliga-com: "Bayern are Bayern, they're always strong. Their early season form hasn’t been as good as in recent years, so it's our job to take advantage of that."

The weekend also sees several other key games, with Moenchengladbach at sixth-placed Werder Bremen, whose strong start to the season has been spoiled by two straight league defeats.

Fourth-placed RB Leipzig face improving Bayern Leverkusen on Sunday, when Schalke hope to underline their recent recovery at another on-form team in fifth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt.

The weekend programme begins Friday evening when third-last Hanover greet Wolfsburg, while in other matches on Saturday Hoffenheim play Augsburg, Freiburg take on Mainz, second-last Fortuna Dusseldorf meet Hertha Berlin and tailenders VfB Stuttgart are at Nuremberg.