Dortmund in trouble against Bayern without entire back four

Bayern Munich may have achieved an awful lot in recent seasons, but a Bundesliga victory over Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion is the one thing that has continually eluded them.

Jupp Heynckes couldn’t even accomplish this feat in charge of last season’s treble winners, with Bayern failing to win on their last three league visits to Dortmund, since Louis van Gaal oversaw a 5-1 thumping in September 2009.

In fact, Bayern have failed to win on any of their last five visits to the officially named Signal Iduna Park in either league or cup.

However, they will not get a better chance to end this drought in the upcoming round of Bundesliga fixtures, with Dortmund set to be without all members of their first-choice back four. Bayern are 1/1 to beat Dortmund.

Regualr right-back Lukasz Piszczek hasn’t played since the last Champions League final because of hip and groin problems, while central defender Nevan Subotic was recently ruled out for the season when tearing cruciate knee ligaments against Wolfsburg.

Now fellow centre-half Mats Hummels and left-back Marcel Schmelzer have collected injuries in Germany’s friendly victory over England and none of the foursome are expected back for at least three weeks.

Coach Jurgen Klopp certainly has reason to be immensely frustrated, as a handful of Bayern’s players were given a rest against England, including influential trio Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm and Bastien Schweinsteiger.

The result is that Dortmund will have to line-up with a defence that are arguably most accustomed to playing in midfield and that will obviously lack the communication of regular time on-pitch together.

Sven Bender will drop back into centre half alongside Klopp’s regular back-up option Socratis Papastathopoulos. Kevin Grosskreutz will continue to deputise for Piszczek and the inexperienced Erik Durm will come in on the opposite flank.

Not only should Bayern win this game, the 1/8 that Pep Guardiola wins the Bundesliga title in his first season in charge is now impossible to oppose.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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