Titans clash in Dortmund

Bayern Munich will be hunting their first win over Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund for two years today in the eagerly-anticipated clash which could decide the German league title race.

With five league games left this season, second-placed Bayern are three points behind leaders Dortmund and the winner at Borussia’s sold-out Signal Iduna Park stadium will be in pole position to claim the league title.

“We can’t afford to lose,” admitted Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

“It will probably be decisive in the title race. It would still be all to play for should we draw, and if we win, we’d take pole position from Dortmund.”

‘Clash of the Titans’, ‘Game of Games’ and ‘Festival of Football’ are just some of the catch-phrases used to describe the showdown in the media.

Victory for Dortmund will leave them six points clear of the Bavarians, but a win for Bayern will put them top of the league for the first time since the start of February, when Dortmund replaced them.

Bayern’s Bastian Schweinsteiger, who played in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Augsburg, is again set to start having proved his fitness after damaging ankle ligaments in February.

“I just want to win the game – no matter how dirty or how richly deserved,” he said.

Dortmund’s Mario Goetze could well play a role, but it remains to be seen how much coach Juergen Klopp is prepared to use the youngster, who has struggled with a groin injury for the last 10 weeks.

When the teams last met in November in Munich, Goetze’s second-half winner gave his side a 1-0 victory, while Dortmund won both league matches against Bayern home and away last season.

The last time Bayern beat Dortmund was back in February 2010 when the hosts claimed a 3-1 win at Munich’s Allianz Arena.

With a Champions League semi-final first-leg at home to Real Madrid to come next Tuesday and nine straight victories behind them, the men from Munich are brimming with confidence.

Dortmund president Reinhard Rauball has described today’s clash as the ‘game-of-games’, while his Bayern counterpart Uli Hoeness has dubbed it the ‘moment of truth’.

Dortmund are chasing a second consecutive league title, while the teams will meet again in the German Cup final at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on May 12.