Thoughts shift towards Champions League final

With less than a fortnight to go until the all-German Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, thoughts are slowly turning towards the crowning event of the football season.

Bayern lifted their 23rd domestic league title aloft on Saturday and, with one game of the season remaining, the Bundesliga is slowly losing appeal and significance to the London finalists.

Dortmund have already secured second spot and their place in the Champions League next season and both sides are likely to field weakened line-ups next Saturday.

Their priorities now are Wembley and, for Bayern, the chance to win the second trophy of a potential treble, and for Dortmund, the opportunity to win silverware for a third season running.

The fifth meeting between the two sides this season is going to be the most important of them all, and Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp believes there is nothing to choose between them.

“The difference between Bayern and us is not so great that I would not be confident about us being that little bit better in the final,” he told Kicker magazine.

“We know that we are good. We also know that we’ve got to perform to our very, very best if we are to beat Bayern.”

After getting the better of the Bavarians in the past two seasons, winning back-to-back Bundesliga titles, Dortmund have seen Bayern wrestle back superiority this season.

Victory in the pre-season German Supercup was followed by two draws in the league and a 1-0 win in the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal.

Bayern Munich have also impressed in Europe, eliminating the likes of Arsenal, Juventus and Barcelona on the way to the final, but Klopp still believes that, over 90 or 120 minutes in London, his side have nothing to fear.

“I think that we are very uncomfortable opponents for anybody on this planet,” he said.

And Klopp plans to make it an uncomfortable few weeks for Bayern too by “reminding them now and again that they have lost one or two big finals” in recent years.