This Klassiker is one Bayern, Dortmund can’t afford to lose

BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG, Germany — I’m writing this week’s column while speeding through the Baden-Württemberg countryside on the Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway network. Green leaves are filling up the trees and there are discernible signs of spring blossom wherever you look.

This is my favorite time in the German football season. Der Endspurt (the final sprint to the line) played out in better weather amid delightfully long days is what we all yearn for in the dark days of winter.

Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund — der Klassiker, as it has come to be known — tends to be a April feature in Munich on the Bundesliga calendar (Saturday, coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+).

You can make the case that it has, temporarily at least, been surpassed in importance by the clashes between Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen in the past two years, domestically as well as in the UEFA Champions League. But there is still something evocative about Germany’s two most avidly followed and most successful sides in their distinctive colors walking out on to the pitch simultaneously. Rot against schwarz-gelb.

Although this is no meeting of Spitzenreiter (high flyers), this season anyway, the fixture has considerable meaning for both Bayern and BVB and still qualifies as a Prestigeduell (top, prestigious match).

On the way to the train station, I picked up the latest edition of specialist football magazine Kicker, a bible for many of us who live German football full time. I rather liked their alliterative front cover headline, “Verlieren verboten” (“losing forbidden”), which is self-explanatory.

Defeat for either side will have consequences, and a draw opens the door to a stressful Endspurt in each case, too.

Bayern need to keep Leverkusen at bay in the race for the Meisterschale, while Dortmund will need all the points they can muster to reach any European competition, let alone its top table.

That this 112th Bundesliga edition of der Klassiker is sandwiched in between Champions League quarterfinal assignments has added another dynamic.

Plainly, Dortmund now know Saturday night in Munich carries far more weight than Tuesday’s second leg against Barcelona after the 4-0 Ernüchterung (sobering defeat) suffered in the Catalan capital on Wednesday. Bayern are in more danger of being caught in der Zwickmühle (in two minds) with the Inter Milan return leg still salvageable following Tuesday night’s 2-1 loss at home, but in the knowledge that it will take a colossal performance in Milan against the best defense in the Champions League.

Bayern boss Vincent Kompany has said he is sure the Bavarians’ closest Verfolger (pursuers), Leverkusen, six points behind, will win all their remaining games. If so, Bayern would have to fail to win three times between now and the end of the campaign, with one of those three being a defeat, in order to surrender their lead in the table. Might it arrive this weekend?

For years, the weight of the stage in Bayern-Dortmund meetings seemed to take a heavy toll on die Schwarz-Gelben, but by beating Bayern 2-0 at the Allianz Arena last season, and thus ending a decade of Bundesliga misery for them in Munich, it was as though the Borussia Dortmund players had made an important morale-boosting statement to themselves. In November’s highly entertaining 1-1 joust with Bayern, they more than matched the Rekordmeister for large swathes of the game.

Things have changed considerably for both clubs since then.

For starters, Dortmund have a new coach in former Bayern player and manager Niko Kovač, who succeeded Nuri Şahin.

There have been wobbles aplenty, but the 3-5-2 constellations Kovač used to good effect in the recent Bundesliga wins over direct rivals Mainz and SC Freiburg seemed to play to the strengths of his personnel. Granted, this setup keeps Jamie Gittens — their hero from the November Klassiker — out of the side due to lack of room for wingers, but it generally gives the side a more solid base from which to operate.

Not having Nico Schlotterbeck available due to a torn meniscus represents a big loss for Kovač, but if Ramy Bensebaini can keep Michael Olise quiet (a big if), it’s reasonable to think Karim Adeyemi and Maximilian Beier, with their pace, will give Kim Min-Jae and Eric Dier something to think about.

Bayern’s injury list is much lengthier and has perhaps contributed to a lack of Leichtigkeit (ease, comfort) recently. Not having Dayot Upamecano, Alphonso Davies, versatile defender Hiroki Ito as well as Manuel Neuer means wearing a less-than-optimal look at the back. Without that quartet, it’s a defense that can be got at, and you can’t help feeling there are really no alternatives, as evidenced by the shaky cameo by the seldom-deployed Sacha Boey against Inter.

Then there is the absence of Jamal Musiala.

Kompany tried to fill the gaping hole left by the 22-year-old by handing the role of playmaker to the luckless Raphaël Guerreiro, a talented and versatile footballer but one whose usefulness to Bayern has perhaps expired. But what else to do? There is no like-for-like Musisla Ersatz (replacement), so Kompany is left debating imperfect starting solutions such as Guerreiro, the legendary Thomas Müller or shifting Leroy Sané into the center.

I usually have an instinctive feeling about who will take the spoils in the Klassiker, but not so much this go around.

Bayern’s fixture list is rife with potential difficulties: Heidenheim away — against whom Leverkusen needed a last-gasp winner — followed by Mainz, RB Leipzig and Borussia Monchengladbach in successive weeks, all with Champions League designs, before traveling to TSG Hoffenheim on the final day.

Dortmund can in a sense be Königsmacher (king maker) considering they still have to go to Leverkusen on the penultimate matchday, but BVB are more preoccupied with their own situation, and if they play with the verve and energy of the past couple of Bundesliga weeks (they outran Freiburg considerably), they still have a chance of taking something from an otherwise-turmoil-ridden season.

So forget that it’s not first against second. Some 75,000 fans await on what will be a glorious Saturday evening weather wise in Munich in the knowledge that this still means a lot, which gives the occasion plenty of appetizing ingredients.