At the very least, immense pride and bragging rights are always at stake when Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund square off in der Klassiker, one of world football’s greatest rivalries. This time around, Dortmund are four points clear of Bayern at the top of the Bundesliga table. Niko Kovac’s side will the difficult task of travelling to the Westfalenstadion and leaving with three points.

Despite how impressive Lucien Favre’s Dortmund have looked this season, and how fluttery Bayern have looked at times, Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc feels that there’s no favorite heading into this installment of der Klassiker. After Bayern’s win over AEK Athens in the Champions League, Uli Hoeness admitted (via kicker) that he felt Bayern were the outsiders for the weekend’s clash, and that Dortmund were the favorites:

We have to play a good game and see what comes of it. You can’t just travel to Dortmund and say, I want to collect three points. Dortmund has had a very, very good season, no doubt about it. We’re traveling to Dortmund as the outsider for the first time in a long time.

Zorc was quick to downplay Hoeness’s suggestion via kicker:

Such discussions are unnecessary. It’s unimportant what is or isn’t said in advance. It also isn’t important who is considered the favorite. Nothing comes easy for that. A comparison (between Bayern and Dortmund) doesn’t make sense; they’ve won the last six Bundesliga titles

A record on the horizon for Dortmund

If Favre’s side are able to either win or draw against Bayern this weekend, they will have equaled their best ever start to a Bundesliga campaign with an unbeaten stretch of 11 matches. The last time they enjoyed such an impressive start to a league campaign was during the 2002/2003 campaign, back when Matthias Sammer was manager and they finished in third place behind Bayern and VfB Stuttgart.