Bundesliga preview: Dortmund in sight of title

Borussia Dortmund’s bid to win their second successive Bundesliga title could be virtually assured with a win over Schalke on Saturday.

Juergen Klopp’s side moved six points clear of second-placed Bayern Munich on Wednesday after they beat their title rivals 1-0 thanks to Robert Lewandowski’s late strike.

Bayern’s Arjen Robben missed a chance to equalise from the penalty spot, effectively giving Dortmund one hand on the title.

But third-placed Schalke, who have a strong rivalry with Dortmund, will not make life easy for Klopp’s men at the Veltins Arena.

Schalke lost 4-1 at Nurenberg on Wednesday but remain in one of the automatic qualification places for the group stages of the Champions League next season.

If Dortmund are to win, they will have to stop Dutch forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who has scored 43 goals in all competitions.

The former Real Madrid forward has bagged 16 of those in his last 13 matches for the club.

Dortmund have not lost in 18 matches, though, and they won the reverse fixture 2-0 in November.

Bayern will have their fingers crossed that Schalke can pull off an upset win, which could bring them within three points given they host mid-table Mainz at the Allianz Arena, also on Saturday.

In Friday’s fixture, fifth-placed Stuttgart, who have not tasted defeat in nine matches, will host eighth-placed Werder Bremen.

Bayer Leverkusen caretaker manager Sami Hyypia saw his side win for the first time in seven on Wednesday as they beat bottom-placed Kaiserslautern 3-1.

Hyypia’s next task is against another struggler, with relegation-threatened Hertha Berlin to travel to the BayArena on Saturday.

Other matches to take place on a busy day of Bundesliga action see Wolfsburg play host to Augsburg, Hamburg welcome Hannover and Nurenberg travel to Kaiserslautern, who are on a winless run of 20 matches.

Borussia Moenchengladbach are at home to Cologne on Sunday, while Freiburg and Hoffenheim meet in a battle of two in-form sides.