Borussia Monchengladbach's Marco Reus is one of Europe's hottest property

The Bundesliga’s ‘Borussia battle’ has never been the most hotly contested game in the German top flight. For starters, despite the proximity of Dortmund and Mӧnchengladbach in western Germany, Dortmund always focused more on the Revierderby against Schalke while Mӧnchengladbach had the Rheinderby game against Kӧln (and to a lesser extent Leverkusen) to worry about.

As well as this, they have never been successful at the same time, with Dortmund being in and out of the second tier during Mӧnchengladbach’s spell of success in the 1970s. In fact, during that era, Mӧnchengladbach beat Dortmund 12-0, a Bundesliga record that got then Dortmund boss, Otto Rehhagel (yes, that Otto Rehhagel) the sack.

Saturday may well change that though, as the two clubs face off on level points at the top of the Bundesliga with just two games after this until the Christmas break.

Both sides come into this game on the back of impressive wins in those aforementioned derbies, but the expectations at the start of the campaign for for the two clubs were vastly different.

Dortmund were expected to be up here as reigning champions but have clawed their way back up the table after some shaky away form gave them an inconsistent start. This is largely a by-product of losing Nuri Sahin and learning how to play without him, something that has come too late to save their Champions League hopes.

For Mӧnchengladbach though, this is a turnaround that would have been rejected by Hollywood.

This stage last season, they had just six points. By contrast, Augsburg, currently bottom, already have 11. Even in May they were in a relegation play-off to stay in this league. The incredible turnaround has come as new boss Lucien Favre allowed youth to usurp experience in what seemed at the time as preparation for second-tier football.

What he found, amongst others, was a keeper in Marc-Andre ter Stegen who was so good that Belgium international Logan Bailly is now out on loan and he also found Marco Reus, who catapulted them to safety almost single-handedly and is up there with his opposite number on Saturday, Mario Gӧtze, as the hottest young property in Europe and probably competing to be long-term successor to Lukas Podolski in the national team.

The two sides will line up in very different ways for this one, with Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund in his 4-2-3-1 formation that has taken over Germany since both his personal success, as well as the national side’s play in recent years. It was a system that was preferred by Favre as well until recent weeks when a sticky patch resulted in highlighting the lack of goals from his strikers - Mike Hanke had none and Igor de Camargo had two.

As a result, he decided to switch to 4-4-2 and move Reus up into a central position up front. The results have been outstanding, with 5-0 and 3-0 wins over Werder Bremen and Kӧln. This included the unexpected benefit of seeing Hanke slot two against Kӧln.

With Dortmund still missing star defender Neven Subotic, the workrate of Hanke and ability of Reus will give Mats Hummels and Felipe Santana continued trouble in a division where defences are no longer used to dealing with a conventional front two.

Meanwhile, the ever-present Mӧnchengladbach defence, who have conceded just nine goals all year, will be dealing with a known quantity in the Dortmund line-up and without Sven Bender, who was injured at Arsenal, the attacking fulcrum may well be starved of decent ball to attack that Mӧnchengladbach back four with.

Possible Line-Ups:

Mӧnchengladbach (4-4-2) – Ter Stegen; Jantschke, Daems, Dante, Brouwers; Herrmann, Neustadter, Nordtveit, Arango; Reus, Hanke.

Dortmund (4-2-3-1)- Weidenfeller; Piszczek, Hummels, Santana, Schmelzer; Kehl, Leitner; Gӧtze, Kagawa, Blaszczykowski; Lewandowski.