With the league leaders playing host to the team with the best record in 2019, Sunday evening's Bundesliga Matchday 23 showdown between Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen has all the makings of a classic.

''We're well aware that we haven't won in three games. Despite that, the atmosphere hasn't changed,'' said Lucien Favre: ''We had a lot of fun this morning.'' Photos from today's training session certainly seemed to confirm this impression. Although the past couple of weeks haven't gone according to plan, sporting director Michael Zorc was keen to stress that: ''When we look at the table, we're still in first place, we've only lost one match in the league - just before Christmas in Düsseldorf. Of course the slip-ups have been hard to take, even if the coach doesn't want to make a big deal out of it, but we have every reason to go into this match with a lot of confidence.''

Borussia Dortmund will be forced to cope with the continued absences of Marco Reus and Lukasz Piszczek, although Manuel Akanji is hoping to make his return to the squad and possibly even the starting line-up. Although both the head coach and the sporting director are keen to praise Leverkusen's performances under Peter Bosz, Favre stated that: ''We're always optimistic. We want to win every match. The philosophy remains the same,'' while Zorc said: ''We want to beat every single opponent when we're playing at home. In a situation like this, when the results haven't been so good, we need the support of the stadium and in particular the Südtribüne. It will all come down to which team is able to impose their style of play.'' (br)