Dortmund, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) - Bayern Munich will put its unbeaten league mark on the line Saturday when the Bavarians face second-place Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park in a top-two clash.
The defending Bundesliga champions have hardly put a foot wrong this season, sitting atop the league with 32 points from 10 wins and a pair of draws through 12 matches.
Bayern is coming off a comfortable 3-0 victory over Augsburg in league play on Nov. 9 as the club received goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller.
But the club will be even further shorthanded when they take the pitch on Saturday as Ribery is ruled out due to a rib injury he suffered on Tuesday in France's 3-0 win over Ukraine in the World Cup qualification playoffs.
Despite missing the match, Ribery remains in good spirits that his club will get the job done.
"It's obviously a bitter blow," he said. "I would have loved to take part in this huge match in Dortmund, but I am convinced that the team will be able to handle it without me."
Bayern are already without midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and Xherdan Shaqiri and striker Claudio Pizarro for Saturday's game, while Holger Badstuber is a long-term absentee.
Dortmund will be on the hunt for a bounce-back performance on Saturday after a 2-1 loss to Wolfsburg in league play on Nov. 9. Marco Reus opened the scoring for Dortmund in first-half stoppage time, but they were unable to hold the lead as Ivica Olic and Ricardo Rodriguez fired Wolfsburg in front.
Like Bayern, Dortmund has a number injury concerns heading into Saturday as the club is missing defender Nevin Subotic to a serious knee injury and Mats Hummels was injured in Germany's 1-0 friendly win over England on Tuesday.
To cover for these injuries the club signed free agent defender Manuel Freidrich, who could be in the squad for Saturday's clash.
"I am absolutely looking forward to wearing the Dortmund jersey in the Westfalenstadion," Freidrich said. "I only had the pleasure of experiencing it as a guest. To have the 'Yellow Wall' behind you and not against you must be an incredible feeling. I am looking forward to the cool time in black-and- yellow."
Bayern have not beaten Dortmund in league play since February 2010.
Eintracht will try to break a four-match losing streak across all competitions when the club welcomes Schalke to the Commerzbank Arena, while Hoffenheim visits Augsburg.
Third-place Bayer Leverkusen travels to the Olympic Stadium to face Hertha Berlin, wihle Nurmberg hosts Wolfsburg and Saturday's final fixture sees Braunschweig host Freiburg.
On Sunday, Hamburg hosts Hannover at the Imtech Arena, while Werder Bremen welcomes Mainz to the Weserstadion.
Friday's action saw Raffael Araujo and Oscar Wendt score as Borussia Monchengladbach earned a 2-0 victory over Stuttgart.
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