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Next stop Frankfurt for the FC Bayern express

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Frankfurt - Eintracht Frankfurt are the next side tasked with trying to stop the FC Bayern München juggernaut when the reigning Bundesliga champions travel to the Commerzbank Arena on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 14:30 GMT / 15:30 CET)

bundesliga.com has all the essential pre-match information in one handy overview...

Bayern are determined to maintain their lead at the league summit and put their closest pursuers under pressure by continuing to chalk up victories. Their visit comes at a bad time for hosts Frankfurt, who are eager to end a form slump in which they have lost their last three Bundesliga outings.

The hosts are again missing several key players, including Kevin Trapp (ankle), Constant Djakpa, Nelson Valdez (both cruciate ligament damage), Johannes Flum (muscular), Martin Lanig (fitness) and Carlos Zambrano (knee). However, USA international should be back after recovering from an adductor complaint.

This week David Alaba (knee) and Claudio Pizarro (thigh) joined an already lengthy injury list which includes Bastian Schweinsteiger (fitness), Thiago (knee), Pepe Reina (calf), Tom Starke (ankle), Thiago (knee), Holger Badstuber (thigh) and Javi Martinez (cruciate).

In recent weeks teams have tried to stifle Bayern by cutting off their supply line at its source: Xabi Alonso. Dortmund's Shinji Kagawa closed him down to great effect in the first half last week, while Gladbach's Christoph Kramer did likewise on Matchday 9. That could mean a busy afternoon for , whose pace, agility and discipline make him the ideal candidate for the role.

Bayern are not as threatening a side without in the line-up, as was evident in Wednesday's Champions League match with AS Roma when the Dutchman was absent through illness. His return this weekend is as good a guarantee of points as they come.

Pep Guardiola (l.), Bayern coach: "Frankfurt are difficult to analyse because they've used a lot of systems under Thomas Schaaf. They're very good going forward."

Thomas Schaaf, Frankfurt coach: "We need to become more solid and stable. Once we do that we'll start picking up points again."

Bayern look virtually unbeatable at present and are four points clear at the top of the standings after extending their undefeated start to the season with a 2-1 home win over Borussia Dortmund last week. Frankfurt haven't won in the league for over a month, have only kept one clean sheet so far in 2014/15 (on Matchday 1) and have conceded more goals (19) than all but two teams.

Bayern are undoubtedly the favourites to win at the Commerzbank Arena, having taken the spoils from 45 of the 86 top-flight meetings over the years. Furthermore, the Bavarians have won 11 and drawn 14 of 43 away games and emerged victorious from the four most recent encounters.

Click here to find your local broadcaster for this match:

Possible line-ups:

Frankfurt: Wiedwald - Chandler, Madlung, Anderson, Oczipka - Russ, Hasebe - Aigner, Meier, Inui - Seferovic

Bayern: Neuer - Boateng, Dante, Benatia - Lahm, Alonso, Bernat - Robben, Götze, Ribery - Lewandowski


Take a look at what happened the last time Bayern and Frankfurt met on the Bundesliga's official YouTube channel: