Leaders Dortmund on target to finish 2018 as Germany's 'Autumn champions'

Borussia Dortmund can take a significant first step towards breaking Bayern Munich's stranglehold on the Bundesliga title by beating Werder Bremen on Saturday to become 'Herbstmeister', or autumn champions.

Dortmund are seven points clear in the table and a home win over Bremen at Signal Iduna Park will confirm them as the top side in the first half of the Bundesliga season which ends when the winter break starts on December 23.

The unofficial title carries neither a trophy nor prize money, but 38 of the last 55 Herbstmeisters went on to became German champions.

More significantly for the Bundesliga, Dortmund are set to finally break Bayern's monopoly on the honorary title they have won for each of the last seven seasons.

Dortmund are on a five-match Bundesliga winning streak and coach Lucien Favre said he was more interested in picking up a maximum nine points from their strenuous schedule of three league games in just six days than winning the title of autumn champions in his first season at Dortmund.

After hosting Bremen, Dortmund travel to bottom side Fortuna Duesseldorf on Tuesday, then host second-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach a week on Friday in a tough finish to 2018.

"We have three games in six days and it doesn't do much good to talk about anything else other than our next match -- full focus on Bremen," said Favre tersely, when asked what it would mean to be autumn champions in his first season at Dortmund.

The club's sports director Michael Zorc continued the theme, saying: "It's a title which has no meaning and we haven't achieved it yet, so it's not something which currently concerns us."
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