At the beginning of the week Hertha Berlin’s Bundesliga date today with Borussia Dortmund was declared a fight for survival for each side’s coach — Ante Covic and Lucien Favre.
But Hertha then acted earlier than expected by bringing in former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann in place of the luckless Covic which adds even more spice to the affair.
The former Germany coach Klinsmann was appointed Wednesday after Hertha had slipped to fourth-last with four straight defeats.
That is far from the ambitions of investor Lars Windhorst who has spent some 250 mn dollars in summer in a effort to transform Hertha into a top club. 
Klinsmann recently joined Hertha’s supervisory board as Windhorst representative but will rest this position now that he has become coach in what Windhorst has named “a great signal”.
The 55-year-old must manage a quick turnaround as Hertha to get out of the lowlands and despite only having Bundesliga coaching experience from 10 months at Bayern Munich a decade ago he is ready for the challenge.
“It’s an honour to take on such an exciting challenge and I’m incredibly motivated to do so,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s about accepting the difficult situation we’re in, working together as a team and creating a bond with our fans. Hopefully their support can give the team the confidence boost they need.”
The appointment of Klinsmann has made the task even more difficult for opponents Dortmund.
“Games are always more difficult when a new coach has started at the other team. Berlin want to prove themselves,” Brandt said.
“But it doesn’t matter. We badly want to win this game.”
Under-fire Favre was bluntly told on the weekend by club CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke that only results count.
In this respect a 3-1 Champions League defeat at Barcelona has not helped Favre’s cause but the team at least didn’t play worse that in their 3-3 draw with bottom club Paderborn or the 4-0 humbling in Munich in their last Bundesliga matches.
Sports director Michael Zorc was quoted as saying that the Barcelona match was “not a step out of the crisis” and the Berlin date could now be Favre’s very last chance at the sixth-placed club.
However, it is said that Dortmund want to avoid such a move at all costs because they have no suitable candidate to take Favre’s place.
The benchmark in this respect is now Hansi Flick who four weeks ago took over from Niko Kovac in Munich and has instantly restored hormony and stability, winning all four games with an impressive goal difference of 16-0.
“We mustn’t descend into euphoria. Difficult matches await us. But we can be confident ahead of them. You’ve done a great job over the last few weeks. Keep going,” Munich chairman told Flick and the team after Tuesday’s 6-0 Champions League triumph at Red Star Belgrade.
Bayern host mid-table Bayer Leverkusen today as they have moved within one point of leaders Borussia Moenchengladbach who they visit the following weekend. 
Bayern could go top for at least 24 hours as Gladbach, coming off a 2-0 defeat at Union Berlin, play their tricky match against fourth-placed Freiburg tomorrow. 
But first place today could also go to RB Leipzig who are ahead of Bayern on goal difference and visit Paderborn.