With the unofficial title of ''winter champion'' nearly secured before the visit of Cologne on Friday, Bayern Munich is uncharacteristically calm ahead of the year's last weekend of Bundesliga play.
Bayern is three points ahead of Borussia Dortmund and Schalke, and a vastly superior goal difference should ensure the top spot going into the league's four-week break.
''We've created a small cushion for ourselves,'' said Mario Gomez, the league's top scorer with 15 goals.
But Cologne hasn't lost in Munich in six years and former Bayern player Lukas Podolski is enjoying his best season with 14 goals.
''We'll try to annoy Bayern a bit, like in the last years,'' Podolski said, although he also conceded that ''Bayern Munich are the best team in the Bundesliga.''
Defending champion Dortmund visits last-place Freiburg on Saturday, but will have to do without star player Mario Goetze until January, after the 19-year-old tore a thigh muscle last weekend.
Schalke hosts Werder Bremen, pitting strikers Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Claudio Pizarro against each other.
Huntelaar has scored 14 league goals and 25 in all competitions this season for Schalke, while Pizarro's 12 Bundesliga goals have been instrumental in lifting Bremen to fifth.
Also Saturday, Bayer Leverkusen hosts Nuremberg, Augsburg visits Hamburger SV, Hoffenheim hosts Hertha Berlin, and Wolfsburg entertains Stuttgart.
Fourth-place Borussia Moenchengladbach is at home to Mainz on Sunday, when Marco Reus could feature despite breaking his little toe on Nov. 25.
''I got a shoe made that supports me and gives the toe a little more free room,'' Reus told the dapd news agency.
Moenchengladbach dropped points in both games played without the 22-year-old winger.
Hannover visits Kaiserslautern earlier Sunday.
''It's good to be top of the league,'' Bayern striker Philipp Lahm said. ''Now we want to beat Cologne and go through in the cup away to Bochum (on Tuesday). That'll make it a happy Christmas.''
Podolski has scored more than half of Cologne's 27 goals, setting up five of them.
''It's important we get to grips with him on Friday,'' Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said. ''You always have to keep an eye on him. He's quick, with or without the ball.''
Cologne coach Stale Solbakken said the 26-year-old striker was playing ''the best football of his career'' but Podolski's international teammate Gomez has been even more prolific for Bayern.
Gomez, also 26, has scored 49 goals in all competitions in 2011, 31 of those in the Bundesliga.
''I'm not really interested in all the talk. If I don't score for a couple of weeks, they call it a crisis. When I start scoring again, they say I'm about to break Gerd Mueller's record (of 40 goals in a Bundesliga season),'' Gomez said.
''I'm the center forward in a very good team, and scoring goals is my job.''
Bayern midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger is nearing the end of his recovery from a broken collarbone but won't play.
''I'd love to have him there but the risk that he could injure himself again is too high according to the doctor,'' Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said Thursday.
Before Friday's game, Bayern will find out who it plays in the Champions League when the draw is made for the last 16.
''We'll be looking at it,'' Neuer said. ''They're all interesting opponents but we don't need to fear any of them.''
Bayern has to achieve ''the balancing act between the dream of the Champions League final (in Munich) and everyday championship of the Bundesliga,'' club president Uli Hoeness said.
If Heynckes manages to achieve that, Hoeness said, ''We will certainly have a successful season.''
