With little more than a month left in the season, Bayern Munich have it in their hands now. Win all the remaining games, and they will be Bundesliga champions — for a record 11th time in a row. What that says about the league itself is a conversation for another time. For now we focus on the games at hand.
Team news
Josip Stanisic joins the injury list with a muscle strain. With Leon Goretzka (yellow card suspension) that means Bayern will be without seven players including Choupo-Moting, Dayot Upamecano, Alphonso Davies, Manuel Neuer, and Lucas Hernandez. With most of those players being starters, it’s a rather significant injury list.
So, who will get the nod on Saturday? In Choupo’s absence, it seems that Sadio Mane and Serge Gnabry are preferred at the moment — one of them will play striker, the other on the wing. Jamal Musiala may return to the bench in favor of Thomas Muller, who is likely to be played in the attacking midfield position. This leaves the last winger slot, where Kingsley Coman is set to start after his goal last week.
In midfield, Ryan Gravenberch is set to finally get a start with Goretzka out injured. This is the Dutchman’s first chance to show what he can do in the first XI against Bundesliga level opposition, and it’s crazy how it took until May for it to happen. Joshua Kimmich, who saved the three points vs Hertha last weekend, will start next to him.
At the back, the story is pretty familiar by now. Joao Cancelo and Noussair Mazraoui will be at the left and right-back spots, for a lack of better options. Matthijs de Ligt and Benjamin Pavard will team up in the middle, while Yann Sommer mans the goal.
Here is what the starting XI could look like:
Interested in a more in-depth preview of the game? Then check out our preview podcast! Listen to it below or on Spotify.
As always, we appreciate all the support.
