Bayern Munich vs. SC Freiburg preview: A top five showdown
Freiburg travel to Bavaria in hopes of extending their unbeaten Bundesliga run to eight games in this enticing matchup to end Matchday 10.
| Photo: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Bayern Munich
Bayern secured their place in the Champions League knockout round with another win over Viktoria Plzen, but now turn their attention to a major league clash. A victory on Sunday is desperately needed for the 5th-place side, who have acquired their lowest point total to start a Bundesliga season since 2010/11.
It's been a challenging few weeks with injury and covid issues plaguing the squad, but Manuel Neuer is the only player newly injured for this weekend. Julian Nagelsmann will again have a difficult decision to make in the middle of the park with Leon Goretzka and Marcel Sabitzer a toss-up for a place in the starting eleven.
Sadio Mane has incredibly had six goals ruled out to begin league play, as he will likely join the trio of Thomas Müller, Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sane up front. Bayern will also be keeping an eye out for the other top matchup on Sunday with Dortmund traveling to Union Berlin.
Nagelsmann stated that, "Freiburg are having a good season, both domestically and in Europe. In terms of the table, this is an important game. Being away from the Champions League now, we want to win this game."
Team News
Kingsley Coman is suspended, while Lucas Hernandez and Bouna Sarr are still not ready to return. Neuer is ruled out and Jamal Musiala will start on the bench. All of the other question marks will be available (i.e. Müller, Gnabry, Alponsho Davies and Matthijs de Ligt).
SC Freiburg
Freiburg have never claimed three points away to the record champions, but have greatly exceeded expectations in recent months. They booked a spot in the Europa League knockout stage this week and have only lost one game to begin their league campaign.
Deft new signings Matthias Ginter, Ritsu Doan and Michael Gregoritsch have been absolutely exceptional thus far. Excluding their game against Nantes this week, trainer Christian Streich has tried to start the same group for every single match.
At this point, amidst a brutal run of games considering their depth, 2nd-place Freiburg have a reached a point where they're no longer able to do so. Rotation is starting to become necessary for the club from the Black Forest.
Right-back Lukas Kübler, who surprisingly started on Thursday, commented that, "Bayern will go into the game 100 percent, they know that we are dangerous and can also score away from home. That's why it will be a tough duel."
Streich added, "With all due respect to Plzen, Bayern have such a squad that they can leave players at home and need a lot less energy in games like this than we do."
Team News
Kimberly Ezekwem is out, while Roland Sallai and Manuel Gulde are doubtful for the contest. Daniel-Kofi Kyereh is questionable after missing the game against Nantes this week.