Bayern Munich vs. Gladbach preview: Injury-hit hosts targeting third straight win
Bayern Munich will have to cope with a significant injury list when they welcome Borussia Mönchengladbach to the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Bayern Munich
Bayern backed up a narrow win against Union Berlin with a 3-2 victory over Augsburg last weekend thanks to goals from Aleksandar Pavlović, Alphonso Davies and Harry Kane. As a result of Leverkusen’s draw with Gladbach, Thomas Tuchel’s side moved to within two points of the league leaders.
Following a successful away trip last time out, Bayern will now return to the Allianz Arena for Saturday’s contest. After winning eight, drawing one and losing one of their 10 home matches in the Bundesliga, the Bavarians currently share the best home record in the division with Stuttgart.
Impressively, Bayern have racked up 34 league goals at the Allianz Arena this season, while they have been resolute at the opposite end of the pitch, having recorded six home clean sheets in the Bundesliga.
Although Bayern have experienced mixed results against Gladbach in recent years, they were able to get the better of die Fohlen in the reverse fixture, giving them a chance to record a league double with a win in Saturday’s encounter.
Team News
Bayern are having to cope with a lengthy injury list which includes Dayot Upamecano, Kingsley Coman, Konrad Laimer, Joshua Kimmich, Daniel Peretz, Bouna Sarr, Serge Gnabry and Tarek Buchmann. Meanwhile, Kim Min-jae is currently representing South Korea at the Asian Cup in Qatar.
Gladbach
Gladbach have struggled to find any sort of consistency this season, having won five, drawn six and lost eight of their 19 league matches. After beginning 2024 with a win over Stuttgart, die Fohlen went on to suffer a narrow 2-1 defeat in their home meeting with Augsburg.
Although they were unable to return to winning ways last weekend, Gladbach would have been pleased to take a point off Leverkusen. Gerardo Seoane’s side held the leaders to a goalless draw to become just the second team to leave the BayArena with a point in the Bundesliga this season.
The 12th-placed side will now turn their attention to another tricky away fixture. However, they can certainly draw inspiration from the fact they have picked up four points from their last two trips to the Allianz Arena. Gladbach recorded a narrow 2-1 victory against Bayern in January 2022, before they played out a 1-1 draw in last season’s away meeting.
Team News
Gladbach are expected to be without Jonas Omlin, Tomas Cvancara, Patrick Herrmann, Robin Hack, Lukas Ullrich and Hannes Wolf. As for Ko Itakura, he is currently with Japan squad at the Asian Cup.