League leaders Bayern Munich host newly-promoted St. Pauli in one in every of Saturday’s early fixtures.
| Musiala scored the one aim of the sport in Millerntor | Stuart Franklin/Getty Photos |
Bayern Munich
Since they had been winless towards Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen, Bayern followers had combined emotions in the direction of the Champions League Spherical of 16 tie. Nevertheless, it was towards lowly Bundesliga opponents Bochum and Union Berlin that the Bavarians struggled in March.
After Leverkusen’s dramatic win in Stuttgart, the hole on the high of the standings is now decreased to 6 factors. However, with no midweek sport in sight, Vincent Kompany will lastly have full focus in the direction of avoiding an analogous consequence on Saturday.
Nevertheless, not like their opponents from Hamburg, Bayern had most of their gamers busy in nationwide crew duties throughout the worldwide break. Moreover, Dayot Upamecano and Alphonso Davies suffered critical accidents whereas taking part in for France and Canada, respectively.
Though the conflict towards Inter can be season-defining for Kompany, an extra slip within the Bundesliga might be seized by Leverkusen. Bayern misplaced to Sixteenth-placed Bochum of their final house sport.
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Davies will definitely miss the remainder of the season after a torn cruciate ligament in his proper knee, whereas Upamecano hopes to return in Might. Manuel Neuer and Aleksandar Pavlović can even be absent for the hosts.
Min-jae Kim and Kingsley Coman, who labored on their restoration course of throughout the worldwide break, might return to the matchday squad. On the optimistic information for Bayern, Kompany confirmed that goalkeeper Jonas Urbig, who left Germany’s U21 squad after a slight harm, is match sufficient to start out the sport.
St. Pauli
Earlier than this season, St. Pauli’s final house Bundesliga sport was an 8-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in 2011. As such, dropping by a solitary Jamal Musiala strike was a decent consequence when the 2 sides met within the reverse fixture.
Alexander Blessin’s aspect additional boosted their likelihood of survival by choosing up 4 factors from the final two matches earlier than the worldwide break. A tough-fought level from Wolfsburg and a uncommon victory towards Augsburg put the newcomers 5 factors off the relegation zone.
As Kompany identified in his pre-match convention, St. Pauli have been a troublesome crew to interrupt on their first Bundesliga look for over a decade. They scored the fewest targets (20) within the league, however solely Bayern (24) and Mainz (28) are forward of the Fifteenth-placed crew (30) when it comes to targets conceded.
Each groups will put on a particular matchday shirt to mark the Worldwide Weeks Towards Racism and the DFL’s “Collectively! Cease Hate. Be a Workforce” marketing campaign.
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After serving to Australia beat Indonesia and China with three targets within the World Cup qualifiers, St. Pauli’s captain Jackson Irvine will hope to open his Bundesliga account towards Bayern.
Nevertheless, Blessin will proceed to overlook the invaluable providers of Karol Mets, James Sands and Morgan Guilavogui. As for returnees, Robert Wagner and Connor Metcalfe might function for the primary time this 12 months after recovering from long-term accidents.
