A chance, perhaps the last, to try to reopen the title fight and to put Bayern Munich’s top spot back in question. It’s almost an in-or-out match for defending champions Bayer Leverkusen, who in the 90 minutes at the BayArena will desperately try to close the gap on the Bavarians, who flew to +8 after the last day of the championship.
A win by Vincent Kompany’s team would effectively close the games for the Schale, but even a draw, in the end, would not shift much. This is well known by the Aspirins, who have no intention of abdicating and ceding the scepter just a few months after their well-deserved triumph. A flawless Leverkusen will therefore be needed against Bayern. We are talking, after all, about a team that at home has a performance that borders on perfection: 54 points – only on three occasions in the Bundesliga have they collected more after twenty-one rounds – best attack with 65 goals and best defense with 19 goals conceded. Only one defeat (against Mainz in December) and then seven wins in a row, including a 3-0 win over Werder Bremen a week ago.
The Bavarians have done less well in the Champions League, where unlike Leverkusen they were forced to play the play-offs to get into the round of 16. In the week they won, not without some difficulty, the first leg match with Celtic, eking out a 2-1 victory at an always very hostile venue like Glasgow.
Xabi Alonso’s men, on the other hand, had no midweek commitments. Their last outing was last Saturday’s match with Wolfsburg, which ended 0-0. The attack this time fired blanks and the absence of the disqualified Grimaldo was particularly felt. Wirtz and Schick, the latter the author of 14 goals in his last 11 appearances (better goal average than Harry Kane’s), entered only in the second half. The only absentees against Bayern will be Belocian and Terrier, while on the other side Kompany hopes to recover the injured Davies and Palhinha.
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The Prediction
Since sitting on the Bayer Leverkusen bench Xabi Alonso has never lost to the team whose colors he wore when he was a player. In fact, Bayern Munich’s last success against the Aspirins dates back to 2022: in the previous two season’s fixtures, the Rossoneri avoided defeat at the Allianz Arena (1-1) in the league and narrowly won in the German Cup (0-1), also away. Being almost obliged to win this time we expect a less “tactical” approach to the match: most likely we will see a few more goals and both will score. A positive result of the hosts cannot be excluded.
The probable formations of Bayer Leverkusen-Bayern Munich
BAYER LEVERKUSEN (4-4-2): Hrádecký; Mukiele, Tapsoba, Tah, Hincapié; Frimpong, Xhaka, Andrich, Grimaldo; Wirtz, Boniface.
BAYERN MONACO (4-2-3-1): Neuer; Stanišić, Upamecano, Kim, Guerreiro; Kimmich, Goretzka; Olise, Musiala, Coman; Kane.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-2
