There’s a lot to be enthusiastic about forward of matchday 22 within the Bundesliga. European hopefuls are set to battle it out, Borussia Dortmund will look to kick on from their Champions League victory, after which there’s the small matter of the highest two, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich taking centre stage on Saturday. That is your weekend preview preview for matchday 22 within the Bundesliga.
Bayer Leverkusen vs Bayern Munich
The late kick-off on Saturday may go a good distance in deciding the title. After B04’s draw to VfL Wolfsburg final week, they will’t afford to lose in opposition to league leaders Bayern. In the event that they do, the reigning champions can be 11 factors behind Bayern with 12 video games to go. Although so much can occur in 12 video games, it could be utterly out of Leverkusen’s arms.
B04 benefit from being rested for the complete week. Bayern travelled to Glasgow midweek of their first of two video games in opposition to Celtic to find out who goes by means of to the Final 16 within the Champions League. Bayern received the match 2-1 with objectives from Micheal Olise and Harry Kane.
Requested if Saturday’s recreation appears like a closing to Leverkusen, head coach Xabi Alonso was fast to downplay the event:
“No, not a closing. After all after the sport we’ll see how huge the hole is. However it’s positively not a closing.”
Within the reverse fixture in Munich, B04 performed very defensively, rode their luck at instances, and got here away with a draw. On the face of it, Bayern would have been the extra disillusioned of the 2 groups from that individual recreation.
Alonso isn’t blind to Bayern’s energy however can also be decided to play his personal means on the BayArena:
“It’s one other Bayern. The power, the depth, the construction, they’re doing very effectively. They’re destroying many opponents, they create many possibilities and don’t concede many. It’s going to be a really demanding recreation for us defensively. However we wish to play our soccer as effectively and discover the appropriate stability.”
Referee Bulletins
As reported by GGFN earlier in January, may occur for the primary time within the Bundesliga this week. The observe has been in place because the final matchday however no incident occurred for it to occur.
The brand new methodology is to attempt to save any potential confusion on the subject of VAR selections. Up to now, the referee has stayed silent and solely indicated with their arms as to what the choice is.
This weekend may see a change to this and hopefully make VAR a tiny bit extra bearable – Actually one thing to be careful for.
Potential Speaking Factors
VfL Bochum’s Myron Boadu has scored as many objectives as Harry Kane within the second half of the season – 5 objectives in 221 minutes of soccer.
The striker is in sizzling kind proper now as Bochum seems to be to finish the nice escape. They host BVB on Saturday with the hopes of inflicting one other huge upset. Boadu will definitely be a participant to be careful for throughout matchday 22.
RB Leipzig are unbeaten in opposition to FC Augsburg of their earlier 14 matches. The truth is, of their final 17 matches in all competitions, FCA have solely received as soon as in opposition to the Saxons. It’s one of many Bundesliga’s most one-sided ties proper now, nonetheless, with FCA taking part in at dwelling on Friday evening, something is feasible.
Matchday 22 Fixtures
Friday
FC Augsburg vs RB Leipzig (19:30pm)
Saturday
Union Berlin vs Borussia Monchengladbach (14:30pm)
FC St. Pauli vs SC Freiburg (14:30pm)
VfL Bochum vs Borussia Dortmund (14:30pm)
VfB Stuttgart vs VfL Wolfsburg (14:30pm)
Bayer Leverkusen vs Bayern Munich (17:30pm)
Sunday
Werder Bremen vs Hoffenheim (14:30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Holstein Kiel (16:30pm)
FC Heidenheim vs Mainz 05 (18:30pm)
*All matches are listed in GMT.
GGFN |