‘Winning is our goal’ as Bayern face Borussia Mönchengladbach ‘challenge’

FC Bayern host an opponent who has caused them problems in recent years as Borussia Mönchengladbach come to the Allianz Arena on Saturday (kick-off at 15:30 CET, live coverage on fcbayern.com and in the FC Bayern app with our text commentary and free web radio). The defending Bundesliga champions ended a five-game winless run against the Foals earlier this season. Here’s all you need to know in our preview as Bayern look to make two straight wins over their old rivals on Matchday 20.

Check out the best photos from final training on Friday:

State of play

Bayern have been churning out the results for the most part of late with five wins from their last six league games. It’s taken them onto 47 points with 19 matches played, which is the club’s best return at this stage since 2017/18 (also 47) and in fact the highest total ever by a team in second after 19 games. Should leaders Bayer Leverkusen (49 points) slip up at the same time on Saturday away at bottom side Darmstadt, then Bayern will be able to move top with victory over Gladbach, just a week before the Bavarians visit Leverkusen.

The Borussia game will be “a challenge, but we absolutely want to win. That’s our goal,” said Christoph Freund. The sporting director was standing in for Thomas Tuchel – who has been ill during the week – at Friday’s press conference and answered questions about the match. He also confirmed that Tuchel will “in all likelihood” be on the touchline on Saturday, after he oversaw final training at Säbener Straße on Friday afternoon.

One player who will be particularly looking forward to the fixture at the Allianz Arena is Bryan Zaragoza. “I’m very happy to be at this great club,” Thursday’s newest arrival stated at his unveiling on Friday. The Spanish winger could now make his Bayern bow just two days after signing for the club: “My first goal is to make my debut. I want to help the team and learn from the great players and coaches.”

Read what Freund and Zaragoza had to say at Friday’s press conference:

Opponent: Borussia Mönchengladbach

Gladbach’s hard-fought goalless draw away at Leverkusen last weekend gave Bayern a little helping hand in the title race. However, Gerardo Seoane’s side won’t want to do the defending champions another favour just yet. The Foals’ issue this season has been their consistency – or lack of it – failing to back up one good performance with another. They kicked off the year with a 3-1 win over VfB Stuttgart before a 2-1 defeat to Augsburg prior to their 0-0 with Leverkusen. Borussia have also struggled on their travels, with a 3-1 win at Bochum on Matchday 6 their only success in their last 17 Bundesliga away games (D7, L9).

So, what does the Gladbach boss make of his team’s chances in Munich? “When you play against the top teams, you need to perform beyond your limit in all areas. The opponent also needs to not have their best day,” Seoane stated. “We’re on a different level, so we need a top performance to get a result there.”

Read up on the facts ahead of facing Gladbach:

Team news

This week’s new signings Zaragoza and Sacha Boey are both in line to be involved on Saturday, increasing Bayern’s options given a lengthy list of absentees. Dayot Upamecano (hamstring), Konrad Laimer (calf), Joshua Kimmich (shoulder), Kingsley Coman (MCL) are all still out, plus long-term injured players Bouna Sarr (ACL), Daniel Peretz (knee) and Serge Gnabry (muscular). Minjae Kim remains unavailable as he competes in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup with South Korea. Noussair Mazraoui, though, is back in Munich and once again an option after Morocco were eliminated from the Africa Cup of Nations.

Read more on who was in final training here:

Seoane confirmed that Jonas Omlin, Tomas Cvancara and Ko Itakura will not make the trip to Munich. Max Wöber is also not yet fit after returning to training after an infection.

What the bosses say