Bayern want to ‘keep up what’s worked well’ as Wolfsburg visit

Bayern kick off the second half of the Bundesliga season by hosting Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena on Saturday (kick-off at 3.30pm CET, live coverage on fcbayern.com and in the FC Bayern app with our text commentary and free web radio). The Bavarians have never lost in 27 home games against the Wolves. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the match in our preview.

Check out the photos from final training on Friday:

Latest news from Bayern

Although Vincent Kompany didn’t want to give a rating for his team’s first half of the Bundesliga season when asked by reporters, the head coach did still look back positively on the campaign at Friday’s press conference. Bayern have reached the mid-point of the season with 42 points – four clear of champions Bayer Leverkusen in second – and also scored 53 goals, which is the second-highest total in Bundesliga history after 17 games. “I know we need to keep up what we’ve done well so far,” the 38-year-old said, praising his team: “We can see the hunger is there, that the guys are ready to step up their performances further and keep improving.”

That hunger for goals was particularly evident last time out as Bayern beat Hoffenheim 5-0 on Wednesday to make it three straight wins and prove there’s no new-year rust in the team. Now the focus turns to Wolfsburg and extending that run. “The priority is playing well tomorrow so we can win. We’ve done that well of late. Hopefully it continues,” Kompany added.

Read more from Kompany and Max Eberl at Friday’s press conference:

Opponent: Wolfsburg

Few probably would’ve predicted ahead of this season that Wolfsburg would reach the halfway mark in seventh place and only three points off the top four. But the Wolves have hit real form, winning six of their last eight games to treble their points tally from the start of November (nine) to 27. Only champions Leverkusen (22) and Bayern (19) have earned more points since Matchday 10 than Wolfsburg (18). That upturn is very much down to their attack, with 38 goals scored a new club record for the first half of a Bundesliga season.

“Bayern won’t be afraid because we’ve scored a few more goals,” said Wolfsburg head coach Ralph Hasenhüttl at his press conference on Friday. “That says a lot about the team’s attacking approach. We’ve improved above all in the final third compared to last season.” The Austrian has also seen his team’s overall play develop further. Will that now be enough to finally get a league win in Munich? “We’ve got the results we needed. Now we’re up against a different calibre,” said Hasenhüttl, who wants his team to “show that we’re a step further along”.

Wolfsburg have never won a Bundesliga game away at Bayern:

Team news

Josip Stanišić is in line to return to face Wolfsburg, with Kompany stating in the build-up, “I’m assuming he’ll be in the squad.” However, Bayern remain without Daniel Peretz (kidney), Hiroki Ito (metatarsal), Sacha Boey (ankle) and João Palhinha (muscular), although the latter was able to take some part in final training for the first time again on Friday.

Wolfsburg have a new addition on the right wing with the signing this week of Andreas Skov Olsen from Club Brugge. Apart from that, Hasenhüttl confirmed that nothing has changed since the midweek win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, meaning Rogerio, Bartosz Bialek (both knee), Kevin Paredes, Jakub Kaminski (both metatarsal) and Lovro Majer (ankle) are all still out.

Read up on the pre-match facts:

What the coaches say