One and a half hours after landing back in Munich, head coach Niko Kovac welcomed his team back to the training ground at Säbener Straße on Saturday afternoon. The long faces on the players following the first defeat of the season at Hertha BSC on Friday evening were nowhere to be seen. While the majority of the squad worked out individually in the performance centre, a six-man group worked with the ball on the pitch. In good spirits but committed and focussed, the sextet started up the preparations for the Champions League encounter with Ajax.
The open training session mainly consisted of running as well as some light passing and shooting exercises for the six first-team players who didn’t start in Berlin – Thomas Müller, Serge Gnabry, Javi Martínez, Mats Hummels, Sandro Wagner and goalkeeper Sven Ulreich. The players have a day off on Sunday so that everyone’s fit and raring to go for the first Champions League home game of the season on Tuesday evening.
In the press conference after Friday’s match in the capital, the Bayern coach had already stressed that there are “now two more important games before the international break”, with the Champions League group match followed by a Bundesliga meeting with Borussia Mönchengladbach. “We obviously want to get three points in the Champions League so that we’re more relaxed going into the subsequent games,” signalled the 46-year-old.
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