It's getting incredibly tense in the final stages of the season! In the remaining three games of the campaign, Bayern must create a real run by building on their two recent wins against Hertha Berlin (2-0) and at Bremen (2-1) so they don't lose ground to Borussia Dortmund in the title race. Next up is the clash with FC Schalke 04 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday (15:30 CEST), against whom the men from Munich have always had the upper hand recently, as the facts and stats before the match clearly show.
1. Bayern's impressive run against S04
Bayern won the reverse fixture at Schake 2-0 thanks to goals from Serge Gnabry and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Bayern haven't lost a single one of their last 24 competitive games against Schalke (21 wins, three draws). Most recently, the record champions have even recorded 11 straight wins - with a 36:2 goal difference. For the team from Gelsenkirchen, this is the longest losing streak against one and the same club in professional football. The Royal Blues' last win against FCB came in March 2011 in the semi-finals of the DFB Cup at the Allianz Arena.
2. Bayern (statistically speaking) on course for the title
Bayern's lead over BVB at the top of the table is currently one point. The last time the Bundesliga title race was this close with 31 games played was 14 years ago. In 19 of the last 20 seasons, however, the league leaders after 31 matchdays also ended up as German champions - only FC Schalke 04 failed to do so in 2006/07, when they were overtaken by VfB Stuttgart.
The 2-1 in Bremen last weekend meant Bayern were able to defend their lead at the top of the table - Joshua Kimmich was happy!
3. Best vs. weakest attack in the league
Bayern's tally of 83 goals makes them the best attacking team in the Bundesliga this season. Their opponents, FC Schalke 04, have scored 31, just over a third of that total, which makes them the weakest attack of the current campaign. Who knows where the Miners would be without their top scorer Marius Bülter. He's already scored eleven times, accounting for 35 per cent of all Schalke goals this season. No other club currently has an individual player who's made such a high contribution.
4. Sané and Gnabry know how it's done
Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané shone in the last home match against Schalke in September 2020 (8-0).
Just in time for the season finale, two Bayern players are once again demonstrating their scoring prowess: Serge Gnabry's opening goal in the 2-1 win at Bremen last time out meant that he scored in two consecutive Bundesliga matches for the first time this calendar year, closing the gap on FCB top scorer Jamal Musiala with his 11th Bundesliga goal of the campaign. Leroy Sané also netted his eighth goal of the season at Werder, which equalled the personal record he had set in 2015/16 while still wearing the jersey of upcoming opponents Schalke. The pair have already proven they're capable of adding to their tally against S04 on Saturday: In the last home match against the Royal Blues to date, an 8-0 win on 18 September 2020, both players shone: Gnabry scored three goals, two of them from Sané's assists, while Sané also bagged one goal.
5. Schalke's Bundesliga survival in their own hands
It should be clear to everyone that the visitors from Gelsenkirchen will give it everything they've got at the Allianz Arena - because for them, nothing less than Bundesliga survival is at stake. After finishing the Hinrunde in last place with just nine points, they've now picked up 21 points in the second half of the season and, for the first time since Matchday 8, the visitors are no longer in the relegation zone. Incidentally, since the introduction of the three-point rule, no team has ever been relegated after picking up at least 21 points after 14 matchdays in the Rückrunde.
Find out what head coach Thomas Tuchel has to say ahead of the clash with the Royal Blues in his pre-match press conference:
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