Goal is in sight - ‘We've been working towards it all season’

The Meisterschale is within reach! With four matchdays to go, FC Bayern are eight points clear of Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the top of the Bundesliga table. After Leverkusen dethroned the men from Munich last season following 11 consecutive titles, FCB are now on the verge of reclaiming German football's crown. "It's extremely important for us and for all Bayern fans that we bring the title back to Munich. We've been working towards it all season. It is, as they say, the most authentic title, because you have to earn it over 34 matchdays,” Josip Stanišić told fcbayern.com, explaining the importance of the potential championship win.

Against all the odds in recent weeks, Bayern have continued to pick up points in the German top flight, and the response to the painful Champions League exit against Inter Milan was particularly impressive. Last Saturday's 4-0 away win at 1. FC Heidenheim enabled the men from Munich to further extend their lead. "We were naturally disappointed after the game in Milan. There's just one goal now and that's the championship. That was also directly addressed in the dressing room by the coach and by us as a team," said Aleksandar Pavlović.

Impressive 'now more than ever' attitude

"You could see on Saturday that we absolutely wanted to win the game and dominate from the start - we simply wanted to show a response," said Stanišić, describing the team's attitude of ‘now more than ever’. "You have a lot of motivation to go for it after a setback like that," explained Serge Gnabry.

The Bavarians aren't concerned that their comfortable eight-point lead might allow a bit of complacency to creep in. "We're focusing on ourselves and giving 100 per cent in every game," said Pavlović. "We're close to our goal. We want to wrap things up as quickly as possible. At the end of the day, we have to focus on winning our games," added Gnabry.

Winning the title early is theoretically possible as early as this Saturday. If Bayern win at home against Mainz 05 and Leverkusen simultaneously fail to beat Augsburg, they'll already clinch the championship. FCB are fully focused on the task in hand. "We're concentrating solely on the next game. We absolutely want to win again against Mainz," said Pavlović. "I'd be incredibly happy to win the title with my home club and be able to gift the fans the trophy. That would be breathtaking."