Fresh from Tuesday’s 6-1 win over Werder Bremen, Bayern want to continue their excellent winning run away at the Bundesliga’s other promoted club, Schalke. The defending champions return to Gelsenkirchen after a year away for the final game of 2022 on Saturday (kick-off at 18:30 CET, coverage on fcbayern.com and in the FC Bayern app with our live text and free web radio). Here’s all you need to know on the Schalke fixture in our preview.
Check out the photos from final training on Friday:
Situation for Bayern
Bayern have won nine matches on the spin across all competitions since the 2-2 draw at Borussia Dortmund, scoring 36 times in those fixtures. Julian Nagelsmann and his men obviously want to continue that run at Schalke and make it 10 in a row to round out 2022. The champions begin the final matchday of the year on 31 points, four clear of Union Berlin and Freiburg, who are locked on 27 points in second and third respectively and play each other on Sunday. An 11th straight victory in games against Schalke would cement Bayern’s position at the top and send them into the World Cup break as Bundesliga leaders. That’s also what Nagelsmann has called for: “We want to win at Schalke, then we’ve done a good job in every competition.”
All the stats and facts on the Schalke game:
Opponents Schalke
Things have been very different at Schalke on their return to the top flight. They picked up six vital points in their battle for survival from their first six games, before losing seven matches on the spin as they dropped to the foot of the Bundesliga table. It prompted change at last season’s Bundesliga 2 champions, replacing Frank Kramer with Thomas Reis as coach. After losing his first two fixtures in charge, the 49-year-old earned his first win at the helm on Wednesday, beating Mainz 1-0 for just the club’s second victory of this league campaign. Despite being clear favourites going into the game, Nagelsmann isn’t expecting things to be easy for his team. “They definitely have more confidence than a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t have to be bad for the game,” the 35-year-old said at his press conference on Friday.
Watch Nagelsmann’s pre-match press conference here:
Player update
Sadio Mane will miss the game in Gelsenkirchen after he picked up an injury to his fibula during the week against Bremen. The match also comes too soon for Thomas Müller after his hip issue. Alphonso Davies and Bouna Sarr will also stay at home for the final fixture of the year. However, there’s good news in that Matthijs de Ligt will travel after recovering from his knee problem, before he joins up with the Netherlands for the World Cup.
Alphonso Davies did some running on Friday as he recovers from his muscle strain.
What the coaches say
Julian Nagelsmann: “Schalke have become much more active against the ball. They keep the pitch very compact and played well against Bremen. They could’ve won that. Now they have won and have a bit of momentum at an unfortunate time for us. I think it’s good that an opponent wants to stand up to us, play along and win. I’m looking forward to the game at Schalke, in a great stadium with a good atmosphere. It’ll definitely be a tough match.”
Thomas Reis (Schalke head coach): “Bayern come here with lots of confidence. We want as positive a result as possible, which won’t be easy but isn’t impossible. You need to be very active and aggressive. Those are virtues you need to play with against them to have a sniff of a chance.”
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