Second round in Saarbrücken
Tue, 31/10/23, 18:45
Next cup battle: Bayern aiming for sixth straight win
The games keep coming thick and fast. On Wednesday night, FC Bayern travel to third-tier side 1. FC Saarbrücken in the DFB Cup second round (live text and free Web Radio commentary from 20:45 CET on fcbayern.com and in the FC Bayern app). After five successive wins in all competitions, coach Thomas Tuchel's side want to maintain their good form and progress to the last 16. Our preview contains all the important info on the match.
The pictures from Tuesday's final training session:
The state of play for Bayern
Bayern are now unbeaten in 13 games in all competitions, their last defeat being the 3-0 loss to RB Leipzig in the Supercup on 12 August. Since then, the German record champions have been motoring and have won each of their last five. 2-1 at FC Copenhagen, 3-0 against Freiburg, 3-1 at Mainz, 3-1 at Galatasary and 8-0 against Darmstadt 98 – will Saarbrücken be next?
"Tomorrow is a very important match, a knockout match. If we want to get to Berlin, we have to perform tomorrow, so it's a final," said Tuchel ahead of the trip to Saarland. On a possible postponement of the match due to uncertain pitch conditions, the 50-year-old said: "There should be a pitch inspection today and tomorrow. We expect it to be played."
Read all Thomas Tuchel's key statements from the press conference here:
The opponents: Saarbrücken
It's around 30 years since the Saarland club and the Bavarians last met in a competitive fixture. In April 1993, FCB won convincingly 6-0. On Wednesday at the Ludwigsparkstadion, it's not about the scoreline but about the main goal of reaching the next round. Head coach Rüdiger Ziehl's side currently occupy 15th place in the 3. Liga with 14 points from 11 games. The last league match at home to promotion hopefuls Dynamo Dresden had to be abandoned at half-time with the score at 0-0 due to heavy rainfall. Saarbrücken have won just one of their last six matches.
The facts ahead of the match:
The team news for Saarbrücken vs. Bayern
Tuchel gave an extensive update on personnel at Tuesday's press conference: "Noussair Mazraoui is poorly, Jamal Musiala was ill yesterday. We also need to check over Kingsley Coman, who twisted his ankle in the last match." However, Tuchel is hopeful that Leon Goretzka (hand fracture) and Serge Gnabry (lower arm fracture) will be back in the squad. Manuel Neuer will start in goal again after his comeback against Darmstadt, but it's too soon for Dayot Upamecano (hamstring) and Raphaël Guerreiro (thigh) to be included in the squad after the pair returned to full training.
Along with long-term absentees Sebastian Jacob, Patrick Schmidt and Richard Neudecker, FCS coach Ziehl confirmed that Dominik Becker is sidelined. In addition, Julian Günther-Schmidt, Bjarne Toelke and Kai Brünker have been struggling with colds before the match.
Joshua Kimmich is available in the cup after being suspended for two Bundesliga matches:
What the coaches say
We've been spared injuries in attack, apart from Serge recently. Everyone's in great form, we also have a lot of quality on the bench. In terms of depth it's an extremely high level.
Thomas Tuchel
We're not going to throw the match. We start the match at 0-0. As the underdogs we'll try to keep it at zero for as long as possible and string moves together so that we can be successful and score a goal ourselves. That's how it is whenever an overwhelming favourite meets a third-division team.
Rüdiger Ziehl (1. FC Saarbrücken coach)
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