Bayern need ‘right response on the pitch’ as they visit Freiburg

Bayern are away at Freiburg on Saturday for Matchday 19 in the Bundesliga (kick-off at 3.30pm CET, live coverage on fcbayern.com and in the FC Bayern app with our text commentary and free web radio) as they look to bounce straight back from Wednesday’s Champions League defeat to Feyenoord. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our preview.

Check out the photos from final training on Friday:

Latest news from Bayern

Three days on from the 3-0 defeat in Rotterdam comes another tough away game for Bayern. “We wanted to play again quickly,” said head coach Vincent Kompany at his press conference on Friday. “I remain calm in situations like this. It’s important that we talk about what we need to do better. We need to keep doing our thing to make sure we can be back up there again. Hopefully the right answer comes on the pitch,” the Belgian stated.

Kompany also stressed that the goal is to win every game. “It would be unusual to win something without going through something negative during a season. You need to be there when it matters,” he added. Bayern currently hold a four-point lead over Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the Bundesliga table on the back of four straight wins. The objective is to keep that going in the Black Forest.

Read more from Kompany and Christoph Freund’s press conference here:

Opponent: Freiburg

Freiburg come into the weekend in eighth place with 27 points from 18 games. The majority of those points have come at home, where they have earned 19 of a possible 24 from eight fixtures at the Europa-Park Stadion. That’s a return of 2.4 points per home game, which is second in the Bundesliga only to Bayern (2.8). “Freiburg are particularly good at home. They have a team with intensity and pace, a team that fights. We’ve already said what good work they’ve done in recent years to get to this level. That shows that the team and the club are healthy,” Kompany said of Saturday’s opponents.

The Black Forest club have struggled a bit in the last two games, though, suffering heavy defeats to Eintracht Frankfurt (4-1) and VfB Stuttgart (4-0) – both away from home. “It’s the right time to focus on the basics again and get back to where we were,” said Freiburg coach Julian Schuster. “That means a lot of heart and trust are important. That’s what the focus has been this week, not so much on the opponent but on our own qualities.”

Read up on the stats ahead of the game:

Team news

As well as Hiroki Ito (metatarsal) and Daniel Peretz (bruised kidney), Bayern also head to Freiburg without Alphonso Davies after he suffered a hamstring injury in Rotterdam and Konrad Laimer as he serves a suspension for five yellow cards, but João Palhinha and Sacha Boey could both return to the matchday squad.

Freiburg have goalkeeper Noah Atubolu and defender Kiliann Sildillia available again after they missed the Stuttgart game. However, Florent Muslija is out with an ankle issue, joining Manuel Gulde (back), Bruno Ogbus (Achilles) and Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (knee) on the sidelines.

Seven legendary moments between Bayern and Freiburg:

What the coaches say