Record-German champions Bayern Munich will host traditional rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach as Bundesliga resumes on Friday.
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A depleted Bundesliga action will resume on Friday with league leaders Bayern Munich hosting traditional rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach. The other fixtures on the day will see RB Leipzig playing against FSV Mainz 05, Bayern Leverkusen against Union Berlin, Hoffenheim vs Augsburg, SC Freiburg host Arminia, Furth against Vfb Sttutgart and Eintracht Frankfurt take on Borussia Dortmund. However, the major concerns for the German clubs remains that of handling their unit in absence of the players, who have contracted Covid-19 or out owing to injury. It will also be a test of their bench strength and academy players in the depleted conditions.
Joe Scally, Mamadou Doucouré, Denis Zakaria and Keanan Bennetts were in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19 this week. They are expected to miss out for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the upcoming fixture.
Record champions Bayern Munich had informed their nine players along with assistant coach Dino Toppmöller were quarantined after testing positive for Covid-19. Their captain and veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and defender Lucas Hernández contracted the dreaded virus on their vacation in the Maldives, Kingsley Coman while he was in Dubai, and Corentin Tolisso while he was home in France. Alphonso Davies, Leroy Sané, Dayot Upamecano, Omar Richards and Tanguy Nianzou are the other players who are infected, as per reports.
Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann will have the option to pick up from his 12 outfield players while he has goalkeepers Sven Ulreich and Christian Früchtl to pick up from.
Bayern Munich sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić wanted their game to be postponed further but the league organisers had other plans.
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“It looks like we’re going to play, and then we’ll also go into the game to win it,” Salihamidžić said.
Borussia Dortmund have left out Dan-Axel Zagadou and Marius Wolf from their squad after the duo contracted the dreaded virus on their vacation.
“It’s not so simple at the moment, there’s a certain uncertainty affecting us all,” Dortmund team coordinator Sebastian Kehl said. “Regardless of where you are, you can’t protect yourself fully from the (omicron) variant, whether on vacation far away or here in front of the house door.”
Bayern Munich are currently nine points clear of their arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund after 17 outings each while SC Freiburg sit at the third spot with Bayern Leverkusen and Hoffenheim tied at 28 points at the fourth and fifth place respectively.
