Freiburg vs. Bayern Munich preview: Can the visitors close the gap to Leverkusen?

By Ben Sully   @SullyBen

Second-placed Bayern Munich will have the chance to reduce the eight-point gap to leaders Bayer Leverkusen when they face Freiburg on Friday evening.

Freiburg

After claiming a comeback win over Lens in the Europa Conference League, Freiburg were brought down to earth in last Sunday’s away meeting with Augsburg. Vincenzo Grifo dispatched a 19th-minute spot-kick to give Freiburg a slender advantage at the break. However, Felix Uduokhai pulled Augsburg level in the 72nd minute, before Arne Engels netted a late winner to condemn Christian Streich’s side to a narrow defeat.

Freiburg have now lost four of their last five Bundesliga matches (D1) since beating Hoffenheim at the end of January. Streich will be concerned by the fact his team have conceded 14 goals across their five-game winless league run.

The ninth-placed side will now turn their attention to a tricky home game against the reigning champions. Having failed to win any of their previous seven head-to-head home meetings, the hosts are looking to beat Bayern on home turf for the first time since May 2015.

Team News

Freiburg are expected to be without Lukas Kübler, Philipp Lienhart, Yannik Keitel, Kenneth Schmidt, Max Rosenfelder and Daniel-Kofi Kyereh.

Bayern Munich

Bayern bounced back from three consecutive defeats to claim a dramatic 2-1 victory over RB Leipzig last Friday. The Bavarians looked set to experience another frustrating outing when Harry Kane saw his opener cancelled out by Benjamin Šeško. However, Kane proved to be Bayern’s hero, scoring a 91st-minute winner to claim three precious points.

Thomas Tuchel’s side will be determined to claim another victory on Friday as they look to keep their title hopes alive and build momentum ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Lazio. Not only will they be targeting a win, but the Bavarians will also want to keep a clean sheet after conceding in each of their last six competitive matches.

Bayern will certainly fancy their chances of claiming all three points, having won each of their last five league meetings with Freiburg, including a comfortable 3-0 win in their most recent meeting in October.

Team News

Bayern are unable to call upon Noussair Mazraoui, Sacha Boey, Bouna Sarr, Tarek Buchmann, Kingsley Coman, Noel Aseko-Nkili and Serge Gnabry. Meanwhile, Matthijs de Ligt will serve a one-match suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season last weekend. Tuchel has also confirmed that Sane is a doubt due to patellar tendon problems, but Alphonso Davies is available after missing the last four matches.

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