Freiburg vs Bayern Munich

January 18, 2017
By: Milos Markovic

German top tier Bundesliga returns to action on Friday night as leaders and reigning champions Bayern Munich travel to Freiburg, looking to extend their winning run to six successive games.

Freiburg’s unbeaten run

Christian Streich’s men will not have been discouraged by the results during the winter preparation period as what counts is the fact that the Breisgau-Brasilianer have gone four games unbeaten towards the end of 2016. Their positive run which also saw them end the year with a 2-1 win away at Ingolstadt will be put to a stern test at the beginning of the second part of the season as Streich’s men are getting prepared to welcome Bayern Munich. Freiburg will be hoping to repeat the result from the last match against the champions, who suffered a 2-1 defeat at the Schwarzwald-Stadion back in May. With five wins and only two defeats in seven home matches from the first part of the season, the Black Forest outfit are heading towards the highly-anticipated clash feeling positive about their chances.

Lukas Kubler and Julian Schuster continue to miss out for the hosts, who will also be without Marc-Oliver Kempf and Georg Niedermeier, who is experiencing some back problems. Jonas Meffert and Lucas Hufnagel’s appearances will be under a doubt as the two players will be assessed prior to the game.

Winter Champions

The Bavarians need only one point from their forthcoming visit to Freiburg in order to be officially named winter champions of Bundesliga. They have done it 22 times in their 52 Bundesliga appearances thus far and Bayern Munich are walking on a familiar terrain, which is why they will be fairly confident the pressure from RB Leipzig will have little effect. What is more, Carlo Ancelotti’s men sent a clear message to the biggest Bundesliga surprise pack this season by defeating the Red Bull outfit 3-0 in the final game of the last year. Bayern extended their five-match winning Bundesliga run with three wins during the preparation period and they will lack no motivation as they head towards the game at Schwarzwald-Stadion. The Bavarians recorded a clean sheet in their last five matches in all competitions and that is an important piece of statistics to remember as we await the game.

Thiago Alcantara has picked up a thigh injury during the winter training camp in Qatar, whereas Jerome Boateng, Julian Green, Arturo Vidal and Kingsley Coman also remain unavailable for the match. There is a question mark around the availability of striker Robert Lewandowski who is struggling with illness and could miss the Friday’s match.

Verdict

Bayern Munich did lose on their last trip to Freiburg, but we are fairly confident the same scenario will not be repeated this time around. Ancelotti’s men need to win in order to keep RB Leipzig at bay and we expect them to go full force from the off.

Top pick: Both teams to score – No   1.85 (17/20) @BetVictor

Alternative pick 1: Bayern to win to Nil   2.00 (1/1) @Ladbrokes

Alternative pick 2: Bayern to keep a clean sheet   1.80 (4/5) @Bet365

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