For keeper Manuel Neuer, the top game against BVB comes too early after a muscle injury, Kingsley Coman is back in the FC Bayern squad for the first time since his injury. Otherwise there is noticeably little to say about the classic on Saturday evening.
It is probably emblematic of how high the status of the actual German classic FC Bayern against Borussia Dortmund currently is: The questions at the press conference before the game revolve around the injured Manuel Neuer, Xabi Alonso and even Bryan Zaragoza – but what about the BVB?
Neuer is missing, Coman is about to make a comeback
Captain Manuel Neuer will not be available for the top Bundesliga game against Borussia Dortmund. “Manu is out. It’s too painful,” said coach Thomas Tuchel before the classic on Saturday. The 38-year-old goalkeeper suffered a torn muscle fiber in his adductor area while playing for the national team.
But Tuchel is hoping for a new comeback against Heidenheim. Aleksandar Pavlovic, Raphaël Guerreiro and Sacha Boey are also missing at the weekend. Winger Kingsley Coman is back in the squad for the first time since tearing his medial ligament, and Harry Kane is also fit.
Isn’t Tuchel talking to Zaragoza?
Of course, one topic at the press conference: Xabi Alonso’s contract extension at Bayer Leverkusen, which Thomas Tuchel does not want to comment on. And just before the classic on Saturday, the previously invisible Bayern transfer of the winter Bryan Zaragoza seems to be a bigger topic than the opponent Borussia Dortmund.
Tuchel defended himself for a long time and almost passionately against accusations from the Spanish media that he had no contact with the Spaniard. He played a big part in Zaragoza moving to Bayern in the first place, but he still doesn’t know Spanish and so his assistant coach Nicolas Meyer translated everything for the Munich newcomer. “If that’s the basis of the report (…) and you want to conclude that I’m not talking to him, that’s just nonsense.”
But one more question about the classic
And actually there is, the first and last concrete question about the opponent on Saturday evening – how does Tuchel expect BVB?
The answer is full of clichés: “It will be an open game, an open exchange of blows. We are very confident in ourselves. We are on a good run and in a good mood. (…) If we show the necessary bite, the necessary unity, “We have every opportunity to win. We definitely want to win.”
Great passion before the big classic of the Bundesliga – none.
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Source: BR24 March 29, 2024 – 12:55 p.m