With a win in Leverkusen, FC Bayern wants to win the preliminary decision in the fight for the championship. But there is still much more at stake.
If FC Bayern still needed an extramotivation before the top game in Leverkusen on Saturday (6.30 p.m. in LiveTicker at T-Online), then he got the greatest possible on Friday afternoon. The German record champion announced what has recently been initiated in the past few weeks and days: the early contract extension of Jamal Musiala by 2030.
The Munich team thus put a large exclamation mark behind their future planning. And at the same time sending a clear sign to both national competition such as Bayer Leverkusen and international competition: FC Bayern can also be expected in the future when it comes to awarding the big titles.
At the national level, Musiala and Bayern want to prove this directly on Saturday. In the direct duel, into which you go as the league leader with eight points, you want to get the reigning champion off the throne and transform your master match ball in Leverkusen.
Last year, Bayer Leverkusen had succeeded in the same place with the 3-0 home win against Bayern. The Munichers now want to retaliate.
Even if Harry Kane tried to play down this idea. “I don’t think it’s all about revenge. We had a few tough games against them,” he said to T-Online. “In the last duels we showed our true ego and dominated quite a bit from start to end.” Kane had to admit at the same time: “Top teams always represent a threat and can punish you in inattentive moment.”
Bayern against Bayer recently felt this regularly. For five competitive games and over two years now, the Munich team could not defeat the Leverkuseners.
Bayer coach Xabi Alonso is still unbeaten against his ex-club, which he not only snatched the championship, but also the cup victory with his team last season. At the beginning of December, Alonso and the Leverkuseners also decided the duel in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup in Munich 1-0 and thus threw Bayern out of the competition. However, this was undoubtedly favored by the early red card that Bayern captain Manuel Neuer saw.
He even made a champagne promise for the shell before the master match ball. As a new one on Wednesday evening after the 2-1 win in Glasgow was asked whether Bavaria could already chill the champagne for the championship in Leverkusen, he replied dryly: “He is always cold!” Then he quickly added: “But I think we have to do something for that. And I think it is time when we are the better team again, that we will beat them. That would of course be biggest wish from us. “
He shares it with his chief coach Vincent Kompany. “You shouldn’t forget: You have only lost once in the past 18 months,” said Kompany on Friday at his final press conference. “We would like to be one of these teams that can do it and win away.”
Sports board member Max Eberl, who was sitting on the press podium next to Kompany, striving to push the pressure on Bayer as a pursuer. “Leverkusen probably has to win more than we do to keep it open,” he said with a view to a possible preliminary decision about the championship.