Champions Bayern Munich take on cup winners Leipzig as the Bundesliga return
The restart
On Friday evening, the wait is over: Leipzig welcome Bayern Munich as the Bundesliga return. On matchday 16, the two teams in the best form in the Bundesliga meet, at least if you look at the last 10 league games. Both Bayern and Leipzig have picked up 23 points from these encounters.
However, the significance of this statistic is another matter, as both sides' last competitive match was more than two months ago.
If we stick to the bare figures, the best home team (Leipzig, 19 points) meet the best away team in the league (Bayern, 17 points). Leipzig are still unbeaten at home, with six wins and a draw at the Red Bull Arena. And from Leipzig's point of view, that can't change, because the gap between third in the table and Bayern is already six points.
A defeat is, therefore, something they cannot really afford, especially with the competition for the Champions League places heating up. Eintracht Frankfurt, Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund are within striking distance of Leipzig.
Bayern and their goalkeeping problem
Bayern are naturally the favourites, and would of course love to pull away at the top of the table. Looking at their record against Leipzig, this seems quite realistic: they have won seven of their 12 Bundesliga meetings.
Only once have Leipzig come off the pitch victorious. This, however, was achieved at home. In the 2-1 win over Bayern in March 2018, Naby Keita and a certain Timo Werner, who has since returned to the club after a spell at Chelsea, scored for Leipzig.
In that defeat, Sven Ulreich held strong for Bayern, with Manuel Neuer absent through injury, as he is at the moment. Whether Ulreich starts again against Leipzig is still unclear. Because also Yann Sommer, who signed from Monchengladbach, could already take his position between the posts.
According to Julian Nagelsmann, the acclimatisation period for the Swiss "would take 15 minutes".
In addition to Neuer, Sadio Mane, Theo Hernandez and Noussair Mazraoui, other Bayern regulars are also out, with the defence down to the bare bones. As a result, they have signed Daley Blind to add more depth.
The last test was a high-scoring 4-4 draw against Salzburg, but it did not provide much information about Bayern's form. After the training camp in Doha, Bayern weren't up to scratch.
Nevertheless, Bayern will definitely be a force to be reckoned with. The hunger for success of the German World Cup players is huge, according to Joshua Kimmich.
The attack, built around Jamal Musiala, have scored 49 goals in 15 games and will want to pick up exactly where they left off before the winter break.
Leipzig miss their goal scorers
Leipzig's situation with their form is similar to that of the Munich side. After the last test against Czech first division team Mlada Boleslav (4-0), coach Marco Rose admitted the game doesn't mean too much.
"That was decent, but of course, it had little to do with Bayern today," he said.
Against the Czechs, Werner made his comeback after tearing his syndesmosis ligament, and capped it with a goal. Nevertheless, Werner will probably not be an option from the start against Bayern. David Raum will also not start against the champions, as he is suffering from ankle problems. However, the German international could possibly be brought on at some point.
This means that Leipzig are missing four top players - at least for the starting XI. In addition to the two players mentioned Peter Gulacsi (cruciate ligament tear) and Christopher Nkunku are also still missing. After tearing the lateral ligament in his knee, Leipzig must continue to wait for their top scorer to return (12 goals this season).
However, the Leipzig squad still have enough quality to make up for their absentees. Andre Silva, who has only scored two goals in the Bundesliga, scored twice in the friendly against Eintracht Frankfurt at the beginning of January. He will probably start up front.
The match against Bayern will be big for Konrad Laimer. Talks are underway between the sides about a summer transfer that has been in the offing for a long time. By kick-off, the transfer could already be wrapped up.
Our conclusion
Flashscore prediction: Two top teams face off against each other, but both sides are missing some classy players. Without their top scorers, Nkunku and Werner (four goals), Leipzig's attack looks too toothless to overcome a weakened Bayern defence several times. But that will probably be necessary to come off the pitch victorious.
Bayern will score against the Leipzig defence despite the absence of Mane, and their attacking individual quality will be a bit too strong for Leipzig.
Final score: Leipzig 1-2 Bayern
