Matchday 11 of the Bundesliga sees Bayern Munich travel to Sinsheim as they play Hoffenheim on Saturday afternoon. Julian Nagelsmann’s side have turned their form around as of late while Hoffenheim are a rejuvenated team under manager André Breitenreiter compared to last season.
Hoffenheim won both their games in the league and the DFB Pokal as they faced Schalke. In the first meeting in Gelsenkirchen, Hoffenheim won 3-0 with a brace from Robert Skov and a goal from Munas Dabbur. The second meeting was at the PreZero Arena where this time Hoffenheim tore apart Schalke and won 5-1 – Dabbur grabbed himself a brace while Angelino and Ozcan Kabak scored their first goals for Hoffenheim and Pavel Kaderabek grabbed the fifth. That result would ultimately see the dismissal of Frank Kramer at S04.
Bayern are also on a two-game winning streak. Last Sunday they beat Freiburg 5-0 in a dominating performance which was a carbon copy of the performances Bayern put together at the start of the season. Serge Gnabry opened the scoring in the 13th minute before Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Leroy Sané, Sadio Mané and Marcel Sabitzer all scored for the Bavarians. Then in the Pokal, Bayern faced Augsburg and were wanting to avenge their loss from a couple of weeks ago. After going down to a Mads Pedersen goal, Choupo-Moting equalised before Bayern went on to win 5-2 with a Dayot Upamecano own goal only giving Augsburg a slightly chance of a comeback before Bayern ran away.
Bundesliga Predictions | Round 11 – Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen host Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich face an in-form Hoffenheim
With Manuel Neuer sidelined, it leaves Bayern with Sven Ulreich in goal, who in his appearances for Bayern has not been the most reliable goalkeeper. If Bayern want to continue their dominant performance and beat Hoffenheim they will need him to be as reliable as he can. Speaking ahead of Saturday’s game, Nagelsmann also confirmed that they will be without Thomas Müller.
Hoffenheim will be another challenge for Bayern as they have the third best defence in the league having only conceded 10 goals this season, the absence of Kevin Vogt will leave the defence somewhat inexperienced, which Bayern will hope to capitalise on. Vogt’s absence may also see Breitenreiter make a tactical switch.
In the two meetings last season, Bayern went unbeaten. In the first meeting at the Allianz Arena, they comfortably beat Hoffenheim 4-0 with very little threat from the away side. The return game was a different story as TSG opened the scoring through Christoph Baumgartner before Robert Lewandowski equalised.
Predicted Lineups:
Hoffenheim:
Baumann – Akpoguma, Kabak, Nsoki – Skov, Geiger, Prömel, Baumgartner, Angelino – Rutter, Dabbur
Bayern Munich:
Ulreich – Pavard, Upamecano, de Ligt, Davies – Kimmich, Goretzka – Coman, Musiala, Mané – Choupo-Moting
GGFN | Jack Meenan
