FC Augsburg vs Bayern Munich Preview

Bayern Munich will return to Bundesliga action this Friday when they travel to the WWK Arena to face Augsburg.

The in-form hosts remain in the hunt for European qualification thanks to their current unbeaten run, which is the longest in the Bundesliga currently (W6, D5). Their run of 11 matches without defeat is also a club record in the top-flight. A disappointing 1-1 draw with strugglers Hoffenheim in their last outing ended a streak of five successive clean sheets for Jess Thorup’s men, though, while it also prevented them from moving to within a point of the top six.

That said, Augsburg will be mildly confident of securing a good result here given that their last Bundesliga defeat came at home in mid-January against Stuttgart (1-0). However, a return of just four goals scored in as many such outings hardly inspires confidence they can take down the mighty Bayern Munich here.

The hosts may well have to rely on the division’s joint-best home defence to earn them points here, but encouragement can be found from the fact they’ve won two of the last three league H2Hs on their own turf (L1).

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich will look to record a more straightforward win when they take on Augsburg on Friday. The Bavarians scraped past relegation-threatened St Pauli 3-2 last week, preserving their six-point lead over reigning champions Bayer Leverkusen.

No team has ever squandered such an advantage in a Bundesliga title race at this stage in the three-points-per-win era. Still, things could go any way, as manager Vincent Kompany will have to manage workloads as this fixture is followed by their Champions League quarter-final against Inter Milan and a crunch meeting with Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker.

Kompany’s side tend to be more vulnerable on the road, with 11 of the 16 Bundesliga points they’ve dropped this term coming in away matches. Incidentally, seven of those came against sides who sit in the top-eight alongside Augsburg (W3, D2, L1).

The Rekordmeister will be confident of adding another victory here as they’ve won all four Friday-held league matches this season – including the reverse fixture – while remaining unbeaten in their last 12 such fixtures (W9, D3).

Other fixtures taking place this week in the German Bundesliga:

German Bundesliga Table