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Berlin, Dec. 3, (GNA/dpa) – Bayern Munich’s unbeaten season record is under threat on Saturday when they visit Borussia Moenchengladbach, the only Bundesliga team not to have a losing record against the champions over the past four seasons.
Gladbach have won three, drawn two and lost three in the period – winning both games in 2011-12 and drawing at home and winning in Munich in the past campaign en route to a third-place finish.
The former champions had a terrible start into the new season by losing the first five games which prompted the resignation of Coach Lucien Favre.
They have rebounded since, under Andre Schubert, unbeaten in the following nine games of which they have won seven to rank fourth with 23 points.
That however is 17 less than Munich who have won all games apart from a goalless draw at Eintracht Frankfurt for a league-record 40 points after 14 games.
Bayern are eight points clear of Borussia Dortmund and will clinch the unofficial winter title at the halfway mark of the season with two games to spare if they win at Gladbach.
But the hosts are determined to keep up the positive trend against Munich, according to forward Raffael who scored both goals in last season’s 2-0 in Munich.
“We have played well against Bayern lately and will do everything that it stays that way,” he told Thursday’s Kicker sports magazine.
“We don’t have to talk about who is the favourite. It is the best team in the world, but even Bayern are beatable. Every game has its own story.”
Raffael said Gladbach won’t defend with 10 men like others including Frankfurt have done against Bayern but rather “play without fear and attack with courage.”
Munich’s Thomas Mueller, who has already matched his previous season-best mark with 13 goals this time around, is aware that “Gladbach have been a tough opponent for us in the past years, we have dropped some points against them.”
But the Germany forward also said that he and Munich are aiming to make history not only with a fourth straight league title.
“It is definitely our aim to go unbeaten all season,” Mueller said, as no team has so far managed this feat in the league’s 52-year history.
Munich could also be assured of hibernating at the top of the table if they don’t win, provided that Dortmund drop points in a Saturday trip to third-placed Wolfsburg.
Dortmund boast the league top scorer in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who raised his tally to 17 with a double in Sunday’s 4-1 against Stuttgart which got Dortmund back on track after a 3-1 loss at SV Hamburg and a Europa League 1-0 defeat at Kasnodar.
GNA
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