Bayern Munich will be expected to bounce back from their shock defeat at Augsburg last weekend when they return to Bundesliga action against Arminia Bielefeld at the Allianz Arena on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, the visitors head to the champions with very little expectation of a result, despite picking up four points from their last two matches after a poor start to the campaign.
Match preview
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Bayern proved they were human once again last Friday in their 2-1 loss at the hands of relegation-threatened Augsburg, in what was Julian Nagelsmann's third defeat across all competitions since taking over at the Allianz Arena in the summer.
Despite blowing the majority of their opposition away so far this season, the Bavarians have shown that even they are capable of an off day, with the shock defeat to Augsburg adding to the unexpected home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga and the humiliating 5-0 loss to Borussia Monchengladbach in the DFB-Pokal at the end of October.
However, unless these astonishing setbacks become more frequent, they will do little to disrupt the breathtaking displays and results achieved by this dominant side in their quest for a 10th straight Bundesliga title.
The 2-1 victory over Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League on Tuesday saw the league leaders return to winning ways, although the performance was far from perfect once more.
Robert Lewandowski and Kingsley Coman had given Bayern a comfortable 2-0 advantage at half time following a dominant first-half display, but a drop off in performance levels in the second half allowed their Ukrainian hosts to half the deficit and threaten to take a share of the points.
Nagelsmann's side hung on to make it five wins from five in Europe though, which confirmed their progression as group winners, but the former RB Leipzig boss will be keen for his team to put in a much-improved display on Saturday evening, where a big win will be expected at the Allianz Arena.
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Meanwhile, Bielefeld head to Munich on Saturday with the same outlook as most sides do - little expectation and no pressure with the view of enjoying the occasion that promotion to the German top flight earns.
However, Bielefeld boss Frank Kramer will be disappointed that the trip to the league leaders has arrived at this point in his side's season though, with Die Arminen performing at their best levels of the campaign so far.
Even though those improved performances have arrived over only a two-game spell, it did not take much to improve on their dreadful start to the 2021-22 Bundesliga season, with no wins recorded inside the opening 10 fixtures and just six goals scored during that time.
A 1-0 victory over fellow-strugglers Stuttgart prior to the international break put an end to the winless run, before Bielefeld followed that up with a positive 2-2 draw with Champions League side Wolfsburg on the return from the break last weekend.
Although, considering goals from Masaya Okugawa and Fabian Klos had given his side an unexpected 2-0 lead inside 54 minutes, Kramer will have undoubtedly been extremely frustrated with the manner of which a potentially vital three points had been thrown away.
Two goals in two minutes from the Wolves just after the hour mark meant that their two-goal deficit had been taken away in the blink of an eye, but in a positive outlook, it can still be viewed as a well-earned point against strong opposition.
Those four points across the last two league fixtures have not altered Bielefeld's position of 17th in the table, but it has at least clawed them closer to safety after appearing doomed three weeks ago.
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Team News
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An outbreak of COVID-19 has slightly hampered Bayern's plans in the build up to Saturday's encounter, with Joshua Kimmich, Josip Stanisic, Michael Cuisance and Eric Choupo-Moting testing positive for the virus and expected to miss out as a result.
Serge Gnabry and Jamal Musiala have also been absent due to COVID-19 protocols, so could also miss out at the Allianz Arena.
Tanguy Nianzou's shoulder injury picked up in Ukraine on Tuesday adds to the injuries of Marcel Sabitzer and Lucas Hernandez to leave Bayern limited in options outside of their inevitably strong starting 11.
Meanwhile, the visitors have just the two absentees to contend with ahead of the trip to Munich, with Florian Kruger's illness and Lennart Czyborra's appendix problem keeping the duo out.
Patrick Wimmer has recovered from the injury that saw him replaced after half an hour against Wolfsburg, so Kramer could name an unchanged lineup from that game.
Bayern Munich possible starting lineup:
Neuer; Pavard, Upamecano, Sule, Davies; Tolisso, Goretzka; Coman, Muller, Sane; Lewandowski
Arminia Bielefeld possible starting lineup:
Ortega; Brunner, Pieper, Nilsson, Laursen; Prietl, Vasiliadis; Wimmer, Schopf, Okugawa; Klos
We say: Bayern Munich 5-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Instead of trying to predict the outcome of this match, many will instead be trying to predict how wide the winning margin will be for Bayern over Bielefeld.
Many visitors stand little chance of achieving any kind of a result at the Allianz Arena, so considering the struggles of Bielefeld, it will largely be a task of damage limitation on Saturday, but we are predicting a thoroughly comprehensive victory for Bayern to returning to winning ways in the Bundesliga.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bayern Munich win with a probability of 87.24%. A draw had a probability of 8.4% and a win for Arminia Bielefeld had a probability of 4.34%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bayern Munich win was 3-0 with a probability of 10.11%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 4-0 (8.92%) and 2-0 (8.61%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (3.7%), while for an Arminia Bielefeld win it was 1-2 (1.4%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 4.9% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Bayern Munich would win this match.
