DUSSELDORF, Germany (AP) – Bayern Munich are the team to beat in Germany. As european champions even more, and Robert Lewandowski knows it.
Lewandowski scored only 55 goals in 47 games last season, as Bayern won the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Champions League. At the age of 32, he remains a key player, the team around him is another with Leroy Sané and Thiago Alcantara as starters.
“If you play that well last season, then everyone is looking at you now and how you will be in the new season,” said Lewandowski, striker for Friday’s first game of the season. “And if you’re at the top, you have to paint. It’s harder to stay at the top longer and I think that’s the big challenge for us this season.
Like last year, Bayern’s main rivals are Leipzig, the only team that remained undefeated against Bayern last season, and Dortmund, whose young stars are gaining delight and maturity.
Bayern ended up winning the name through thirteen issues last season, but for the most of the crusade it was a much closer battle. The Munich team fell as low as 7 in December before recovering with coach Hansi Flick to win 19 of their last 20 league games and an eighth consecutive Bundesliga name.
Bayern will start at home against Schalke on Friday, before Dortmund play Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday and Leipzig receive Mainz on Sunday. Bayern will keep up with the matches against Sevilla in the European Super Cup on 24 September and against Dortmund in the Germany Super Cup six days later.
NO FANS
After the last crusade ends without supporters, an agreement between german politicians’ supporters on Tuesday to return to the stadiums for a six-week test at a maximum capacity of 20%, with one great exception.
Bayern sought out 7,500 enthusiasts on Friday, but broke a rule that helps keep stadiums closed if the local rate of coronavirus infection increases too much.
Matches with a partial crowd divided German vocal fan groups. Boycotts are rare, but many say they will not participate in any organized demonstrations on the team. dissatisfied with the perceived injustice of excluding enthusiasts and awarding the few tickets that could be obtained through the lottery.
NEW LOOK BAYERN
With only 4 weeks between the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain and the start of the new league season, it is unexpected that Bayern’s team has replaced little.
Striker Leroy Sané is nevertheless fit to play after signing for Manchester City in July and could make his debut against Schalke, the team he left in 2016. New signings have been excluded from the Champions League tournament. place his position in an attack that already features Lewandowski, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry.
Midfielder Thiago Alcantara left Bayern on Thursday after seven years for Liverpool and will be replaced. Three assignment firms have also evolved. Philippe Coutinho is back in Barcelona, with Ivan Perisic returning to Inter Milan and defender Alvaro Odriozola to Real Madrid.
THE YEAR OF DORTMUND?
Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho illuminated the Bundesliga last season: Haaland with thirteen goals in 15 games and Sancho with 17 goals and 17 assists, but the challenge of Dortmund’s name once returned disappointed by defensive fragility.
Perhaps surprisingly, Dortmund did buy a central, but he replaced right-back Achraf Hakimi, on loan from Real Madrid, by hiring the more experienced Thomas Meunier from Paris Saint-Germain.
Sancho remains a Dortmund player, so far, despite a determined attempt through Manchester United to buy it. Please note that the market is closed on 5 October.
The 17-year-old English midfielder, Jude Bellingham, looks like Dortmund’s next young feel after arriving from Birmingham and scored on his German Cup debut on Monday, but there is a lack of intensity lagging behind, with midfielder Emre Can selected in the draft. the center of the back for the cup party.
REPLACE WERNER
Leipzig’s race to the Champions League semi-finals was notable for a team founded just 11 years earlier, even with the monetary backing of energy drinks giant Red Bull, but masked a basic weakness for next season.
Without Werner, Leipzig’s two goals in the 2–1 quarter-final win over Atletico Madrid came from the midfielders, and the 3-0 loss in the semi-final to PSG could have been very different if ‘centre ahead Yussuf Poulsen missed a smart chance in the first half while left behind. 1-0.
New recruit Hwang Hee-chan as centre forward and scored in the first game of the new season in Leipzig, a 3-0 win over Nuremberg of the third department in the German Cup. The South Korean is Leipzig’s 17th recruit since 2012 from Red Bull. Austrian Club of Salzburg.
Known for his speed and incisive blows, Hwang is more in Werner’s mold, while Poulsen is an old-school center striker known for his head toe.
EXTERNAL CHALLENGES
Gladbach the team that surprised everyone last season in the Bundesliga.
At Bayern’s pothole with former coach Niko Kovac, Gladbach led at the start of the season and nevertheless secured the Champions League standings at the end of fourth. However, the pandemic has caused monetary tensions and the on loaned midfielder Valentino Lazaro is the highest notable. Signature.
Bayer Leverkusen, fifth last year, weakened in attack by promotion to Kai Havertz to Chelsea and Kevin Volland to Monaco, and filled the void with the signing of Roma striker Patrik Schick.
The generous financing of Hertha Berlin investor Lars Windhorst did not translate into giant spending in the off-season. Lucas Tousart is the highest notable arrival, this agreement was reached in January.
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AP Global Soccer editor Rob Harris in London contributed to the report.
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