Augsburg vs Bayern Munich

Injury-hit Bayern Munich head to the WWK Arena to take on Bundesliga surprise package Augsburg in an exciting league encounter.

Augsburg remain firmly in contention for European qualification, boasting the Bundesliga’s longest ongoing unbeaten run (W6, D5), with their 11-game streak setting a club record in the top flight. A frustrating 1-1 draw with struggling Hoffenheim ended an impressive run of five consecutive clean sheets for Jess Thorup’s men, leaving them three points adrift of sixth-placed RB Leipzig. Their last Bundesliga loss came at home in mid-January against Stuttgart, and with just three goals scored in four home outings since, confidence isn’t high for overcoming Bayern Munich. Augsburg may need to lean on the division’s joint-best home defense to secure points, though they can take encouragement from winning two of the last three league H2Hs on home turf (L1).

On the other hand, Bayern Munich squeaked past bottom-half St. Pauli 3-2 last weekend to preserve a healthy-looking six-point lead over second-placed Bayer Leverkusen. With no team squandering such an advantage at this stage of a Bundesliga title race in the three-points-per-win era, Vincent Kompany seems well on course to lead the Rekordmeister to the title in his first season in charge. However, the runaway leaders have been wasteful on the road, with 11 of their 16 dropped Bundesliga points coming away from home. Seven of those were against top-eight sides (W3, D2, L1), suggesting they can’t take anything for granted. However, the Bavarians have emerged victorious from all four Friday-held Bundesliga matches this season, including a 3-0 win in November’s reverse fixture.