Bundesliga Lazio draw after Bayern win in the top game
FC Bayern wishes all fans a “Merry Christmas”. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
FC Bayern is lucky. In the round of 16 of the Champions League there will be no quick reunion with Kylian Mbappé, but a duel with Lazio Rome. The boardroom is sending signals for winter deals.
After the Christmas party with a laser show and in red and white pointed caps, the Bayern stars around double packer Harry Kane received a nice present in the Champions League.
Lazio Rome is the comparatively low hurdle for the Munich team in the round of 16 of Europe’s premier football league in the new year. “We have already had positive experiences with Lazio,” said the satisfied Bayern captain Manuel Neuer the day after the top game statement in the 3-0 win against VfB Stuttgart. “We’re going into the games as favorites.”
As group winners, the Munich team will play the first leg between February 13th and 21st in Italy’s capital in the new edition of the round of 16 duel they clearly won from the 2020/21 season. The quarter-finalist will then be chosen in Munich between March 5th and 13th. “Rome, here we come,” said the smiling Thomas Müller. The 34-year-old was looking forward to “an exciting city” and a “time-honored” Olympic stadium. “So many battles have already been fought,” said the Bayern icon.
Bayern clearly won once before
As was the case three years ago with a 4-1 win in Rome and a 2-1 win in Munich, FC Bayern is once again the clear favorite against the team led by former BVB striker Ciro Immobile after a successful group phase with five wins and one draw. The Munich team was spared a quick and tricky reunion with Paris Saint-Germain around superstar Kylian Mbappé like in the round of 16 last season.
“If our team brings what they showed against Stuttgart onto the pitch, then we don’t need to be afraid of any opponent,” said President Herbert Hainer after the show of force against Stuttgart.
Neuer, who happily waved a huge Bayern flag in front of a sea of smartphone lights during the lap of honor, drew a conclusion for the year before the final task on Wednesday at VfL Wolfsburg. “Apart from the cup exit, we are absolutely on target,” said Neuer.
With a win in Wolfsburg and another in the catch-up game against 1. FC Union Berlin next year, “that would be a very good first half of the season,” said the 37-year-old in a very special comeback year for him. After “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night” in the Allianz Arena after the clear victory, Müller was also happy: “The Bayern soul is very caressed.”
Kane continues to increase the number of hits
Even badly decimated and without midfield centerpieces Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka at short notice, the Munich leaders Bayer Leverkusen cannot escape. A week after the 1:5 debacle at Eintracht Frankfurt, the gap is still four points with one game less. “An important win after last week. We gave a great answer,” said Kane after “probably the best performance of the season.” He shone again: goals 19 and 20 in the league this season.
Lazio should be another stopover on the way to the longed-for final in Kane’s hometown of London on June 1st next year. The next step is more difficult for Borussia Dortmund in the duel with PSV Eindhoven and even more difficult for RB Leipzig against Real Madrid. “It will be very attractive games, we are really looking forward to it,” said Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund about his own knockout test.
Exciting question about winter new arrivals
There is much to suggest that there will be winter reinforcements in the ensemble for Bayern’s knockout duels against coach Maurizio Sarri’s team. “We will sit down for the next few days and think about what we are going to do in the winter,” said Supervisory Board Chairman Hainer.
But nothing will be done just to fill up the squad, said Hainer. “We’ve done that one time or another in the past. Then we realized that it wasn’t working and we certainly won’t do that this time.” Recently, the winter additions of Daley Blind and João Cancelo did not help as hoped.
Above all, the sparse defense, from which goal scorer Minjae Kim stood out, should be strengthened. “The squad is small, but on the other hand there is the chance for people from the second row to show what they can do. They did that brilliantly,” said Hainer. Like Aleksandar Pavlovic did. It remains to be seen whether the 19-year-old homegrown player will play again in Wolfsburg as a representative of Kimmich or Goretzka.
“We played very well in the preliminary round,” said Hainer. At the end of a wild year with a change of coach and board, the 69-year-old was already looking forward to the turn of the year even before the lucky draw for Lazio. “You can see a clearly positive development.”
dpa
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