Bayern vs Mainz: Neuer Out for Bundesliga Final

As the Bayern stars strolled to the fans wearing Christmas pointed hats and contrite expressions on their thank-you lap, captain Manuel Neuer could not be seen in the darkened arena. The goalkeeper suffered a torn muscle fiber in Munich’s mistake against bottom team FSV Mainz 05 and has to end the football year early.

Kane: Then we can look forward to 2026

Even without the captain, who was then represented by Jonas Urbig, FC Bayern Munich, who are still unbeaten in the Bundesliga, want to say goodbye to the Christmas holidays with a win on Sunday in Heidenheim. “Then it would be a fantastic start to the season and we can look forward to 2026,” said Harry Kane. With his late penalty goal, the 32-year-old saved at least one point when his former colleague Thomas Müller visited the VIP stand.

With RB Leipzig’s 1:3 at 1. FC Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund’s 1:1 at SC Freiburg, the Munich team even extended their lead in the table despite missing a win. The first round championship is practically already fixed. “If someone had told me that we would be nine points ahead of our first competitor after the 14th matchday, we would all have said: fantastic,” said sports director Max Eberl, taking stock. “We had an outstanding calendar year.”

Kimmich: Bayern has to improve that

The Munich team only lost once in the Bundesliga in 2025, at the beginning of March in a 2-3 defeat against VfL Bochum. After the upset against new coach Urs Fischer’s team, Eberl consoled himself with the knowledge that Bayern would probably have lost games like the one against Mainz last year (they actually lost against Mainz a year earlier to the day). “For us it means that we can tick this thing off relatively quickly and have taken the point,” said the 52-year-old.

“Today we didn’t quite turn it around,” said Joshua Kimmich, “but we feel that it is difficult to win against us.” However, the team must prevent standard situations, in which they have repeatedly been vulnerable, or otherwise defend them more strongly. “We definitely have to improve that so that we don’t fall behind so often or concede equalizers,” emphasized Kimmich.

World Cup Karl? So there is no way around him

After the opening goal for the oppressively superior Munich team by 17-year-old Lennart Karl (29th minute), the highly efficient guests surprisingly turned the game around through Kacper Potulski (45th + 1) and Jae-Sung Lee (67th). Kane hit back late with his 20th penalty goal in his 20th attempt in the Bundesliga.

Bayern are over the winter as league leaders and are also promisingly on course for the cup and Champions League. “That shows that we don’t have a blind team,” joked national team captain Kimmich. If a player like Karl is used regularly and scores, he is also a candidate for participation in the World Cup, emphasized Kimmich. “But it’s still half a year away and you have to consistently bring this performance onto the pitch.”

New Upamecano contract in the Advent calendar?

Like Neuer, substitute striker Nicolas Jackson is not with Munich for the time being due to his participation in the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal. According to Eberl, there is “not yet a tendency” for the striker, who is on loan from Chelsea, to be signed permanently.

The future of Dayot Upamecano is also still open. The Frenchman’s contract with FC Bayern Munich expires at the end of the season. Eberl predicted that he didn’t know “what was coming behind the individual doors in the Advent calendar.” An agreement on expensive poker before Christmas is “desirable, but I can’t promise that.”

Top international clubs are interested in the 27-year-old Upamecano. “Basically, I’m very confident,” said Eberl. “We’re talking well, this eye of the needle is getting smaller. My wish would be that he goes through the eye of the needle – and not past it.”