Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich: Lineups, team news, last minute injury updates, and more!
Having failed to settle the tie at the Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich travel to the Santiago Bernabeu hoping to beat Real Madrid on their home turf. It’s an unenviable situation to be in, made worse by the insane injury crisis that has hit the Bavarians in recent weeks.
Thomas Tuchel faces a near-impossible task. If he triumphs, all the failures of the last eighteen months will be forgotten. If he fails, then what was it all for?
Team news
Things could be better. Raphaël Guerreiro is out of the game with injury, as are Bouna Sarr, Kingsley Coman, and Sacha Boey. Matthijs de Ligt and Jamal Musiala returned to team training over the weekend and are potential options to start, as are the semi-injured Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry.
Who’s going to start? Well, we have the following report by Bild:
Aleksandar Pavlović was in the 'A' team in today's final training session and played alongside Konrad Laimer in midfielder, which means that Leon Goretzka would start on the bench tomorrow. In attack, Sané, Musiala and Gnabry were also in the A team behind Harry Kane. So Thomas…
— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) May 7, 2024
Aleksandar Pavlović was in the ‘A’ team in today’s final training session and played alongside Konrad Laimer in midfield, which means that Leon Goretzka would start on the bench tomorrow. In attack, Sané, Musiala and Gnabry were also in the A team behind Harry Kane. So Thomas Müller would start on the bench. Matthijs de Ligt and Eric Dier started at centre-back [@BILD]
Of course, Bild also made similar predictions based on the “training” lineup ahead of the first leg, and they turned out to be wrong.
The big surprises would be the inclusion of Serge Gnabry over Thomas Müller, and Aleksandar Pavlović ahead of Leon Goretzka in midfield. Goretzka did get subbed off early in the first leg, so maybe Tuchel sees him as a bad matchup for Madrid’s midfield, especially Jude Bellingham.
Thomas Müller, on the other hand, sat out the entire game against VfB Stuttgart, with the assumption that he was being rested for the 2nd leg at the Bernabeu. If that wasn’t the case, then why keep him on the bench for an entire 90 minutes?
Thomas Tuchel may yet have some surprises in store. For now, aside from Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Manuel Neuer, and Joshua Kimmich, no player can be considered a surefire starter. A likely lineup is listed below, but there are plenty of other combinations he could choose instead:
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