Bayern face Leverkusen while Dortmund vs Mainz gets cancelled

(Football News) Bayern face a difficult test against Bayer Leverkusen who are going into the match in top form. The German champions are well on track to record their 10th consecutive league title after extending their lead at the top of the table. With BVB's fixture at Mainz 05 on Sunday being postponed, Bayern have a chance to further extend their advantage to 11 points by the end of the week. Not only will the result have pleased Nagelsmann though, a first clean sheet in six games will have also been by the boss after a relatively wobbly period for his defence during the absence of their captain Manuel Neuer in recent weeks.

Despite facing a tough opponent on Saturday, Bayern will still be expected to make it three wins in a row when Leverkusen come to the Allianz Arena, especially when the recent results against Bayern haven’t gone their way at all. The last time they met, they were on the end of 5-1 hammering against their opponents back at the BayArena in October which was a statement victory for Bayern and was a wake up call for Leverkusen in their early-season title challenge at the time. Since then both sides seemed to have their ups and downs in the season as they have picked up 16 from a possible 21 to begin the year meaning that the Die Werkself find themselves in third place ahead of this crucial encounter. For Bayern, Alphonso Davies remains unavailable for the foreseeable future as Goretzka and Corentin Tolisso are also ruled out due to knee and hamstring injuries.

The Bundesliga game between Mainz and Borussia Dortmund has been pushed to March 16 as both the teams had multiple COVID-19 cases in its squad. The German league rules state that a match can be postponed if a team has fewer than 16 players available, one of whom must be a goalkeeper. Subsequently, nineteen members of the first-team set-up have tested positive, including 13 players and head coach Bo Svensson.

Dortmund team manager Sebastian Kehl said the decision to postpone the game was "understandable" and that the health rules in place allowed for "a fair competition".

RB Leipzig take on Freiburg which is a crucial encounter for the last Champions League position in the league. Leipzig's transformation under Domenico Tedesco has been tremendous as they won two further matches over the past week, in what has been an excellent start to 2022 anyways. With participation in both the DFB-Pokal and the Europa League still ongoing, Die Roten Bullen prepare for already their 12th fixture of the year already when they face Freiburg

The fixture congestion has done little to halt Leipzig's progression, as they are into the round of 16 in the Europa League followed by their qualification into the DFB-Pokal semi-finals after the comfortable 4-0 victory over Hannover. Christopher Nkunku has been instrumental this season as the Frenchman netted his 24th and 25th goals of the season against lower-league opposition. For Freiburg, they made it three straight wins in a row after they won against Bochum in the DFB-Pokal and will be looking to continue this form.

Also read: Napoli take on AC Milan as Inter can capitalise on any drop points

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