Bayern will look to increase their lead at the top as Dortmund face Frankfurt

(Football news) Bayern Munich will start the year off against the struggling Borussia Monchengladbach. Bayern will be bidding to make it eight straight wins in all competitions as they are nine points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund, while Monchengladbach occupy 14th spot, having struggled for consistency this season. Julian Nagelsmann's side have five straight Bundesliga victories, scoring nine and conceding zero in their last two matches against Stuttgart and Wolfsburg, which has subsequently left them at the top of the table with 43 points from 17 matches in the first half of the season. Robert Lewandowski is on fire this season, finding the net on 30 occasions in 25 appearances in all competitions, including 19 in 17 appearances in the Bundesliga. Monchengladbach are having a horrible season as they are without a victory in the Bundesliga since beating Greuther Furth on November 20, and are already tnine points off the top four.

For Bayern, there has been a coronavirus outbreak as Lucas Hernandez, Tanguy Nianzou, Manuel Neuer, Kingsley Coman, Corentin Tolisso, Leroy Sane, Dayot Upamecano and Omar Richards all tested positive for the virus. While for Gladbach Mamadou Doucoure, Joe Scally, Keanan Bennetts and Denis Zakaria have also tested positive for covid.

Dortmund will look to get their season back on track as they look to mount an unlikely title challenge when they face Eintracht Frankfurt in their first match of the new year. Frankfurt finished 2021 in excellent form by winning six of their last seven league games, whilst Dortmund finished the year poorly as they slipped further away from Bayern Munich at the summit. With Bayern unlikely to drop many more points in the second half of the campaign, Dortmund would be required to win almost all of their remaining fixtures. Dortmund's failure has been their away record this campaign which is evidence of their struggles away from Signal Iduna Park, they have recorded just 10 points from their first eight away matches this season, which certainly needs to improve in the second half of the campaign.

On the other hand their opponents have found a winning mojo ever since they were winless from their opening eight games in all competitions under new manager Oliver Glasner, but Frankfurt have since gone from strength to strength under their new Austrian boss. For Dortmund, Dan-Axel Zagadou will be out with Covid as fellow defenders Mateu Morey, Marcel Schmelzer, Manuel Akanj and Mats Hummels are doubtful for this clash.

RB Leipzig will be hoping that the new year brings new fortunes to their team as they face surprise package Mainz 05. The two sides are separated by one place and just two points in the table as new manager Domenico Tedesco will get that winning mentally back into the Red Bull club. Tedesco has had plenty of time over the last few weeks to analyse and prepare his players for his methods for the months ahead though, in order to lift last season's runners up back into the Champions league positions. For Leipzig they are just seven points behind Freiburg in third place, and with a win on Saturday potentially pulling them to within just two points of the first European spot

Also read: Bundesliga hits and misses of the 2021/22 season

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