Bundesliga: Bayern take on relegation threatened Arminia as Dortmund breathe down their neck

(Football news) Bayern will look to brush off their disappointing loss to Augsburg last week as they face relegation Arminia in what has become a must win match. The last time these two sides met in February, there was a surprising 3-3 draw. For Bayern, they will be coming off an important victory over Dynamo Kiev, winning 2-1 courtesy of Robert Lewandowski’s wonderful bicycle kick. For Nagelsmann, his side is suffering from a COVID-19 outbreak as Josuha Kimmich, Niklas Sule, Eric Choupo Moting, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala and Michael Cuisance will be under quarantine and most likely miss this clash. Bayern is also dealing with the mounting crisis for having unvaccinated players as footballers are refusing the vaccine over concerns of having long term side effects.

Dortmund have a golden opportunity to maintain pressure on their main rivals provided they win against the in-form VFL Wolfsburg. Marco Rose’s side were handed a shock in the Champions League as they lost to Sporting Lisbon 3-1, which subsequently meant that they were knocked out of the Champions League also. Dortmunds win over Stuttgart meant that BVB are an all or nothing team, while they have lost three of their first 12 matches – the same amount as Koln way down in 12th place – no team in the division has won more encounters than their nine. Despite being far from perfect, this Dortmund team remains in the mix for the time being. For Wolfsburg, their season has been eventful so far as they were on top of the league with four consecutive victories but then lost four on the bounce and decided to part ways with Van Bommel. Florian Kohfedlt has got off to a fine start at the Volkswagen Arena. Wolfsburg have taken seven points from a possible nine since he took over.

For Dortmund, they will miss the services of Erling Haaland and Gio Reyna with long term injuries, Thorgan Hazard is also expected to miss this important clash after getting COVID-19. For Wolfsburg most of their squad is expected to be fit as Hazard's international teammate Koen Casteels also tested positive for Coronavirus. Wolfsburg will again heavily rely on Lukas Nmecha and Wout Weghorst to produce the goods.

The fixture of the week will probably be between RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen as the match will be played under empty stadiums after Leipzig is on the front line of the latest wave of the pandemic in Germany in the eastern state of Saxony, where infection rates are the highest and vaccination rates the lowest compared to other regions. For Leipzig, they will be under immense confidence as they demolished Club Brugge 5-0, Jesse Marsch will be hoping the same form continues in the league as well but questions will remain over the future of Marsch as the club is seventh in the Bundesliga table and was unable to qualify for the Champions League knockout rounds. Bayer Leverkusen arrives with a mental jerk after beating Bochum 1-0. In the last few days they have endured 2 defeats and 2 draws.

In the last 5 meetings that they faced against each other in the tournament, Leipzig have won 2 times and 3 matches ended in a tie. The hosts are currently in seventh place with 18 points and 5 wins, while the visitor reached 21 points and placed fourth in the tournament.

Also read: UEFA Champions League: Ajax striker makes Champions League history with a brace against Besiktas

The other fixtures are: