Bayern Munich vs. Hannover: The champions look ahead to next season
Bayern Munich will take on Hannover at the Allianz Arena in what will be Pep Guardiola’s last Bundesliga match on Saturday afternoon.
The Spanish tactician will officially sign off on his three-year reign on May 21st, when he will hope to guide Bayern Munich to victory over Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal. Despite ensuring that die Roten remained at the pinnacle of German football, he was unable to lead them to European glory as the team crashed out of the Champions League semi-finals three seasons in a row.
As a result, the critics have come out in full force, and even if he can win another domestic double, this will not be enough to appease his detractors. However, it is what it is, and Guardiola will hope to have another chance at conquering the bigger stage with Manchester City next season. For the immediate time, however, he and Bayern Munich will want to conclude this campaign by cruising to an easy win in front of their home support.
In theory, it should be pretty straightforward. They have not lost against their upcoming opponents Hannover since October 2011, whilst conceding just four goals since then. In addition, top goalscorer Robert Lewandowski is also chasing a personal record of his own The Polish star has 29 goals and is now the league’s top foreign goalscorer since Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s haul from the 2011/2012 term. Should he score on Saturday, he would become the first player to score 30 since Dieter Muller netted 34 back in the 1976/1977 season.
Furthermore, Hannover have already been relegated to the second tier. Next season will be the first time since the 2002 season that the team, also nicknamed die Roten, will be featuring in the 2. Bundesliga. It has been a truly miserable campaign for the side and their fans, who have had three different coaches on the bench, and the latest, Daniel Stendel, only arrived this past April.
Although Stendel’s side arrive in Munich having picked up a 1-0 win against Hoffenheim, Hannover have been stuck at the bottom of the table since the start of 2016. And should they manage to somehow beat Bayern Munich, it will truly be a shock – and a long time coming. How long? Well, the last (and only) time the bottom ranked side beat the top team was in January 1964, when Saarbrucken beat Cologne 3-1 after four matchdays.
Yes, we have seen some shocking things happen in football. Leicester City won the Premier League title, for instance. But Hannover are highly unlikely to spoil Bayern’s party this Saturday. They not only have lost their past eight consecutive matches against Bayern Munich but also have overall lost 36 Bundesliga games versus their opponents. By comparison, their worst performance against any other Bundesliga side is 29 matches lost.
Bayern Munich have historically concluded their Bundesliga seasons on a high note. For the past nine consecutive years, they not only have won their last home game of the season, but have also managed to keep clean sheets in the past four.
So will die Roten conclude their history-making season with a comfortable win? Or will Hannover pull off what would be the biggest shock of the 2015/2016 Bundesliga season this Saturday?
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