The ultimate dress rehearsal: RBL away at FC Bayern | OneFootball

With just one week to go until the competitive season gets underway with an away game in Trier in the DFB-Pokal, the Red Bulls face the toughest possible final test of pre-season: a trip to the Allianz Arena to take on the German champions.

FC Bayern await in the Telekom Cup on Saturday (15:30 CEST), while Micho will be returning to a place he knows very well.

Time for the next chapter

RB Leipzig and FC Bayern met three times last season, with the Munich side coming out on top on each occasion. RBL lost 6-0 at the Allianz Arena on the opening day of the Bundesliga season before FC Bayern won the return fixture 5-1 in Leipzig. A trip to Munich in the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals then ended in a 2-0 defeat.

The Red Bulls have much happier memories of the Allianz Arena too, however. RBL beat FC Bayern 3-0 in the 2023 Supercup, with Dani Olmo scoring a hat-trick to fire Leipzig to the first Supercup triumph in the club’s history.

There are no points or DFB-Pokal progress at stake this time, but Micho still wants to see his side take another step in the right direction with the trip to Trier just a week away. Following the 2-0 defeat at Leeds United, our head coach made clear what he expects: “We need to make progress over the next two weeks.”

12 years in Munich: Micho returns

Saturday’s trip will be a special one for Micho. The Argentine played for FC Bayern from 2003 to 2011 before later returning as a coach, working with the club’s U19s and reserve team between 2019 and 2022.

12 years in the city brought plenty of games and plenty of memories, but our head coach is firmly focused on the present: “I lived in Munich for 12 years. But I’m at RB Leipzig now, and what matters to me is doing a good job here.”

Once the game gets underway, the focus will be entirely on the task at hand. With the cup opener just a week away, Micho will be looking to get his side another step closer to competitive sharpness.

Final preparations

The travelling is over for now and RBL have entered the final phase of pre-season. Following the training camp in Saalfelden and the friendly at Leeds United, the Red Bulls are back working at Cottaweg.

“We have a week with a slightly lighter workload, so we can focus more on our tactics and game-based drills,” explained Micho.

FC Bayern have also returned from their Audi Summer Tour of South Korea and Hong Kong and are now back at Säbener Straße preparing for their final games before the competitive season begins.

The two sides even have identical pre-season records so far, with three wins from four games apiece. Vincent Kompany’s side began with a 2-1 defeat to SV Wehen Wiesbaden, before beating FC Rottach-Egern 15-0 and recording 2-1 wins over both Jeju SK and Aston Villa on their tour of Asia.

Manuel Neuer has made it clear that FC Bayern will be taking their remaining friendlies seriously too: “We still have some warm-up games before the Supercup. We’re taking them very seriously.”

Team news

Ismael Saibari, Jamal Musiala, Alphonso Davies, Lennart Karl and Serge Gnabry have all been back in team training with FC Bayern since the start of the week.

Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Dayot Upamecano have joined pre-season later following their extended World Cup campaigns. It remains to be seen whether the trio will be involved on Saturday and, if so, how many minutes they might get.

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