On Friday, January 22, Hamburger SV hosts Bayern Munich FC in a German Bundesliga week 18 fixture. The game will be played at the Volksparkstadion in the city of Hamburg and will kick off at 20:30 BST.
The hosts are currently 10th on the league table with 22 points from 17 games, while the visitors are top of the league table with 46 points from 17 games.
A win for the mid table side can see them move two places to 8th, while a defeat can see them drop to 12th place. The league leaders will retain their position at the summit of the table regardless of the outcome of this fixture.
Hamburger’s winless streak:
The hosts cannot win for love nor for money at the moment, losing five and drawing one of their last six games.
The Red Shorts, managed by Bruno Labbadia are in dismal form, with one draw and four defeats in their last five games. This single draw was against Wolfsburg in the league (1-1 on December 12).
The out of sorts side followed this draw with four consecutive defeats. These defeats were against Augsburg in the league (0-1 on December 19), and in three consecutive friendly games against Ajax (1-3 on January 9), FC Rot Weiss Efurt (1-2 on January 12), and Young Boys (1- 2 on January 15).
Bayern Munich dominance:
Bayern Munich were rampant in the league in the first half of the season, dropping only 5 pointsfrom a possible 51.
The Bavarians, managed by Pep Guardiola, are in very good form, with four wins and one defeat in their last five games in all competitions. This run of wins includes league victories against Ingolstadt (2-0 on December 12), and Hannover 96 (0-1 on December 19). They also defeated Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League (0-2 on December 9), and Darmstadt 98 in the DPB Pokal (1-0 on December 15).
The only recent defeat for the title favorites was the defeat to Karlsruher SC in a friendly match (2-1 on January 16).
Rene Adler is a very experienced goalkeeper, and will require all his experience and quality if his team is to have any chance of securing a positive result against the almighty Bayern Munich. The duo of Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller were in lethal form for Bayern in the first half of the season, scoring 15 and 14 goals respectively. It might be a very long night for the underdogs if these two are in the mood.
Hamburger SV will need to set up the barricades if they are to get a positive result in this game. I see the league leaders winning this game by a comfortable score line.