As if Manchester United weren’t already the underdogs heading into their final Champions League group-stage match, the contest now has added incentive for Bayern Munich.
The German giants are on the back of being thoroughly humiliated in their most recent Bundesliga outing; a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of seventh-placed Eintracht Frankfurt away from home has left Bayern four points away from the top spot in the division – a place they’re so accustomed to occupying.
Prior to that, Bayern oversaw a goalless stalemate in their penultimate group-stage game versus Copenhagen. While they’d already qualified for the round of 16 ahead of kick-off, it saw their 17-game winning streak come to an abrupt end against unlikely opponents, though they still boast a 39-game unbeaten run in this stage of the competition.
Such a statistic won’t make for pleasant reading for the currently in-disarray Red Devils, whose last-16 fate is out of their hands. A win over Bayern could still see them fail to qualify, as they would need Copenhagen and Galatasaray’s showdown to end in a draw.
Muller’s rallying cry to Bayern squad
Unfamiliar with the feeling of two winless matches, Thomas Muller has urged his teammates to use their bitterness as fuel to overturn United convincingly at Old Trafford tomorrow night.
“They [Frankfurt] bullied us in the first half-hour. In the second half, we didn’t play effectively enough to come back, and then of course it becomes unpleasant from that point on,” Muller said, as quoted by Manchester Evening News.
“There has to be a reaction following this. We need to tap into our anger – but we can’t lose our heads.
“I didn’t get the feeling that we didn’t want it, but Frankfurt definitely pushed harder and got their way. We’ll come back stronger, but we don’t have much time.”
