Bayern Munich, leaders of the Bundesliga and qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League (against Manchester City), must manage an internal problem when they face Bayer Leverkusen this Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
Photo credits: Sven Hoppe/dpa/IconSport
The Bavarian club will face the team of Spaniard Xabi Alonso, who has been leading the 9th in the German championship since October 2022. The 41-year-old coach, who spent time with Bayern Munich as a player between 2019 and 2022, won over in any case, through his work, a historical figure of the Bavarian club, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge: “Once we tried to bring him to Bayern as an assistant coach. I believe it was under Niko Kovac. When you have had incredible success everywhere (…) it would be amazing not to succeed as a coach. Xabi (Alonso) needs to gain experience now and it’s wise that he didn’t go straight to Real Madrid but rather a tier or two below.”
The Spaniard, in a press conference, revealed to have “great memories” at Bayern Munich, while confirming to be “very happy” in Leverkusen, where his contract runs until 2024.
Angry Nagelsmann
For his part, Julian Nagelsmann, whose lease expires in 2026, is clearly worried as much about the training of Xabi Alonso as the revelations about his Bayern game plans in Sport-Bild. In front of the media, the 35-year-old German made a revelation about an infiltrator in his locker room: “Moles are a protected species so research is very, very complicated. What matters to me is being able to look at myself in the mirror. This person (the mole), she will have a hard time looking at herself in the mirror. What does the person transmitting this aim for, what does he hope for? I don’t see what the motivation could be.”
Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann was very annoyed that his game plans had leaked to the press. He accuses a “mole” inside his group of being behind these disclosures https://t.co/8GDuHdWHTv pic.twitter.com/Smgd9OFTxE
— THE TEAM (@theteam) March 17, 2023
Annoyed, Julian Nagelsmann confided that the leaks on his tactics “facilitate the task of the adversary”. Verdict this Sunday.