Without a goal in his last two Bundesliga outings, Robert Lewandowski has Borussia Mönchengladbach firmly in his crosshairs as Bayern Munich travel to take on the league leaders on Saturday (kick-off: 3.30pm CET/2.30pm GMT/9.30am ET).


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Gladbach have been one of the revelations of the season, their free-flowing, attacking style of play under new boss Marco Rose handing them nine wins from 13 league assignments to date. As such, the Foals will approach this one with confidence, especially as they have the best home record in the Bundesliga in 2019/20, with five wins, one draw and one defeat so far. Rose has a virtually full squad to choose from and although he rarely tinkers with a winning team, one change from last week’s 4-2 victory over Freiburg will be Matthias Ginter’s return at centre-back following injury, with Tony Jantschke set to make way for the Germany international. Up front, in-form trio Patrick Herrmann, Breel Embolo and Marcus Thuram are expected to lead the line once more.

Bayern are currently four points behind their hosts after the surprise 2-1 reverse at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Matchday 13, the team’s first defeat of the Hansi Flick era. Lewandowski missed a couple of big chances in that game and will be more determined than ever to add to his league-leading 16 goals this weekend, unaccustomed as he is to firing blanks. Flick is expected to stick with the same XI that began against Leverkusen, meaning Alphonso Davies should continue at left-back given the ongoing absences of Niklas Süle and Lucas Hernandez, with Philippe Coutinho, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Müller in attacking midfield.

Match stats
Gladbach are top of the table with 28 points; they were only in a better position after 13 matches in the 1976/77 season, when they had 33 points from 10 wins and three draws. That year, they went on to win the title.
The last time they hosted Bayern as league leaders was that same season, when they won 1-0 on 11 December with a goal from Allan Simonsen.
No other Bundesliga club have earned as many points against Bayern as Gladbach have since 2014 (14 points from 10 games), while their total of 20 home wins against Bayern is a league best against the record champions.
Lewandowski has scored only four times in 15 games against Gladbach, losing seven of those, drawing two and winning just six.
Bayern are in an identical position to where they were one year ago: Fourth position, 24 points, seven wins, three draws and three defeats.
Defeat for Bayern would see them fall seven points adrift of the league leaders. They had the same gap to the top in February 2019, before fighting back to successfully defend their title.
Between 1969 and 1977, Bayern (1969, 1972, 1973 and 1974) and Gladbach (1970, 1971, 1975 and 1977) shared the Bundesliga title between them.

Probable line-ups

Gladbach: Sommer (c) – Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini – Benes, Kramer, Zakaria – Herrmann, Embolo, Thuram
Out: Poulsen (ankle)
Doubtful: –
Coach: Marco Rose

Bayern: Neuer (c) – Pavard, Martinez, Alaba, Davies – Kimmich – Gnabry, Goretzka, Müller, Coutinho – Lewandowski
Out: Arp (fractured wrist), Hernandez (ankle), Süle (torn ACL)
Doubtful: –
Coach: Hansi Flick