The defense of Bayern Munich will have to be overhauled on Saturday for the visit of Nage St. Pauli after injuries to Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano.
The Bundesliga leaders, who will be confronted with Inter in the Champions League quart finals next month, have gone two league matches without a victory and their lead on the second Bayer Leverkusen placed is cut.
Bayern was at the forefront with 62 while reigning champions are Leverkusen at 56 points. Mainz is in third place with 45.
They have to re-arrange their rear after left back Davies had sustained a front cruciate ligament crack during the 2-1 victory of Canada over the United States in the Concacaf Nations League on Sunday.
The 24-year-old will miss the rest of the season in a big blow to the plans of Bayern Coach Vincent Kompany.
Bayern will also be a few weeks without Center-Back Upamecano after he sustained a knee injury during the quarterfinals triumph of France in the Nations League about Croatia.
The couple has been crucial for the striking, fast transition game of Kompany, with likely replacements Eric Dier, Josip Stanisic or Hiroki Ito without their recovery well.
Kompany reconfigured his defense, however, Bayern wants to avoid another house debacle after their 3-2 loss against Bochum previous time-out in the Allianz Arena, after he led 2-0. They followed that with a 1-1 draw at Union Berlin prior to the international break.
Despite their damage to an injury, Bayern will not admit to their elevated goals, said sports director Max Eberl.
“The absence of Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano are a big blow to Bayern,” said Eberl.
“But our team is strong enough and will make up for these absences.
“This will bring us even closer together. We have the quality to stay focused on all our important goals this season.”
On Saturday, Harry Kane offers the opportunity to write history, with 97 targeted involvement (76 goals, 21 assists) in all competitions since he came to Bayern. He could become the fastest player (since 2008-09) to reach 100 for the Bavarian giants.
Kane has greatly surpassed its total of 64.25 expected goals (XG) and has a conversion rate of 24.28% of 313 shots since he is a member of Bayern's last campaign.
He is also on average a goal for the 34.7 touches. For comparison: Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe scores every 59.3 touches, Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski every 42.4 touches and Liverpool Mohamed Salah every 67.3.
Kane has had 439 touches in the opposition box while he is in Bayern. He has scored 71 goals from the area (more than any other player in Europe's top five competitions since the beginning of 2023-24), which means that he has a goal every 6.2 touches in the area on average.
Bayern's Chief Rivals Leverkusen, who needed a winner of the stopping time to overcome Stuttgart 4-3 on the last match day, have the chance to stack the pressure when they host Bochum on Friday.
With 56 points from 26 games, this is the second best Bundesliga campaign from Leverkusen after gathering 70 points last season.
The market, however, are six points on drift of the first place, three points for a victory were introduced, only Stuttgart destroyed such a shortage in a Bundesliga season in a Bundesliga season in 2006-07 (seven points behind after match day 26) to win the title.
Surprise package Mainz, meanwhile, visits Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, with the hosts Kwijnen in 11th place and with a serious risk of missing the Champions League of next season.
With only six points of his first six Bundesliga matches that are in charge, Niko Kovac has made the worst start of every Dortmund coach since Jurgen Rober in 2007 (who also achieved two wins and four losses).
After gathering only 10 points of nine games, this is the worst second half of a Bundesliga campaign from BVB since 2007-08 (also 10), and their 35 points after 26 match days are the least in this stage in 10 years (33 in 2014-15).
Dortmund will be confronted with Barcelona next month in their quarterfinals of Champions League.
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