Bundesliga preview and tips: Bayern Munich to continue Stuttgart domination

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Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich travel to 15th-placed Stuttgart at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Saturday evening in what looks like a very uneven match-up.

Bayern have won on their last 12 visits to Stuttgart, with the hosts' last win being in November 2007, when they were the defending Bundesliga champions.

The return of coach Bruno Labbadia was made with the clear objective of saving the team from relegation, but has so far failed to bring any major improvements.

Their only win in the first six games was in the German Cup, 2-1 away against lower-tier Paderborn. As a manager Labbadia has lost 15 of his 16 encounters with Bayern, including all of the last 13. If Bayern continue that trend and score at least two goals, they will become the first Bundesliga team to have scored 100 goals away against a single opponent.

Their first win in the league this year was a convincing 3-0 win at home to Koln, a result that should have been the confidence booster they needed to move away from the relegation area, but those hopes were dashed last week, when they slumped to a 2-1 defeat at bottom-placed Schalke.

That defeat leaves Stuttgart perched precariously above the relegation zone on goal difference.

After losing 3-2 to Borussia Monchengladbach two weeks ago (a game in which they played with 10 men for all but eight minutes), coach Julian Nagelsmann demanded a quick response, which he promptly received with a dominant 3-0 win against title-chasing rivals Union Berlin last Sunday.

That win re-established Bayern's three-point advantage over the team from the capital, but Dortmund remain level on points going into the weekend and a win against RB Leipzig on Friday will put BVB top and put even more pressure on Bayern.

A win in this game will allow Bayern to be in top spot going into their crucial midweek Champions League game against PSG in which the German side hold a slender 1-0 first-leg advantage

The article Bundesliga preview and tips: Bayern Munich to continue Stuttgart domination appeared first on Planetsport.com.