Borussia Dortmund will visit their fierce rivals, Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, April 23 without two of their regular players, Gregor Kobel and Axel Witsel.
Gregor Kobel is out due to a ligament injury and Axel Witsel is currently battling an undisclosed form of an infection.
Gregor Kobel is Borussia Dortmund’s first-choice goalkeeper who has kept 11 clean sheets and conceded 61 goals in 40 games in all competitions.
The 24-year-old goalkeeper who is from Switzerland has been at the club since July 1, 2021. He joined the German side from another German side, Stuttgart for a transfer fee worth €15 million.
Kobe who reportedly earns 3.5 million euros per year at Dortmund has until June 30, 2026, before his current contract with the German club expires.
As he has been very important for Dortmund, he is growing to become very important for Switzerland national team since he made his debut on September 1, 2021. Since then, he has made two appearances.
As for Axel Witsel, the 33-year-old Belgian defensive midfielder has been at Dortmund since August 6, 2018. So far this season, the Belgian midfielder has played 38 games in all competitions in which he scored just two goals.
Since he made his debut for Belgium national team, Witsel has played a total number of 120 games and has scored 11 goals.
The Belgium international currently earns £6,396,000 per year at Dortmund and his contract with the German club will last until June 30, 2022.
It is not only Gregor Kobel and Axel Witsel that will be absent in the Bundesliga game between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the away team will travel to Allianz Arena without Mats Hummels, Giovanni Reyna, Thomas Meunier, and Mahmoud Dahoud who have been out of the team for weeks due to different degrees of injuries.
A statement from Dortmund on Thursday read: “In addition to the long-term injury absentees, the coach will be without Gregor Kobel, who has sustained a ligament injury, and Axel Witsel, who will miss out with an infection.
“There are still question marks over Marius Wolf and Dan-Axel Zagadou. A decision on their involvement will be taken based on the final training session on Friday.”
The good news is that Dortmund’s winger, Raphael Guerreiro who missed Dortmund’s 6-1 bashing of VfL Wolfsburg due to an injury is back and available to play against Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich could be confirmed German Bundesliga winners for the 10th successive time on Saturday, April 23
The fact that Borussia Dortmund will travel to Allianz Arena without six of their first-team players at 17:30 on Saturday is a big boost to Bayern Munich’s drive to win their 10th successive title.
Bayern Munich are currently sitting on top of the Bundesliga table with 72 points in 30 games, 9 points above Dortmund. This means that if Bayern beat Dortmund on Saturday, Bayern would be ahead of Dortmund with 12 points.
Once that happens, even if Dortmund win all their remaining three league games and Bayern lose their remaining three league games, Dortmund will not overtake Bayern again this season.
Dortmund coach, Marco Rose said: “Bayern can become champions on Saturday and will perform accordingly. We want to prevent that. We played a good game last Saturday, we need that performance at an even higher level and consistently over 90 minutes.”
🎙 Marco Rose:
— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) April 21, 2022
"Bayern can become champions on Saturday and will perform accordingly. We want to prevent that. We played a good game last Saturday, we need that performance at an even higher level and consistently over 90 minutes." pic.twitter.com/IqPdaa0l3O
