Europe 1 with AFP 11 p.m., February 13, 2023
Since the draw in early November, Bayern have gone through a somewhat turbulent three months, with injuries, a false start in early 2023 and a controversy with Manuel Neuer.
What to disturb the approach of the European shock against PSG on Tuesday in the Champions League?
Completed at the end of the Champions League group stage concluded with six victories (18 goals scored and only two conceded), Bayern Munich lost four key players in Julian Nagelsmann's squad in turn, Munich coach.
Flagship rookie of the summer in Bavaria, Sadio Mané was hit in the right fibula in early November, and missed the World Cup with Senegal.
Nagelsmann hopes to find him in training next week.
Victim of pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart) after a Covid at the World Cup, the Moroccan Noussair Mazraoui has gradually resumed in recent days at Säbener Strasse.
On the other hand, neither Manuel Neuer nor Lucas Hernandez will reappear this season.
The Bayern and Germany goalkeeper and captain fractured the lower part of his right leg during a ski outing in early December, while the French international, a base of the Munich defense, broke his anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee in Qatar.
To compensate for these absences, Bayern succeeded in their winter transfer window, with the arrival of Dutch defender Daley Blind (free after the termination of his contract at Ajax Amsterdam), but above all of Swiss international goalkeeper Yann Sommer (from Mönchengladbach) and versatile Portuguese defender Joao Cancelo (on loan from Manchester City with an option to buy).
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False start in 2023
It is hesitant that Bayern have started their second half of the season after the two-month winter break, with three consecutive draws in Leipzig (1-1), and at home against Cologne (1-1) and Frankfurt (1- 1).
The competition took the opportunity to get closer in the standings, in particular Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund, who jumped at the chance with three victories.
The Munich residents also reacted with three consecutive victories, two in the league and one in the Cup, by scoring 11 goals for two conceded, finding a little serenity on the pitch (19 consecutive matches without defeat in all competitions), while the club was backstage.
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Neuer drops his shots
If the leaders of Bayern did not appreciate Serge Gnabry's Parisian escapade at Fashion Week on days left free by Nagelsmann on the weekend of January 21 and 22, they tasted even less the spectacular media load of Manuel Neuer.
Yet injured and unavailable on Tuesday at the Park, the goalkeeper and captain was talked about via two interviews in The Athletic and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Neuer criticizes the Bavarian club for the dismissal of the goalkeeper coach since his arrival in the summer of 2011, and close friend, Toni Tapalovic, "a blow when I was already on the ground", "as if I had been ripped off the heart".
Like CEO Oliver Kahn, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic immediately stepped up, blaming Neuer for thinking about his interests before those of the club.
The two men, however, calmed things down, to prepare for the first leg in Paris more calmly.