Just in the decisive phase of the season, FC Bayern have to do without their most important player. Star striker Lewandowski is out for weeks with a knee injury.
Munich (dpa) – Robert Lewandowski strolled across the club’s grounds in a gray sportswear, apparently unharmed. The fans of FC Bayern could hope that the world footballer did not injure himself so badly while playing for the Polish national team.
Shortly afterwards, however, the momentous diagnosis followed in a brief bulletin: ligament stretching in the right knee, around four weeks failure. The star striker is missing not only in the Bundesliga summit on Easter Saturday (6.30 p.m. / Sky) at RB Leipzig, but also in the following decisive games for the championship and in the Champions League quarter-finals against Paris.
In addition to the goals of the club, Lewandowski’s personal ambitions also suffered a bitter damper. With 35 Bundesliga goals in the season he was well on the way to breaking the age-old record of “Bomber” Gerd Müller. Now there are probably only three matches left in the season finale to attack the Munich club legend’s record of 40 goals. So it is possible that Müller’s record is one that will last forever.
If the forecast of four weeks of downtime is correct and the 32-year-old Lewandowski does not return until the beginning of May, he will miss: five Bundesliga games, the new edition of last year’s final in the European premier football class against Paris Saint-Germain around the superstars Neymar and Kylian Mbappé and if you advance, you may also get the first leg in the Champions League semi-finals.
Without the assembly-line clippers, which can hardly be stopped on the square, Bayern’s double mission will be many times more complicated. Coach Hansi Flick now has to replace the irreplaceable one in the most important matches of the season. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting would be available as a true-to-position representative. Top preparer Thomas Müller has also been at the forefront in the past. A classic one-to-one replacement is not the inevitable variant. Flick could bet on the trio of Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sané and Kingsley Coman; behind that, Müller could shine as a template expert.
Lewandowski was substituted on March 28th in the World Cup qualifier against Andorra (3-0) after just over an hour. Uli Hoeneß immediately inquired about the condition of the guarantor of success and, as an RTL expert, reported on “not so bad” initial forecasts. The Polish association also initially spoke of a downtime of usually “five to ten days” for injuries of this type.
But now Lewandowski will miss so many Bayern games in a row as never before in his time in Munich. The model athlete was last longer at the end of February 2020. At that time he had to sit out three games due to a shin injury – that was the longest injury-related break for the goal machine as a Bayern professional.
This season Lewandowski was only completely spared in the Bundesliga with a 2-1 on matchday 6 against 1. FC Köln. In the cup, Munich did without the Poles in the first round win against Düren (3-0), in the Champions League with a 1-1 draw against Atlético Madrid and a 2-0 win against Lok Moscow.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210330-99-30551 / 5
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