Mainz – Bayern Munich: Preview and Highest Odds

Mainz are likely to remain without Danny da Costa due to personal reasons, while Paul Nebel and Luca Kilian are injured. Svensson may bring Jonathan Burkhardt back into the side for his added workrate and ability to drop deep, with Karim Onisiwo potentially making way, but otherwise it is likely to be an unchanged XI from the side which narrowly dispatched Bremen in midweek. Lewandowski returned to full training during the week and may even return to Bayern’s starting XI, with the Poland striker desperate to break Gerd Muller’s record of 40 goals in a Bundesliga season. The 33-year-old requires six goals from Bayern’s final four games to break Muller’s long-standing record set in the 1971-72 season, which looks a tall order for a player returning from a month out due to a knee injury. Only a fool would write a goalscorer of his calibre off, though; after all, he is averaging very close to 1.50 goals per game in the league this season. However, Bayern have no fixture next week due to the DFB-Pokal semi-final’s taking place, so Lewandowski may be eased into things from the bench once the match has potentially opened up, particularly given Choupo-Moting’s excellent form. Niklas Sule and Serge Gnabry will also hope to be involved having appeared to recover from a thigh issue and COVID-19 respectively, but likewise Flick may see no reason to rush the pair back into things. Leon Goretzka could start in midfield having returned from injury from the bench against Leverkusen, with Flick having the option of resting David Alaba, Kimmich or Alphonso Davies. Marc Roca, Ron-Thorben Hoffmann, Corentin Tolisso, Douglas Costa and Malik Tillman are all ruled out of the trip to Mainz and face a race against time to feature again this season.