Okay, this was a tough one. Inter Milan started hot but couldn’t sustain, and didn’t end up looking particularly good at all. While Nicolò Barella fired an early warning shot across Bayern Munich’s bow and Kristjan Asllani found the net on an offside goal, let’s go to the backline — where Stefan de Vrij led a back three’s valiant efforts to keep from getting totally overrun. Four blocks, three clearances…De Vrij is a quality player, didn’t have all his favored center-back partners around him, and it could have been a lot worse.

With five games remaining in the Bundesliga, Christian Streich’s side are in fourth place and more and more questions are being asked about where the team is aiming to be at the end of the season. “It will be a difficult away game for us,” said Matthias Ginter ahead of the game against Köln, who are relatively safe in mid table. “After full time we’ll have a clearer idea of where our season is going.”

Sandro Schwarz made two changes from the game against Leipzig. The team remained in a 5-3-2 formation, with Marco Richter replacing Jonjoe Kenny at right wing-back and Stevan Jovetić starting upfront for the first time since the end of October. Wilfried Kanga, who scored the winner in the reverse fixture, dropped to the bench. For the hosts, Marcin Kamiński started for the first time since the first day of the season, replacing Maya Yoshida at centre-back, while Simon Terodde came in upfront.

Head coach Marco Rose speaks to the media from the pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s trip to Leverkusen

1. FSV Mainz 05 will be kitted out by team sports specialists JAKO for the 2023/24 season. The club have agreed to an early end to their partnership with current outfitter Kappa, which was originally set to run until the end of June 2025. The agreement will now end on 30th June 2023. The Italian sportswear manufacturer had been the official kit supplier of Mainz 05 since 2020.

Sebastian Hoeness discussed the home match against Borussia Mönchengladbach this Saturday, where his team are aiming to take another important step towards survival in front of a full house.

Khedira ill, Seguin came later

Maximilian Arnold is set to make his 300th Bundesliga appearance for VfL Wolfsburg this weekend. The Green-and-Whites captain will reach the milestone in the team’s final game of the year when they face TSG Hoffenheim away on Saturday 12 November. In this interview, Arnold discusses his current form, not being selected for Germany’s World Cup squad, and the Wolves’ recent upturn.
 
Maximilian Arnold, are you currently in the form of your life?

Man Utd were on top for much of the game and possibly edged it but Scholes reckons Ten Hag’s substitutions negatively impacted the match.

Borussia Dortmund will visit FC Schalke 04 on Saturday. Kick-off is at 18:30 CET. We have...