Reigning champions and top-of-the-table Bayern Munich take on the only remaining unbeaten Bundesliga side at the Allianz Arena on Saturday - Freiburg.
The hosts have returned to their devastating form in front of goal after their humiliating cup exit recently, whilst the visitors will be looking to defend their unbeaten run after achieving their best-ever start to a Bundesliga campaign.
Match preview
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The 5-2 success over Benfica in the Champions League in midweek meant it was an incredible seventh time this season that Bayern have scored five or more goals in a game, and the second in a row.
Robert Lewandowski recorded yet another hat-trick, with Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sane adding the other two in another breathtaking performance from the Bavarians at the Allianz Arena.
That result ensured qualification for the knockout stages, whilst all but confirming top spot in Group E as well.
One 5-2 triumph followed another from last weekend, when Julian Nagelsmann's side ended Union Berlin's sensational unbeaten run at home, with Lewandowski netting a brace, and Sane, Kingsley Coman and Thomas Muller adding further goals to see the champions return to their very best clinical form.
The performance and result was all the more impressive considering Die Bayern headed into that difficult away trip on the back of a humiliating 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Borussia Monchengladbach in the DFB-Pokal just three days earlier.
Two big-margin victories in reply to the setback ensured it was just a minor blip in a near-perfect start to Nagelsmann's tenure in Munich, with Bayern looking back to their very best already, and appearing unstoppable to any team in world football at present.
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Meanwhile, Freiburg's 3-1 win over Greuther Furth last weekend stretched their unbeaten start to the season to 10 league matches, and 12 in all competitions.
An own goal and a Nicolas Hofler effort saw Christian Streich's side lead 2-0 by half time against their relegation-threatened visitors, in a dominant first-half display.
Greuther did halve the advantage 16 minutes from time, but Vincenzo Grifo's penalty five minutes later made sure of the points despite a drop in performances levels in the second half.
Freiburg solidified third place as a result, and opened up a six-point gap over fifth place in their race for an unlikely European spot.
Streich did briefly lead this weekend's visitors into Europe years ago but has now put together his most consistent team during his decade in charge.
He leads Freiburg out for the 300th time in the Bundesliga on Saturday, well aware of the task at hand for his side to extend their unbeaten start to the campaign.
However, possessing the division's meanest defence, with only seven goals conceded from the opening 10 fixtures, he will remain quietly confident that Freiburg can frustrate the Bavarians and threaten their shaky back line on the counter attack in an intriguing encounter.
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Team News
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Niklas Sule and Lucas Hernandez sat out the Champions League tie in midweek, but will return to the squad and look to oust Tanguy Nianzou from the starting lineup.
Muller was also rested against Benfica, and he is expected to return to his 'number 10' role behind Lewandowski, but will be fighting Coman, Gnabry and Sane for a spot, who are all in excellent form of late.
Second-choice goalkeeper Sven Ulreich remains out with a long-term knee injury, whilst spare striker Eric Choupo-Moting will also miss out due to his thigh problem.
As for the visitors, Nils Petersen will remain on the sidelines due to a knee injury that has ruled him out of their last two matches.
Roland Sallai and Jonathan Schmid remain the only other absentees, which has allowed Streich to keep a settled lineup for most of the season so far.
After a rare switch to a back four last week, he is likely to revert back to his preferred 3-4-3 setup on Saturday, with Manuel Gulde likely to replace Kevin Schade in the starting 11.
Bayern Munich possible starting lineup:
Neuer; Pavard, Upamecano, Sule, Davies; Goretzka, Kimmich; Coman, Muller, Sane; Lewandowski
Freiburg possible starting lineup:
Flekken; Gulde, Lienhart, Schlotterbeck; Kubler, Eggestein, Hofler, Gunter; Jeong, Holer, Grifo
We say: Bayern Munich 3-1 Freiburg
Despite, Freiburg's incredible start to the campaign, it is hard to see past a comfortable home win for Bayern on Saturday.
If they continue to play the way they have done in the last couple of matches, as well as most of their games so far this season, it is difficult to see many stopping the Bayern machine.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bayern Munich win with a probability of 73.11%. A draw had a probability of 16% and a win for Freiburg had a probability of 10.85%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bayern Munich win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.79%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.33%) and 3-0 (9.02%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.45%), while for a Freiburg win it was 1-2 (3.22%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Bayern Munich would win this match.
