The Werkself set off for the Bavarian state capital on Thursday afternoon and, after landing at Munich Airport, they made their way to the team hotel in Freising. Head coach Heiko Herrlich led a warm-up session for his lads at the SV Freising ground at 11 in the morning on Friday. After lunch and an afternoon break the Bayer 04 squad will head off to the Allianz Arena around 18.30 CET. Following the opening ceremony two hours later, the match officials, led by referee Tobias Stieler (Hamburg), will lead the two teams onto the pitch. FCB will be all in red and the Werkself will play in their new, blue away kit.
18 August 2017 is a first for Bayer 04: It is the first time the club has played in an official opening match since its introduction in 2002. The German record champions have played nine opening matches to date, winning eight of them. FC Bayern also have their noses in front in the head-to-head record with the Werkself: The two teams have met 76 times in the Bundesliga. The Werkself have beaten the Munich side 16 times and have lost 44. 16 matches have been drawn including the last meeting on 15 April of this year at the BayArena when the Werkself succeeded in holding the league leaders to a 0-0 draw under the then coach Tayfun Korkut. It is unlikely tonight's game will end all square at 0-0 as opening matches have never failed to produce a goal as yet.
An opening ceremony will be held ahead of the kick-off at the Allianz Arena and it will include presentation of the Championship Shield and the singing of the national anthem. The celebrations include the symbolic presence of FC Bayern and Bayer 04, plus the other 16 Bundesliga clubs, represented by a top player and a member of the youth teams. For Bayer 04 that is striker legend Ulf Kirsten and U17 player Samed Onur.
The match in Munich is the first Bundesliga game for Heiko Herrlich as the head coach at Bayer 04. It is also a return for the 45-year-old who played for the Werkself between 1989 and 1993 and scored 75 goals in a total of 258 Bundesliga matches for Bayer 04, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund. In the summer of 2013 Herrlich was the coach of the FC Bayern U17 team. In his two years as youth coach at FCB he helped bring through Marco Friedl, Felix Götze, Fabian Benko and Niklas Dorsch, all four of whom are now in the first-team squad. The last time Heiko Herrlich was at the Allianz Arena was 80 days ago. On 30 May he led his former club Jahn Regensburg to promotion into the second division with a 2-0 win away to 1860 Munich.
Dominik Kohr scored the important opener for the Werkself in the DFB Cup game in Karlsruhe. The U21 European Champion, who returned to Leverkusen in the summer after two years on loan at FC Augsburg, will play his 100th game in Germany's top flight if he appears against Bayern.
The favourites to win the title have been unlucky with injuries for the start of the Bundesliga campaign with six stars missing for the match against Bayer 04: Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is still sidelined four months after breaking a metatarsal. "We're not taking any risks," said coach Carlo Ancelotti after the final pre-match training session. The FC Bayern coach will also have to make do without Jérôme Boateng, Thiago, Javi Martínez, Juan Bernat and James Rodríguez. Thomas Müller will wear the captain's armband for FCB.
The time of the year is always Schwadbud time. The fan pub in the East Stand at the BayArena welcomes, as ever, visitors to watch away games on the big screen and gives fans the opportunity to show their support. Tonight the doors open at 19.30 CET, one hour before kick-off: Call in and cross your fingers for the Werkself in the company of other Bayer 04 fans for the Bundesliga opener away to Bayern Munich.
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