Opponent: VfB Stuttgart
“We want to beat Bayern at home. We want to really put them under pressure, be brave against them. Ultimately it’s about us believing we can beat them. That belief is very pronounced with me,” declared a confident Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß.
Stuttgart are justified in feeling emboldened as they look to become the first team to beat Bayern domestically this season. VfB have won their opening five home games of a top-flight season for the first time since 1992/93 and lost only one of their last six competitive fixtures across the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Europa League. Under former Bayern reserves coach Hoeneß, they are also through to the last eight of the Pokal, while they are still in with a chance of a top-eight finish in Europe, sitting on nine points from five games of the league phase. However, Bayern have already won in Stuttgart this season, lifting the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup with a 2-1 victory there in August.
The DFB Cup holders are now looking to turn the tables there, led by Deniz Undav, who has scored their last six Bundesliga goals and was directly involved in nine goals in November (scored seven, assisted two) – the most of any player across Europe’s top five leagues, ahead of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé (eight). Kompany also sounded a warning about the Germany international, saying, “I know about Undav from Belgium. He’s a striker who can always score. He’s incredibly clever and also a threat on the break.”
We spoke with former defender Holger Bastuber about Stuttgart:
