If the name Sporting Clube de Braga means little to you, you would not be alone. “To be honest, I can’t name any of the Braga players,” Mark van Bommel conceded at the Säbener Strasse on Monday. Philipp Lahm admitted to knowing “not a lot yet“ about Bayern’s next opponents.
The German league leaders travel to face the side lying seventh in Portugal on Thursday in their third UEFA Cup group stage fixture. The southern Europeans, appearing on the continental stage for only the eighth time in their history, represent a trip into the unknown for Ottmar Hitzfeld and his men.
Braga watched by Bayern ‘spies’
“We’ll be given all the information we need over the next few days. We’ll be well prepared for the match,” Van Bommel said reassuringly. The Bayern scouting section has indeed been busily collecting the said information since the draw for the groups in mid-October with a number of ‘spying’ trips to Braga, including a 3-0 victory over Champions League contenders Sporting Lisbon a fortnight ago.
“They’re a good team,” Lahm reported after absorbing some advance information. Braga certainly have more about them than Belenenses, Bayern’s opponents in the elimination round. Their best-known player is Austrian striker Roland Linz, a TSV 1860 Munich youth product, Braga’s leading scorer with four goals, and a lone presence up front in a 4-2-3-1 formation. “They have skilled and technically well-equipped forwards,” remarked Van Bommel, “we’ll have our work cut out.
“Van Buyten confined to bed
The third-biggest city in Portugal is arguably better known for its remarkable stadium than its team. The Estadio Municipal, constructed for the Euro 2004 tournament, was hewn from the rock at the highest point overlooking the city and only has grandstands down the sides of the pitch. “It’s a fine stadium, different from anywhere else,” Lahm observed. Bayern are pretty much guaranteed to enjoy a better playing surface there than was the case in Belenenes and Belgrade.
On the selection front, Daniel van Buyten is currently rated doubtful after being ordered to his bed with a heavy cold on Monday. There are also question-marks over Lukas Podolski (bruised toe) and Martin Demichelis (calf), while Jose Sosa reported to chief medic Dr Müller-Wohlfahrt on Monday for a pain-killing injection after complaining of a back problem.
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