Treble winners Bayern Munich will be without winger Franck Ribery and
goalkeeper Manuel Neuer when they travel to Borussia Dortmund for the
Super Cup on Saturday in a repeat of last season's Champions League
final.
Coach Pep Guardiola, who took over after Jupp Heynckes's
record-breaking season with the Bavarians, said the two players were
nursing minor injuries from their friendly 2-0 win over Barcelona this
week and would not be fit for the first chance of a trophy this season.
Guardiola, who won 14 of 19 possible titles in his four years at
Barcelona, also cast doubt on the participation of midfielder Bastian
Schweinsteiger, who only recently came back from injury.
"Bastian will travel with us but we do not know yet if he can play.
He has only a few training sessions under his belt," the Spaniard told
reporters on Friday.
Mario Goetze, Bayern's big transfer from Dortmund, will also miss the
game as he is still recovering from the muscle injury that kept him out
of the Champions League final in May.
The two teams have slugged it out in the Bundesliga in the past three
seasons with Dortmund winning the 2011 and 2012 editions and Bayern
returning to the top last season, when they also added the Champions
League trophy and the German Cup.
Bayern beat Dortmund 2-1 thanks to a last-gasp Arjen Robben goal in
the Champions League final in London and also eliminated their rivals in
the German Cup quarter-finals.
"You have no excuse if you are Bayern coach," Guardiola said. "A final is a final and you have no second chances on Saturday.
"It is never easy against Dortmund, they play a good game, with a lot
of possession. We want to see at what level we are at and plan both for
the game and beyond."
For Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp, the early encounter with Bayern has
little to do with revenge for the bitter Champions League defeat.
It is more a chance for Dortmund to kick off the season with a bang
in front of a home crowd and lift the trophy after two failed attempts
in the past two seasons.
"We do not entertain any thoughts of revenge," Klopp said. "We played
a great game in (London's) Wembley stadium which we could not decide in
our favour but from which we learned a lot.
"There is no doubt we will do everything to win this game. It is
after all our third straight final but we failed to lift it the past
twice," said Klopp.
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