FC Bayern München host 1. FC Köln on Saturday at 15:30 Uhr in the Allianz Arena, and the final Bundesliga matchday brings together a champion, a struggler and a referee ending a long career. Deniz Aytekin will take charge of the game in what will be his 254th and final Bundesliga appearance, while Sky is carrying the match on TV and via livestream, with DAZN showing it in the conference. It will not be shown on free TV.
Leon Goretzka is set to start in his last match as a Bayern player in the Allianz Arena, and Lennart Karl has also returned to the starting XI. Minjae Kim is out with minor knee problems. Vincent Kompany leads Bayern into the game with 86 points from 33 matches and 117 goals this Bundesliga season, while Michael Olise has put up 34 scorer points, built from 15 goals and 19 assists. Bayern have also scored 32 goals from set pieces, a reminder of how often they have punished opponents when the game slows down and the ball is dead.
For Köln, the numbers tell a different story. René Wagner’s team arrive with only two away wins, a 12-match winless run on the road and just one victory from their last 13 Bundesliga matches. They sit 14th with 32 points, and their attacking hope is Saïd El Mala, who has 12 goals and five assists and is already drawing transfer attention. Brentford are preparing an offer of more than 40 million euros for the forward, while Köln’s management is aiming for 50 million euros.
The match carries the weight of the record as much as the standings. Since Bayern’s 2-3 loss in February 2011, they have not lost any of their 22 competitive meetings with Köln, a run that includes 20 wins and two draws. That streak meets a defensive weakness that both sides share: each has conceded 43 percent of its goals after set pieces, and Köln’s 25 set-piece goals conceded are the most in the league. Against a Bayern side that have already banked the title and could finish with only one league defeat for the third time after 2012/13 and 1986/87, the visitors are walking into a ground where they have struggled to compete and where the home crowd is more likely to mark farewells than fear an upset.
Wagner tried to keep the mood light in the buildup, answering with one word — “Effzeh” — but the reality is harsher. Köln need a result to cap a difficult run and Bayern are using the final afternoon to close a season that has delivered trophies, numbers and now, for some, goodbyes. For Aytekin, it is the last whistle of a Bundesliga career. For Goretzka, it is one last run out in Munich as a Bayern player. And for Bayern, it is another chance to underline a season that has left little doubt about who set the standard in Germany.
