One more goal to tie. Two more goals to break a Bundesliga record which has stood for 54 years.
Bayern Munich’s game against St. Pauli on Saturday isn’t just about taking care of business in between two high-pressure Champions League quarterfinal games against Real Madrid. This is a chance for Vincent Kompany’s team to go down in history.
Lennart Karl’s last-gasp winner for Bayern in a 3-2 comeback win over Freiburg last week was Bayern’s 100th Bundesliga goal of the season.
With six games to go, Kompany’s team is one shy of the league record of 101 goals that Bayern scored in 1971-72. That was an era when greats like Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller propelled Bayern to a famous 11-1 demolition of Borussia Dortmund.
Averaging 3.57 goals per game puts Bayern ahead of the pace of some all-time great teams, like the Manchester City squad featuring Sergio Agüero which set a Premier League record of 106 goals in 2017-18, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid team which scored 121 in La Liga in 2011-12.
Chasing down either of those targets would be all the more impressive because Bayern has four fewer games to do it in, thanks to the Bundesliga’s 34-game schedule.
The all-time record in Europe’s top five leagues is 125 goals for Torino in Serie A back in 1947-48 in a 40-game season.
Key matchups
St. Pauli has plenty to play for against Bayern on Saturday, too. It’s in 16th in the 18-team Bundesliga and would have to go through a relegation playoff if it finishes there.
Nine points behind with six games to go, it would take a miracle for Dortmund to stop Bayern. A tricky home game against Champions League-chasing Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday only makes things harder.
Wolfsburg has been in the Bundesliga since 1997 but is in grave danger of relegation, four points from any chance of safety after a 6-3 loss to Leverkusen in arguably the most entertaining game of last week. Wolfsburg now has another tough task at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Players to watch
Harry Kane had looked like breaking Robert Lewandowski’s single-season goals record of 41 but fitness concerns kept him out of two of Bayern’s last four Bundesliga games. With 31 goals already but Madrid looming on Wednesday, Kompany needs to decide whether to risk Kane.
Full-back Julian Ryerson has flown under the radar but his 12 assists for Dortmund are second only to Bayern’s Michael Olise, and one more than Luis Diaz. That could bode well for linking up with Erling Haaland for Norway at the World Cup.
The 19-year-old Yan Diomande has 10 goals and seven assists already for Leipzig and Saturday’s game against Borussia Moenchengladbach offers him another chance to shine ahead of Ivory Coast’s World Cup run.
Who’s out
Leverkusen defender Jarell Quansah is a doubt after missing his team’s last game with a thigh injury on England duty. Winger Martin Terrier is ruled out for the rest of the season.
Dortmund midfielder Felix Nmecha remains out with a knee ligament injury that could risk his place in Germany’s World Cup squad.
Leipzig defender Castello Lukeba is out for an indefinite period after injuring his adductor muscle in last week’s 2-1 win over Werder Bremen.
Off the field
Dortmund has confirmed interest in signing Jadon Sancho for what would be a third time. The former England winger is due to become a free agent at the end of the season when his Aston Villa loan from Manchester United ends.
Crowd trouble involving dozens of fans from both teams at a second-division game last week could prompt a harder line on fan issues from German authorities.
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