An unhappy stat to introduce the preview, the last time the record Bundesliga holders were in Lower Saxony they lost 4-1 in the opening game of the Rückrunde to Wolfsburg. However, hosts Hannover are yet to register a victory in the calendar year of 2015. They’ll be hoping for another Bayern blip in Lower Saxony. Their last win was three months ago in a 2-0 win over FC Augsburg. A win in this game seems slightly impossible, but who knows considering it is the Bundesliga after all.
Hannover are without a win in their last 7 matches and are slowly getting drawn into a relegation battle. In recent games their balance and creativity haven’t been up to scratch and will need improving massively. Meanwhile; Bayern are 8 points clear at the top of the table and have scored 18 goals in their last 3 Bundesliga matches. No doubt they’ll be full of confidence, while several players will return from injury in the next few weeks.
In the last three games in all competitions against Hannover, Bayern Munich have scored at least FOUR goals.
Team News:
Hannover will be boosted with the return of January transfer window signing João Pereira, who returns from suspension to replace Hiroki Sakai at right-back.
Salif Sané, Maurice Hirsch and Ceyhun Gülselam all have a chance of starting as well, should manager Tayfun Korkut decide to field an additional defensive midfielder against a very dominant Bayern in hot form in recent games.
However, they’ll be without influential captain Lars Stindl - who is suspended for one more game following his red card against Stuttgart, and could consequently be replaced by Hiroshi Kiyotake again, with Leonardo Bittencourt possibly filling in on the left wing.
Bayern’s long-term absentee Holger Badstuber could return play at centre-back again, with Mehdi Benatia not yet fully fit after injury.
Goal-scorer in their last visit to Lower Saxony, Juan Bernat will most likely start at left-back, with David Alaba filling in in central midfield.
Thomas Müller and Mario Götze compete for a spot in attacking midfield both looking to add to their brilliant form of goals and assists in recent weeks.
Stadium - Niedersachsenstadion (HDI-Arena):
The stadium was built during the years 1952–1954 with an original capacity of 86,000. Huge amounts of debris from the houses in Hannover destroyed during World War II were used as the foundations of the stadium, with a total construction cost of 4 million Deutschmark. The stadium officially opened on 26 September 1954.
Hannover 96 moved permanently to the stadium from the Eilenriedestadion in 1959. Other local clubs, such as Arminia Hannover, OSV Hannover, TSV Havelse and Sportfreunde Ricklingen have also played matches there, previously.
Today it has 49,000 covered seats, which are used by Hannover supporters; however for international matches an initial 43,000 fans are used, use the full capacity.
Through a sponsorship deal, the stadium's official name is currently HDI-Arena from the AWD-Arena, which was the stadium name between 2002 and 2013.
How important is the game?
Hannover currently have just four points separating themselves from the drop and a point would be crucial to Hannover as they have a very tough few games following the visit from the Bavarians, they face Borussia Mönchengladbach away from home before hosting in-form Borussia Dortmund and then they travel to the Urban District to face Eintracht Frankfurt.
Bayern Munich are still only eight points ahead of Hannover’s lower Saxony rivals. They face an uneasy run in, two away games in succession against Hannover and Bremen before they host European chasers Mönchengladbach and then they travel to Dortmund in possibly the weirdest Der Klassiker to date with the positions the two sides are in right now, all could change on that night in April.
Pre-Match thoughts:
Hannover centre-back, Christian Schulz: "The fact that every single one of us – be it in attack or in defence – has got to push himself to the limit to have any chance against FC Bayern goes without saying. But I'm confident and I've got every faith in the team."
Pep Guardiola (Bayern head coach): "This is a very important phase of the season for us and I'm looking forward to it. We've done a good job so far, which is why we are eight points clear. We're just thinking about Hannover and now how many games we've got left."
