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BERLIN : Bayern Munich’s home game against VfL Wolfsburg on Sunday is of little importance for the hosts who have nothing left to play for and instead it is the work of club bosses off the pitch that is grabbing fans’ attention.
After their midweek Champions League exit, Bayern will look to put a barren campaign behind them and start work with a new coach following the departure of Thomas Tuchel at the end of the season.
Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final second leg for a 4-3 aggregate defeat meant that their last chance of silverware was gone.
Bayern are in second place in the Bundesliga with two games remaining but their 11-year reign is already over after Bayer Leverkusen, who face VfL Bochum on Sunday, secured the league title last month.
The season may not yet be finished but Bayern are already locked in a widening search for a successor to Tuchel, with several coaches, including Julian Nagelsmann, Xabi Alonso and Ralf Rangnick, preferring to stay in their current posts.
The squad is also expected to undergo changes, with Joshua Kimmich and Alphonso Davies among those potentially on the move.
“We have to find the right coach for Bayern and the players who will fit in with that,” said Bayern’s new board member for sport Max Eberl, who took over in February.
“There most certainly will be departures and arrivals this summer.”
But he said the squad would not “be breaking up”.
“We have had discussions with all players. Obviously it is important for them to know who will be the new coach. But we have already thought of new players and also thought about who we want to extend contracts with,” Eberl told Welt TV.
Fellow Champions League semi-finalists Borussia Dortmund also have little on the line when they play relegation-threatened Mainz 05 on Saturday with the Ruhr valley club having already secured fifth spot and a place in next season’s top European club competition.
But more importantly they still have a big final to play, having beaten Paris St Germain 2-0 on aggregate on Tuesday to reach the Champions League showpiece where they will face Real Madrid.
With most of the top positions already wrapped up, there is more interest at the other end of the table with Cologne needing to beat Union Berlin to have any chance of staying up.
Union, who played in the Champions League group stage this season, need a win and for Mainz to lose to make sure of another top flight campaign.
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