Thomas Tuchel insists Bayern Munich will not treat Saturday’s Bundesliga visit of Eintracht Frankfurt as a Champions League semi-final warm-up.
Bayern welcome Real Madrid to the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night for the first leg of a mouth-watering semi-final clash.
The Champions League is now Bayern’s only hope for silverware this season after unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen secured their first-ever Bundesliga crown a fortnight ago.
Semi-finals ✅#UCL pic.twitter.com/lhFBmp3M2X
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 18, 2024
Tuchel, who will depart in the summer, could be forgiven for putting all his eggs in the European basket but the former Chelsea boss says he is not prepared to do so.
“We can’t use this game against Frankfurt to practice for Real,” he told reporters at his pre-match press conference.
“It’s a completely different situation. There will be some background noise against both Frankfurt and Stuttgart (next week), that’s just how it is.
“Nevertheless, we will fully focus on these two opponents. We have to accept that and accept the background noise.
“We want to put in a great performance tomorrow because we need the points and want to keep up our momentum.
“We’re taking things step by step and are preparing the team for tomorrow’s game as best we can.
“We won’t make any changes to how we prepare the team for tomorrow’s game. We’ve had a really good week of training full of positive energy.
“The games against Arsenal (in the Champions League quarter-final) have given us confidence. We made several changes against Union and still secured a big win, which gave us another boost. We’re ready to build on that tomorrow.”
Tuchel confirmed Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sane and Dayot Upamecano are all set to miss out against Frankfurt due to injury but remains hopeful the trio could all feature against Madrid.
“Dayot Upamecano rolled his ankle in training and is therefore a doubt for tomorrow,” he confirmed.
“We’ll have to see how his ankle is. Serge Gnabry will play on Tuesday, we will have to see if Leroy Sane is fit for Tuesday as he only just completed his first individual training session.”
