Bayern Munich will head to the Bernabeu this week for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid but Raphael Guerreiro will miss out due to a late injury.
The midfielder picked up an ankle injury during the loss to Stuttgart on Saturday and the club confirmed on Sunday that he is going to be out of action for a few weeks.
An official statement has revealed: “FC Bayern will have to make do without Raphael Guerreiro in the next few matches. The Portuguese sustained a ligament and capsule injury in his ankle in Saturday’s Bundesliga match away at Stuttgart, as confirmed by a scan by the FC Bayern medical department. Guerreiro had to be subbed off in the 17th minute against Stuttgart.”
This is a major blow for Thomas Tuchel because Raphael Guerreiro has been a solid and consistent performer for Bayern Munich this season scoring three goals in 20 Bundesliga appearances so far.
Guerreiro’s injury will be an issue for more reasons than one because apart from playing in the CDM role, the 30-year-old can also as a left-back so Tuchel will be without a very versatile player.
In the first leg, Leon Goretzka and Konrad Laimer started as the two central midfielders but in the second half, Raphael Guerreiro replaced Goretzka and the 30-year-old put in a decent shift.
Now, at the Bernabeu, Thomas Tuchel will have to rely on Laimer and Goretzka throughout the 90 minutes because he does not have any experienced central midfielder as a backup.
Raphael Guerreiro has done very well in his first season at Bayern Munich but the Bavarians will be playing away from home so Tuchel would have wanted to take his strongest squad to Spain. But, he will now be without Raphael Guerreiro along with Kingsley Coman, De Light and Bouna Sarr.
The first leg at the Allianz Arena ended in a 2-2 draw and since Real Madrid will be playing in their own backyard, they are very much the favourites to progress to the final. Thomas Tuchel will have to make sure that he gets his tactics absolutely correct because there will be no margin for error.
