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Sports

Bayern needs better performance against Wolfsburg

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Wolfsburg, Germany – Bayern Munich manager Jupp Heynckes knew injured stars Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben and in just his second match, will have to do without one of the duo again.

Ribery began on the bench in the season opener, a stunning 1-0 loss in Munich to Monchengladbach, while Robben took up his usual place on the right wing.

Robben is now set to miss the trip to Wolfsburg on Saturday, while Ribery will return to the starting lineup after a spell off the bench last week.

Following the opening week setback, a rare home defeat, Ribery admitted it was time to Bayern to recover this weekend.

"Gladbach is in the past," Ribery said. "We need to win in Wolfsburg, though, that's very important.

"We'll need a completely different performance against Wolfsburg compared to our display against Gladbach."

Bayern's contingent of German national team stars, including Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger, helped their country to a 3-2 victory over Brazil on Wednesday, and the team play needs to carry over to Bayern.

Holger Badstuber, Mario Gomez, Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer were also starters for Germany, while Jerome Boateng entered as a late substitute.

The Bayern eight helped a fluid and silky Germany to the convincing win, that was only made close by a last-minute Neymar strike for Brazil.

The teamwork Germany showed is what Bayern lacked most of last season, and it was again absent against Monchengladbach. Wolfsburg opened with an impressive 3-0 win at Cologne, meaning Bayern will have to work to avoid an 0-2 start.

Meanwhile, defending champion Borussia Dortmund and rising star Mario Gotze opened with a convincing win over Hamburg and shows no signs of a let up after last year's surprise title run.

Gotze, along with Schweinsteiger and Andre Schurrle, scored in the win against Brazil. His international goal followed his two-assist, one-goal performance in his club's opener. Dortmund visits Hoffenheim on Saturday.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Schalke hosts Cologne, Hamburg hosts Hertha Berlin, Nurnberg hosts Hannover, Freiburg hosts Mainz, and Monchengladbach hosts Stuttgart.

On Sunday, Kaiserslautern hosts Augsburg an dBayer Leverkusen hosts Werder Bremen.