Bayern Munich suffered a major blow during their 3-1 defeat against Stuttgart in the Bundesliga as one of their key players, Raphael Guerreiro, picked up an injury ahead of their Champions League match against Real Madrid.
The race for the second place is heating up and Stuttgart got a bit closer with the victory over the Bavarians as they now sit on third with 67 points, just two less than Bayern.
Guerreiro left the field in the 17th minute after he stretched his leg too far while chasing the ball. It looked like a muscular injury but there have been no details on the matter so far.
Bayern’s boss Thomas Tuchel talked to the press after the match where he said that the goal was to make sure that Guerreiro gets ready for Wednesday but he is now on crutches, which probably indicates that he will not be taking the field at the Santiago Bernabeu.
"We had a meeting with the medical team before the game - they were like: '60 minutes for this, 30 minutes for that, 60 minutes for that, this one can't play at all'. Unfortunately, this has been the situation the whole season,” Tuchel said.
“Rapha Guerreiro was getting minutes to be ready for Wednesday and now he's on crutches. Eric Dier felt a bit something in his thigh before the game, but that wasn't the reason (he got subbed off) - it was due to the head knock. We couldn't take any more risks with him. We then took a risk with Upa who wasn't supposed to play for more than 30 minutes. This has unfortunately been the story of our season."
Bayern managed to hold Madrid 2-2 at Allianz Arena last week but they sure struggled against Carlo Ancelotti’s troops.
They will travel to Spain next week where they will play the second leg of their semi-final and the winner of the encounter will play one of Borussia Dortmund or Paris Saint-Germain in the final at England’s iconic Wembley Stadium.