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Reuters: Bayern Munich will be eager to clinch a record fourth consecutive Bundesliga title on Saturday to dispel some of the gloom of their mid-week Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid, which scuppered their chances of a treble.
The Bavarians, who face Ingolstadt on Saturday, suffered a third successive semi-final exit under coach Pep Guardiola.
The result meant Guardiola will join Manchester City without having won the European Cup with the Germans, with the 2-2 aggregate result condemning them to defeat against Atletico on the away goals rule.
But Bayern can still clinch the domestic league and Cup double to end the season on a high note with Guardiola having three matches left, including the German Cup final.
Only Bayern and Borussia Moenchengladbach have managed to win the league three straight times since the Bundesliga’s creation in 1963.
“The team needs to be left alone after the defeat to Atletico,” said club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “Everyone is still bitterly disappointed. Now we need to lick our wounds and then it is off to Ingolstadt on Saturday.
“There is no time to waste. There, we will hopefully get that one point we need to secure the Bundesliga title. After that comes the Cup final and then we can draw our conclusions for the season,” added Rummenigge.
Bayern are five points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund with two games left.
They will secure the title with a win and could even clinch it with a draw or a defeat if Dortmund fail to beat strugglers Eintracht Frankfurt.
Bayern are on 82 points with Dortmund on 77. Third-placed Bayer Leverkusen, who take on fourth-placed Gladbach, trail far behind on 57 points. Gladbach are on 49, level with Hertha Berlin.
The top three clubs advance to the Champions League group stage with the fourth going into the qualifying rounds of Europe’s premier club competition.
Promoted Ingolstadt, however, will be no pushovers, having climbed up to ninth in their first ever season in the Bundesliga with the league’s fourth best defence.
Dortmund, who face Bayern in the Cup final in Berlin on May 21, still have an outside chance at the title though few at the Ruhr valley club are seriously expecting Bayern to slip up twice at this stage.
The likely departure of captain Mats Hummels and last week’s angry fan reactions to his potential move to rivals Bayern is a far more important issue at the club.
“Fans who direct personal insults at Mats Hummels have lost their right to be part of Borussia Dortmund,” said Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke as he urges for calm with two titles still to play for.
