Bayern will be hard to stop, says Hyypia

Sami Hyypia says his Bayer Leverkusen team are facing an uphill battle to haul in Bayern Munich by the end the Bundesliga season.

Bayern have opened up an 11-point gap over Leverkusen and the manager is adamant that injuries to the German juggernaut won’t help his side’s cause.

“Bayern Munich have played very well. They have a great squad. That is the strength of a big club,” Hyypia said.

“I think even though they will have many injured players they can always let other players do the work. And these players are almost as good as the injured players are. Therefore it is very difficult for other teams to reduce the deficit.”

Instead, Hyypia wants his team to focus on their game, stating that anything can happen on a title run-in.

“We do not look at Bayern Munich but look at how we play and then we will see what happens,” he said.

“There are also examples that a 14 points deficit was caught. Who knows? Maybe this can happen in this season as well.”

Leverkusen host Hamburg on Saturday as they look to close the gap on Bayern in the final game before the winter break.

“It will be a difficult match as it always is. Hamburg are a team that likes to play football and play good football. They are very dangerous in attack,” he said.

“This is no easy game for us but we are playing at home and it is the last league game before the winter break so we want to finish with a good result. That is our goal for the game. If we do not achieve that, of course we are not happy.”

Hamburg keeper Rene Adler is a barrier that Hyypia’s side will need to overcome.

“I do not know if Rene Adler has developed so much. He was already a very good goalkeeper. He played a very good season so far and I am glad he is playing so well but hopefully we can score some goals on Saturday against Hamburg,” Hyypia said.