“Alle in Blau”, all in blue, has been the rallying call around Magdeburg for weeks, printed on banners and shared across supporter groups preparing the trip south. By Tuesday the response had turned the away block at the Allianz into one of the biggest in years.
The official guest section, which holds 7,500 fans, has long been sold out. Thousands more Magdeburg supporters picked up tickets scattered in home-side blocks, pushing the expected travelling total to at least 10,000, with BILD estimates reported in the German football press putting the figure as high as 13,000.
That would make it the largest away crowd at the Allianz Arena in nine years. The last comparable scene came in spring 2017, when a TSV 1860 Munich home game against VfB Stuttgart drew around 15,000 travelling fans.
2. Bundesliga form, cup appetite
Magdeburg are flying into the fixture. Petrik Sander’s side thrashed Karlsruher SC 6-1 last weekend and sit fifth in 2. Bundesliga with 16 points from nine matches.
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Sander, playing down any upset talk, told liga-zwei.de his approach is to lean on what has already worked.
“It is important that we stay true to ourselves and believe in what makes us strong.”
Bayern’s own opponent profile frames the tie as the “Spiel des Jahres”, the match of the year, for the Saxony-Anhalt club.
Danks in the dugout for Kompany
Bayern will take the field without head coach Vincent Kompany, who collapsed at the club’s training ground on Friday 23 October and remains in hospital. Sporting director Max Eberl has said the Belgian will be out for “weeks, not days”, with no diagnosis or return date yet announced.
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Assistant Aaron Danks will take charge again on Wednesday after leading the side to a 3-1 Bundesliga win over Freiburg at the weekend. Manuel Neuer, Jamal Musiala, Luis Diaz and Aleksandar Pavlovic are out injured, while Joshua Kimmich is absent on compassionate leave following a family bereavement. Harry Kane is available.
Kick-off at the Allianz Arena is 8:45pm local time on Wednesday, with the winner advancing to the DFB-Pokal round of 16.
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