THE Bundesliga is back this weekend and the opening fixture of the season will see Bayern Munich square off with Schalke at the Allianz Arena on Friday night.
The Bavarians have been in breathtaking form since the turn of the year and they will be looking to pick up where they left off after clinching a historic treble last term.
Hansi Flick steered Bayern's big red machine to a record-breaking eighth successive Bundesliga title before overseeing DFB-Cup and Champions League triumphs.
Consequently, Bayern are trading at a general 1/6 in the outright ante-post Bundesliga betting and it will take a herculean effort from the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Co to halt Hansi Flick's Bayern Munich juggernaut.
Schalke, meanwhile, have failed to win any of their last 16 Bundesliga matches, with their last league success coming way back in mid-January.
David Wagner remains in charge of the Royal Blues, however, another season of struggle could lie ahead as the club have been crippled by financial issues, not to mention key players such as Alexander Nubel and Weston McKennie have checked out of the Veltins Arena.
Outright Betting
Bayern Munich have won each of their last 13 Bundeliga bouts and the bookies fully expect that sequence to continue with home win heavily fancied on Friday night at 1/8 with Bet 365.
Schalke are a whopping 25/1 with BetVictor to topple Bayern Munich, while the draw is also deemed unlikely at 9/1 with PaddyPower.
Betting Angles
The bookmaker's prices for this curtain-raiser unsurprisingly suggest that this will be a one-sided affair and as such punters will have to dig deep to try and come up with some value.
Having done just that, one alternative angle that I like the look of is the combination Bayern Munich half time/full time and under six match goals which will give us a nice looking 21/20 odds-against shot with Bet 365.
The above-mentioned combination clicked in six of Bayern's nine league matches following last season's enforced break and I suspect this could be a good way of trying to squeeze some value out of this encounter.
It's also worth noting that Bayern have been winning at both half time and full time in each of their eight showdowns with Schalke and I fancy a repeat on Friday night in what looks like an opening day mismatch.
That line of thought also has me attracted to the 4/5 on offer with PaddyPower for Bayern Munich to score in both halves and for the hosts to hit two or more corners either side of the interval.
The German giants averaged 7.1 corners per-game in the Bundesliga last term – the highest average in the division – and given that both Bayern full-backs and wingers play a key role in the Flick's preferred system I fancy Die Roten to rack up a few corners against an inferior Schalke side.
What's more, star-studded Bayern have scored in both halves in 10 of their last 13 league outings and when digging slightly deeper it can be seen that they have notched at least twice in 17 of their last 20 German top-flight tussles.
With that in mind, I'm happy to have a play on the above-mentioned punt with PaddyPower on a night where Bayern Munich are fully expected to hit the ground running in their bid for a ninth consecutive Bundesliga crown.
This German Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 will be played on Sep 18, 2020 and kick off at 19:30. Check below for our tipsters best Bayern Munich vs Schalke 04 prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
