German giants FC Bayern Munich will face the Dutch national team in an ill-timed exhibition match today evening. The match at the Allianz Arena is played just three days after Bayern’s disappointing UEFA Champions League final loss against Chelsea FC at the same venue.
The match is the result of a dispute between FC Bayern Munich and the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) with respect to the absence of Arjen Robben for one half of the 2010/11 season due to an injury sustained at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa.
“Obviously, it’s a very special backstory and a very special match,” Arjen Robben told to Bayern’s official website.
One has to wait and see, if the Bayern team will be ready to face the Dutch team in the season closer, after going down dramatically to Chelsea FC on Saturday. Many fans, media and even officials feel the match has been scheduled wrongly with the UEFA EURO 2012 approaching quickly.
“The question is which players will actually be part of the line-up on Tuesday,” VfB Stuttgart and Netherlands defender Khalid Boulahrouz told “Radio Netherlands”. “After all, they’ve had a very busy calendar. But for us, it’s one of the matches to prepare for the championship finals, which means we’ll take it very seriously, like any other match.”
Germany coach Joachim Löw would have preferred that his dejected Bayern players get a few days off, before they join the Germany camp at the end of this week. “Why not delay the friendly by a month when the European tournament ends,” Löw asked recently.
The Netherlands squad has arrived today morning in Munich from their EURO preparation camp in Lausanne (Switzerland), while Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes conducted a training session at the club ground at the same time.
Indian origin winger Luciano Narsingh might play against Bayern today evening. The 21-year-old PIO from SC Heerenveen is yet to earn a senior international cap, but he is hoping to find a place in Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk’s final UEFA EURO 2012 squad.
The match is scheduled to kick-off at 20.30 CET (24.00 IST | 19.30 GMT) with additional coverage available at www.facebook.com/cpd81