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UEFA Champions League: Makaay makes rapid recovery to bolster Bayern attack [Thu Sep 15th, 2005]
Vienna (AFP) - Bayern Munich manager Felix Magath admitted the absence of Dutch stiker Roy Makaay was pivotal behind his team's quarter-final exit to Chelsea in last season's UEFA Champions League, so his return for start of the 2005/06 campaign is a real shot in the arm.
Dutch international striker Makaay missed the weekend 2-1 win over FC Nuremberg with a knee injury, but has recovered in time to face Rapid Vienna in Bayern's opening Group A fixture.
"We are sure that Roy will be fit to play some part in Vienna," confirmed Magath. "He scored a few goals in training and appears to have got over his injury."
Argentine midfielder Martin Demichelis is also back in contention for Bayern's short trip to the Austrian capital.
The 2001 champions are in fine fettle after winning a record 13 league matches in a row with four coming in the new season.
Rapid, making their second appearance in the competition, have few stars to match the likes of Makaay, Brazilian World Cup winner Lucio or German international captain Michael Ballack, but one player has a point to prove.
Club captain Stefan Hofmann failed to cut the grade at Bayern and left the club in 2002 after making just one first team appearance.
"Bayern were the opponents I wanted most," said Hofmann. "Now I can show how much I have improved."
Bayern and Rapid have met just once before, in the quarter-finals of the 1967 European Cup Winners' Cup, a now defunct competition, with Bayern triumphing over two legs before going on to lift the trophy.
Rapid may have lost that tie on aggregate, but they did win the first leg 1-0 in Austria, and would settle for that score this time around. For Bayern anything but victory would be considered failure.
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