Buoyant Bayern head home from Qatar
FC Bayern München are heading into the Rückrunde with a spring in their step after their week-long training camp in Qatar.
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Carlo Ancelotti and his technical staff put the Bundesliga leaders through 11 gruelling training sessions in the Doha sun, and the benefits were clear as Bayern skipped to a 5-0 win over Belgian outfit KAS Eupen in Tuesday's friendly.
"The training camp was super," enthused Thomas Müller ahead of Bayern's return to Bavaria on Wednesday. "We really trained well and were able to have some sessions that we didn't have so much time for in the Hinrunde. We also did some work without the ball in sand, which was really tough! We hope that we'll feel the benefit of that.
"The team spirit was good, we had a lot of fun and some intense training games. We brought things to a fine end with the friendly. The conditions here were great, everything is so simple: train, eat, sleep. Now we're looking forward to the fact that things will get underway again soon."
Watch:Carlo Ancelotti knew Bayern's training camp would be important for the team
Bundesliga business will resume for the defending champions at SC Freiburg on 20 January, though Bayern have time to hone their preparations still further with the Telekom Cup on Saturday.
Ancelotti's men will face second-tier hosts Fortuna Düsseldorf over 45 minutes before Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FSV Mainz 05 go head-to-head over a half at the ESPRIT Arena.
The respective winners and losers of those matches will then face each other in a 45-minute game later in the day to determine the final placings.
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