Rafa on Pizza:‘You can’t give Claudio any space at all'

Claudio Pizarro is a veteran among strikers but the Peruvian showed all his footballing class again at the weekend when he lobbed the ball over two opponents and volleyed home for Werder Bremen against Hannover. The long-serving former FCB goal-getter is now 37 and currently leads the Bundesliga scoring chart since the winter break with nine goals as he spearheads Werder’s drive to escape the drop zone.

Pizza returns to the Allianz Arena with Bremen on Saturday. The former Peru captain wore the red shirt of Bayern for a total of nine years (2001-07, 2012-15), winning the league title six times and the DFB Cup on five occasions. He was also a member of the treble winning squad in 2012-13.

Pizarro and Rafinha were team-mates in Munich for three years from 2012-15 and the pair have been friends ever since. Prior to Saturday’s reunion, fcbayern.de spoke to Rafa about Pizza, leading the Brazilian right-back to conclude: “We won’t be friends for 90 minutes on Saturday.”