It has been a topsy-turvy debut season for Bayern Munich manager Felix Magath but the hardline coach has come through strong criticism to guide the German powerhouse to the Bundesliga summit at the halfway stage of the 2004/05 season.
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Bayern spend the five-week winter hiatus as league leaders and bookmakers have slashed their odds on them lifting the crown in May 2005.
Munich have been top at Christmas on 14 occasions and gone onto lift the domestic crown on 11 out of those so it looks ominous for the other Bundesliga pretenders.
The 18-time German champions are in the last sixteen of the Champions League, the quarter-finals of the German Cup and top of the Bundesliga.
"We want to win all three competitions and believe we can do this," said the Bayern chief.
That target looked a distant dream during the early stages of Magath's reign with eight points from their first five matches representing Bayern's worst start to a campaign for 25 years.