Julian Nagelsmann expressed his desire to see Robert Lewandowski receive a warm welcome on his Bayern Munich return, as he backed the striker to continue his fine start to life at Barcelona.
Lewandowski, who scored 238 Bundesliga goals during an eight-year spell with the Bavarian giants before heading to Camp Nou in July, has made a scintillating start to his Barcelona career.
The Poland international has scored six goals in his first five outings in LaLiga, and turned on the style with a hat-trick in Barca's 5-1 Champions League thrashing of Viktoria Plzen last week.
Lewandowski will make a swift return to Munich with his new club for Tuesday's huge Champions League fixture, and despite the less-than-amicable nature of his departure, Nagelsmann believes he should be received warmly.
"If I see him before [the game] then I'm certainly going to give him my hand. I'm not sure if I'll see him beforehand, usually I don't," Nagelsmann said.
"I'm looking forward to our fans welcoming him back. When a player has been so strong for the team over the years, I think it's important.
"He was an important part of the Bayern family. We had a personal exchange a couple of weeks back, not regarding football. I am looking forward to seeing him again."
Asked about Lewandowski's start to life in Spain, Nagelsmann added: "I think he can still continue to play at that level for a couple of years, I'm not sure how many goals he can score this season, I'm no genie.
"I think it will be plenty. He has scored 40 plus usually, so I think he can do that in the Spanish league as well.
"I'm not sure if he's the most dangerous, but he's certainly one of their most dangerous players, the one that can score the most goals. They have great solutions there.
"Lewandowski always has great runs and positions inside the box. He's the most dangerous in front of goal, but if he doesn't get a lot of balls, it's difficult [for him]."
Having coached Lewandowski when he brought up a half-century of goals in all competitions last term, Nagelsmann is acutely aware of his talents, and believes Dayot Upamecano's past experiences of facing him could aid Bayern.
"I have plenty of positions that I'm already pretty clear on," Nagelsmann added. "Upamecano has memories of playing against Lewandowski, back when he was at RB Leipzig. He knows him from our practice as well."
While Upamecano is set to start at the Allianz Arena, Leon Goretzka will not, as Nagelsmann looks to ease the midfielder in following his injury lay-off.
"The position next to Joshua [Kimmich] is going to be [Marcel] Sabitzer," Nagelsmann said.
"I've had a chat with Leon, it was my decision to keep him on [against Stuttgart on Saturday]. We decided to keep him on for 94 minutes, that was a long time for him after the injury. He reacted well to it and is feeling good.
"Him having to play from the start is not going to happen, we need him for the whole season and don't want to give him too many minutes at the start."
Meanwhile, Barcelona have suffered eight Champions League defeats to Bayern – twice as many as they have lost against any other opponent (4 vs Milan, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain).
Bayern also boast a 100 per cent record against the Blaugrana in the group stages and beat them twice in the competition last term, but Nagelsmann is keen to draw a line under those past meetings.
"We know Barcelona. They have a completely new mindset. You can delete the last few games against Barca from your memory, it's a whole different team, very aggressive," he said. "It reminds us of when Xavi still used to play himself.
"In Gavi and Pedri they have great number eights that have great pressing actions as well. There's a great development there for the team, Xavi did a few things really well in the last weeks and months.
"They want to attack in a new way, and they're going to be very difficult opponents tomorrow."
Barcelona 3-0 Rayo Vallecano: Lewandowski and Pedri on target as Blaugrana seal second place
Barcelona beat Rayo Vallecano 3-0 in their final home game of the season on Sunday to secure second place in LaLiga.
An early Robert Lewandowski goal and a quick-fire double from Pedri got the job done for the Blaugrana.
The result moved Barcelona to 82 points, four points above Girona, who won 3-1 away at Valencia.
Champions Real Madrid are 12 points above Barca with one more round of games left.
Barca took the lead in the third minute when Lamine Yamal, on his 50th appearance, cut in from the right wing and chipped the ball to Lewandowski, who expertly controlled the pass with his chest and volleyed home.
Although Rayo had their chances to level, Barcelona doubled their lead with some magical footwork from Joao Felix who saw his shot saved but Pedri managed to score from the rebound to give the home side a two-goal cushion.
Barely three minutes later, Pedri spotted a gap in Rayo's high defensive line and he was put through on goal with a long ball from centre-back Ronald Araujo, allowing the 21-year-old to fire home and double his goal tally for the season.
Barca will finish their season away at Sevilla next weekend while Rayo, who are 16th, host Athletic Bilbao.
Data Debrief: Lewy hits 25, again
Lewandowski has now scored 25 goals in all competitions this season.
He has netted at least 25 times in all competitions in each of the last 11 seasons, three campaigns more than any other player in top five European leagues over that period.
Villarreal 4-4 Real Madrid: LaLiga's top scorer Sorloth scores four in thrilling comeback
Villarreal forward Alexander Sorloth struck four times in 17 minutes to help his side fight back and snatch a 4-4 home draw against LaLiga champions Real Madrid on Sunday.
Madrid opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Turkey youngster Arda Guler slotted home a low strike off a Brahim Diaz pass before Joselu doubled the lead with a close-range header on the half-hour mark.
Sorloth pulled one back for Villarreal with a towering header in the 39th minute, but Lucas Vazquez restored Madrid's two-goal advantage a minute later, before Guler made it 4-1 in the final seconds of the first half.
But the hosts rallied after the break, with Sorloth scoring three goals in eight minutes, between the 48th and 56th minutes, as he reached 23 league goals this season to take LaLiga's Golden Boot award.
A second-half collapse will frustrate Carlo Ancelotti in the final league game of the season, with a Champions League final to come against Borussia Dortmund on June 1, but Madrid still achieved another record here.
Los Blancos surpassed the best unbeaten run in their entire LaLiga history after making it 31 games undefeated, eclipsing the previous record set between May 1988 and April 1989 with Leo Beenhakker as coach.
Data Debrief: Shot-heavy Sorloth delivers
Sorloth attempted nine shots in this game, the joint-highest total for a player in LaLiga this season, but those efforts paid dividends for his eye-catching four-goal haul.
He had played five games against Madrid and failed to score in all of them before this, against no other opponent has he played more games without scoring in the competition, but delivered emphatically here.
Atletico Madrid 1-4 Osasuna: Hosts certain to finish fourth after heavy defeat
Raul Garcia scored in each half as Osasuna secured their first win at Atletico Madrid since 2009, beating the hosts 4-1 in LaLiga on Sunday and handing them their second home loss of the league campaign.
The visitors scored in the 26th minute when Alejandro Catena headed it down inside the box for Garcia to score.
Osasuna doubled their lead in the 52nd minute with Atletico keeper Jan Oblak's block falling to substitute Aimar Oroz for a close-range finish.
Atletico struck back three minutes later with substitute Alvaro Morata scoring off Angel Correa's cross from the left.
But Garcia restored Osasuna's two-goal cushion in the 64th minute, before Lucas Torro sealed the victory, hammering home with his right foot in the 88th.
Osasuna's first win in seven matches lifted them to 11th place in the league with 44 points from 37 matches. Atletico, who have 73 points, will finish fourth after falling five points behind third-placed Girona.
Data Debrief: Difference in finishing proves decisive
Atletico managed 14 shots on goal, compared to Osasuna's total of 15, the expected goals battle was also close (1.72 v 1.84) and the hosts edged the possession count with 56.7%.
But clinical finishing from Osasuna was the difference, with six of their shots finding the target and four of them beating home goalkeeper Oblak.
Atletico, meanwhile, only had one other attempt on target apart from Morata's goal. Griezmann (four), Samuel Lino, Rodrigo De Paul and Correa (all two) combined for 10 attempts, with only one of those working Sergio Herrera in the Osasuna goal.
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