On Wednesday, Bayern Munich play Barcelona in a game which is all but meaningless for Bayern as they have already qualified for the round of 16. However, Barcelona need to beat the Bundesliga side to have a chance of qualifying for the next round.
Barcelona won their last game in the league, beating Athletic Bilbao 4-0 at home with goals from Robert Lewandowski, Sergi Roberto, Ferran Torres and Ousmane Dembele to keep Barca second in La Liga. In the Champions League, they all but ruined their chances of qualifying to the next round as they had to come from behind to draw with Inter Milan 3-3 at home, needing a late equaliser from Lewandowski to give them a slim chance of not dropping down to the Europa League again.
Bayern beat Hoffenheim 2-0 at the weekend to close the gap to Union Berlin at the top of the league to one point. Goals from Jamal Musiala and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting proved the difference in that game. In their previous European game, Bayern comfortably beat Viktoria Plzen 4-2. The Bavarians led 4-0 at half time thanks to goals from Sadio Mané, Thomas Müller and two goals from Leon Goretzka.
All the pressure going into this game is on Barcelona. The Catalans put in a good performance in the first half when the teams first met in Munich earlier on in the group stage, but they were ultimately outplayed by Bayern in the second half. While Bayern can use this game to help them continue to build momentum to help them in their attempts to return to the top of the Bundesliga.
There will be additional talk around some of the young players in this game, with Gavi having beaten Musiala to the Kopa Trophy and Golden Boy award in the same week but with Gavi having gone off injured against Bilbao at the weekend, the face-off between the two may have to be postponed.
As mentioned, Bayern beat Barcelona in the first game 2-0, after a promising performance from Barcelona in the first half, goals from Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sané helped Bayern get off to the best start in the group stages.
Predicted Line-ups:
Barcelona:
Ter Stegen – Sergi Roberto, Koundé, Marcos Alonso, Jordi Alba – Busquets – de Jong, Pedri – Torres, Lewandowski, Dembelé
Bayern Munich:
Ulreich – Pavard, Upamecano, de Ligt, Davies – Goretzka, Kimmich – Gnabry, Musiala, Coman – Choupo Moting
GGFN | Jack Meenan
