It’s matchday 2 in the UEFA Champions League and the feature match of the round is the one involving 2 of the biggest teams in the competition, FC Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona, at the Allianz Arena in Germany. Thomas Mueller’s favourite fixture on his birthday, but will it all go well for him? Other fixtures that are sure to be interesting to the football fans in the UEFA Champions League matchday 2 include : Liverpool vs Ajax (13, September) and Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund (Wednesday, 14 September).
FC Bayern come into this one as favourites on the mbet.co.za site with odds of 1.90 for the win, while FC Barcelona are expected to have their work cut out for them being at an odds-against of 3.40 for the win, while a draw as a result has a likelihood of odds of 4.25. The two European giants come into this tie with contrasting form, with the hosts having drawn their previous three Bundesliga games and currently sit 3rd on the Bundesliga table. By their standards, the German have been currently underperforming this season, though they won their first Champions League match against Inter Milan by 2-0 and are 2nd in their Champions League Group C.
Barcelona, however, have begun the season in scintillating form and have blasted every single team they faced in both the league and Champions League this season. They currently sit second on the La Liga standings with 13 points, having won 4 and drawn 1 of their 5 games in La Liga so far this season, scoring 15 goals and only conceding 1 so far this La Liga season. The Catalan club opened their 22/23 Champions League in convincing style, blowing away Czech club, Viktoria Plzen, 5-1 and that game saw Barca’s new frontman Robert Lewandowski continue his goal scoring form by netting a hattrick.
It is well worth noting that in recent meetings between these two clubs it was the German side that tended to come out on top against Barcelona. Their most recent clash came in just the previous season (21/22) in the Champions League group stages and it was Bayern who came out victorious in both group matches winning 3-0 in both matches. The biggest victory margin, that probably still haunts Barcelona fans to this day, was witnessed 2 years ago when Bayern Munich tore apart a disjointed Barcelona by a whopping result of 8-2 in the 2019/20 quarter-finals in the Champions League.
Out of the 11 meetings between these two sides in the competition, it is Bayern Munich who have been dominant, winning on 8 occasions and putting 28 goals past the Catalans in these 11 games. While Barcelona have only won 2 games out of the 11 played, and their most recent victory against the Bavarians dates back to 2014/15 (they went on to win the competition that year), winning by 3-0 in semi-final first leg. As compared to the many goals they’ve conceded against Bayern, they have returned only 13 goals against their opponents. Only once were the spoils shared by these clubs in the Champons League. Bayern Munich have won the competition an impressive six times, and Barcelona closely follow that sum with their also impressive five winnings. These two are probably no strangers to each other in the competition.
Speaking of familiarity with the opponents, what adds incentive to this meeting is the interesting fact of Bayern Munich welcoming their former star striker and top scorer in the Champions League (69 goals), Robert Lewandowski. The Polish international is quite familiar with the Munich confines and the personnel of the club having spent 8 successful years at the German capital after joining from Borussia Dortmund as a free agent in 2014. Lewandowski is currently Barcelona’s top scorer this season with 9 goals in all competitions and will be looking to inflict damage on a club that’s certainly endeared to him.
Barcelona legend and now manager, Xavi Hernandez, is feeling confident ahead of this clash and rightly so he should given his team have only conceded 2 goals in 6 matches across all competitions this season and haven’t lot a single game this season. Although Bayern also haven’t lost this season, they’ve been held to draws as many as their win this season and by their very high standards, it can be said that they’ve been underperforming. This will really be a mouth-watering clash because you can never rule out the German club to entertain and score freely, also putting into consideration the form of the Spanish giants. A lot of football fans, whether fans of these two clubs or not, will surely be tuning in to ensure they don’t miss a sure cracker in the football world.
