It is do or die at the Allianz Arena this Tuesday night as Bayern Munich have to repeat the scoreline of the last Bayern v Barcelona match on this ground when they triumphed 4-0 to ensure that they overturn a heavy first leg defeat and book their place in the Champions League in the homeland. The first leg of the tie was a fantastic game of football and despite there being no goals in the first 76 minutes of the match the action was white hot and edge of your seat viewing, now with Pep Guardiola having no choice but to attack and grab goals if his side is progress we feel that this match will be even better than the match at the Camp Nou less than a week ago. Our Champions League Bayern Munich v Barcelona Pick:
Odds:
The German champions come into this match as the favourites for victory according to online bookmaker 10bet.com, yet despite their favouritism the sportsbook does not believe that they’ll win by enough to secure passage to the final in Berlin on June 5th. The Bayern Munich v Barcelona match odds reflect these thoughts in the following manner.
Bayern Munich to win – 2.55
Draw – 3.60
Barcelona to win – 2.65
Team News:
Just like the first leg of this tie, the Germans are the side struggling with injuries as Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, David Alaba, Holger Badstuber and Sebastien Rode are all out of this match. The first three of these players will be especially missed for the German champions as they lacked the ability to unlock the Barcelona defence in the first leg despite having slightly more of the ball and crumbled late on when the first goal hit the back of the net from the Champions League top goalscorer Lionel Messi. However, they may have an attacking option back to start the match from the first whistle in the man that scored the winning goal in the World Cup Final last summer in Mario Götze, but will the 22 year old be able to swing this Bayern v Barcelona second leg match the way of the Germans?
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has had things much easier than his counterpart and man that once occupied his place at the Camp Nou as not only does the Barcelona boss have the same complement of players available from the convincing first leg triumph but with centre back Jeremy Mathieu returning from an Achilles injury the former team-mate of Bayern boss Pep Guardiola has a fully fit squad for this second leg.
Form:
Not only are the home side at the Allianz Arena struggling for players against their Spanish opposition but they are the in trouble form wise too. They come into this most vitally important match of their season having failed to win any of their last four games in all competitions and they have failed to net in any of the last three games too. Taken in context this can be understood as they were beaten on penalties by Dortmund and rested players after 120 minutes having already won the league to ensure the side was ready for the first leg of this tie. It kind of worked too as they lasted 77 minutes at nil-nil before conceding and trying to rest players at the weekend for this match too. They were beaten 1-0 at home by Augsburg after seeing goalkeeper Pepe Reina red carded.
However, despite this dour form Bayern certainly know how to put on a show in front of their own fans in Europe as this season has seen five matches, five wins and 19 goals scored with just a single goal conceded – when they were 5-0 up against Porto in the last round. With this fine home form in the Champions League can Guardiola fine the perfect balance this time around to ensure goals from his men while keeping a clean sheet?
The Spanish side, who can claim the Spanish title with a win against Atlético Madrid when, or if, the league suspension for the final two games is lifted, bring an 18 game unbeaten run into this match and will be full of confidence for this clash after last week’s triumph. On top of this lossless stretch they have won all of their last eight matches scoring 28 goals and conceding just once as they have kept seven clean sheets in a row before this final four clash. They lost their first Champions League away match 3-2 at PSG in the group stage, but since then they have won four in a row scoring 11 goals and conceding just twice. Both of those two goals came in their last two away European games, but can they triumph in this semi final game with a clean sheet?
Final Thoughts:
Although the match odds suggest that we’re likely to see a home win, albeit a close one, in this Bayern Munich v Barcelona match we feel that the lack of confidence showing in the set of results of the Germans right now leave them in trouble against one of the, if not the, best team in Europe. They do have to come out swinging in this second leg though if they are to stand any chance of getting anything out of the game so, if pushed, we fancy the home team to score the first goal in this match, but we expect goals once again between these two teams and our money is on the most lethal attacking trio in world football right now in Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar to blow away the Germans and we’re, once again, backing a Barcelona victory with goals.
The 10bet Sportsbook offers Barcelona to win and +2.5 goals in the match at odds of 3.20 and we’re all over this as the Spaniards look to march into the Champions League Final.