UEFA Champions League: Barcelona vs Bayern Munich preview

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May 5th, 2015
Back UEFA Champions League: Barcelona vs Bayern Munich preview

Pep Guardiola returns to the Camp Nou on Wednesday as his Bayern Munich face Barcelona, the club where he triumphed both as a player and head coach. The two giants will fight for a place in the Champions League final. Bayern have produced a memorable tie against Barcelona in 2013, they won the first leg at home 4-0 and then hammered the Spaniards 3-0 at the Camp Nou. There have been eight games between these two teams and Bayern have won five of them, with Barcelona claiming a single success. Ironically, that victory was when Guardiola was in charge of Messi and company.

Barcelona have been in top form recently, they have won their last five games on the bounce, scored 20 goals in the process and kept a clean sheet throughout. Last weekend they battered Cordoba 8-0 to remain top of the table. Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar have scored a record-breaking 108 goals between them this season. Barca have lost just once in their last 32 European matches at the Camp Nou, but that defeat was handed exactly by Bayern back in 2013. There are no injury concerns for Barcelona, so Luis Enrique will field his best possible eleven.

Pep Guardiola had a fabulous four-year spell at Barcelona, winning 14 trophies. Now he tries to achieve similar glory with Bayern, with five trophies so far but no Champions League yet. Last season they were hammered by Real Madrid in the semi-finals, it was 5-0 on aggregate. Last week Bayern were defeated 2-0 at Leverkusen but Guardiola fielded a weakened team as the Bundesliga title had already been secured. Bayern will be without Arjen Robben, ruled out for the remainder of the season, while David Alaba and Holger Badstuber are also unavailable. Franck Ribery and Robert Lewandowski are in doubt due to injuries.

Probable line-ups:

Barcelona: Ter Stegen - Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba - Busquets, Rakitic, Iniesta - Suarez, Messi, Neymar.

Bayern Munich: Neuer - Bernat, Benatia, Boateng, Rafinha - Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Alonso - Thiago, Gotze - Muller

My prediction: Barcelona to win 3-1.

Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:

Barcelona win - 1.72 Draw - 4.00 Bayern win - 5.00

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