Barcelona will aim to preserve their faint hopes of qualifying for the Champions League knockout phase when they host Bayern Munich at Camp Nou on Wednesday.
As we head into Macthday 5, Barca find themselves third in Group C – three points behind second-place Inter Milan.
Monday recovery and first preparations for Wednesday clash🥁 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐧 🥁 #BarçaBayern pic.twitter.com/FJ77kVlOTi— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) October 25, 2022
Monday recovery and first preparations for Wednesday clash🥁 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐧 🥁 #BarçaBayern pic.twitter.com/FJ77kVlOTi
With first-place Bayern sitting eight points clear of Barca, Xavi’s men can’t afford to slip up on Wednesday. They will also have to rely on results elsewhere to go in their favour.
Barcelona have only managed to win one of their four Champions League games this season, registering one draw and two defeats.
After thrashing Viktoria Plzen 5-1 on Matchday 1, they suffered back-to-back losses against Bayern Munich (2-0) and Inter Milan (1-0) before drawing 3-3 with the Italians last time out.
Despite their disappointing UCL campaign, Barca are enjoying an eye-catching La Liga campaign – having won nine of their 11 league outings while scoring 28 goals and conceding just four.
Following last weekend’s dominant 4-0 victory over Athletic Club, the Catalans will fancy their chances of frustrating high-flying Bayern.
As for the Germans, they have won their four Champions League clashes this term – dispatching Inter (0-2), Barcelona (2-0) and Viktoria Plzen (5-0, 2-4).
Not only have they scored 13 goals across their four UCL clashes (3.25 goals per game), but they have also conceded on just two occasions and kept three clean sheets.
Last weekend, the Bayern claimed a 2-0 away victory over Hoffenheim. As a result, they have lost just one of their 11 Bundesliga games this term – scoring 32 goals in the process.
Having only lost one of their previous 14 Champions League games, the German giants will be confident of claiming all three points on Wednesday.
Head-to-head: Bayern head into this clash on a five-game winning streak against Barca. In the past three meetings, the Catalans have failed to score.
When you look at the bigger picture, Barcelona have managed to win just two of their last ten Champions League meetings with Bayern.
Team news: Barcelona will be without the injured quartet of Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Memphis Depay and Sergi Roberto on Wednesday.
Bayern also have four injury absentees at the moment, with Lucas Hernandez, Manuel Neuer, Leroy Sane and Bouna Sarr set to miss the trip to Spain.
Given that Bayern have won the last five meetings by an aggregate score of 19-4, the visitors are expected to outperform the hosts once again.
Forbet predicts that Bayern Munich will score over 1.5 goals on their way to dispatching Barcelona at Camp Nou.