Barcelona vs Bayern Munich predictions: Euro big boys to scrap for a draw
- Both clubs are top of their domestic leagues
- Barca beat Young Boys on matchday two, Bayern lost at Aston Villa
- Recommended bet: Draw
Barcelona and Bayern Munich are set for a heavyweight Champions League tussle on Wednesday.
Both sides have won one, lost one in the revamped competition so far but they could end up having to settle for a point from the big midweek showdown.
This mouth-watering Euro clash sees new Barca boss Hansi Flick go up against his old club, while Barca striker Robert Lewandowski faces his former side in a matchday three game laden with sub-plots.
Team news
Barcelona must prepare for the Bayern test without goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen (cruciate ligament), Ferran Torres (thigh), Marc Bernal (cruciate ligament), Andreas Christensen (Achilles) and Ronald Araujo (hamstring).
Bayern have Sacha Boey (knee), Aleksandar Pavlovic (collarbone), Josip Stanisic (knee) all absent, while there are fitness concerns over Jamal Musiala and Hiroki Ito.
The stats
Bayern have a great record against Barcelona, winning 11 of their 15 previous meetings, including all of the last six.
Bayern hammered Barca 8-2 in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2020, en route to winning their sixth European crown.
Barca have won nine of their first 10 LaLiga games this season to sit top, three points clear of rivals Real Madrid.
Bayern are unbeaten in the Bundesliga so far, winning five of their first seven matches to also sit top of the table.
Bayern forward Thomas Muller has eight goals and two assists in his nine Champions League encounters with Barca.
Prediction
After surprisingly losing 2-1 to Monaco on matchday one, Barca bounced back in style by hammering Young Boys 5-0.
Bayern have also had contrasting results in the early stages of the Champions League this term, recording a record-breaking 9-2 victory over Dinamo Zagreb in their opener before slipping to a narrow defeat at Villa.
They both approach the game in fine form, Barca running out 5-1 home winners over Sevilla at the weekend, while Bayern won 4-0 at home against Stuttgart.
The two teams sit top of LaLiga and the Bundesliga, and the clubs' respective extensive European experience means they could end up cancelling each other out on Wednesday, safe in the knowledge a draw in the new League Phase stage is by no means a bad result.
With three points on the board so far, another one here against rivals expected to finish alongside them in the top eight will not be sniffed at by either Flick or his opposite number, Vincent Kompany, so an entertaining draw may well play out at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.
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