Next Wednesday, 17th of September 2014, Manchester City will travel to Bavaria to measure forces with the all-powerful Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena for both sides opening match at this season’s UEFA Champions League campaign.

Last Saturday, the current German champions, Bayern Munich, returned to wins at the expenses of Stuttgart after a somewhat pale performance against Schalke 04 before the international break. Pep Guardiola’s boys opened the score on the 27th minute thanks to an excellent individual effort by Mario Götze and although they were in control for almost the entire match, they only netted in the second one towards the end, when Robert Lewandowski assisted Ribery and the Frenchman passed the ball through a hopeless Stüttgart’s goalkeeper.

Guardiola is trying to implement a new game style based on a fairly demanding 3-4-3 formation with the newcomer Xabi Alonso working as some sort of deep-lying playmaker in front of the defensive trio. These kind of structural changes take time to implement and so far Bayern have yet to achieve the “glamour” they used to have in the past.

For the midweek match, the Spanish manager will still not be able to rely on the contribution of Javi Martínez, Thiago Alcântara and Bastian Schweinsteiger, all of them sidelined due to injury.

As for the English champions, Manchester City, they arrive at this match hoping to replicate last year’s performance and result, but they will need to work hard in order to achieve that.

Over the weekend, the Citizens granted a 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal on a match where they went to half-time with a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal by Kun Agüero on the 28th minute.

As Bayern, Manchester City are still looking to find their best shape, as the team’s performances so far this season have been marked by a tangible inconsistency.

For the match at Baviera next Wednesday, Manuel Pellegrini is not yet certain if he will be able to count on the Brazilian defensive midfielder Fernando and on the flamboyant Montenegrin striker Stevan Jovetic, both still recovering from recent minor injuries.

The last time both sides met at Allianz Arena, the Citizens clinched a superb 3-2 win and had a top class performance to go along with, but this time it might not be that simple as Bayern will certainly want to avenge such defeat and will want to enter the competition with the right foot.

Bayern Munich

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WDWWL

Manchester City

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - DLWWL

Possible Line-ups

Bayern Munich (3-4-3) Neuer - Bernat - Dante - Boateng - Alaba - Lahm - Xabi Alonso- Göetze - Ribery - Müller - Lewandowski

Manchester City (4-4-2) – Hart - Zabaleta - Kompany - Demichelis - Kolarov - Fernando - Touré - Silva - Nasri - Jovetic - Agüero

Prediction

Bayern Munich 2 Manchester City 1