FC Barcelona vs Bayern Munich Prediction, Preview & Betting Tips

Preview

Joel Amorim May 04, 2015 @ 12:35 am

Next Wednesday, 6th of May 2015, Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich will travel to Catalunya to measure forces with Barcelona at Camp Nou for the first leg of the Semi-finals stage of the UEFA Champions League.

After having overcome Paris SG quite easily on the last round of the Champions League, Barcelona have continued with their demolishing campaign at La Liga. The Blaugranas scored no more no less than 14 goals during their last two league matches and the football they have displayed was truly overwhelming. Last Saturday, Luis Enrique’s boys travelled to Cordoba to smash the local team by 8-0, with Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi putting up some vintage displays. Barça’s attacking game was almost suffocating and Cordoba, who are already condemned to relegation, never managed to cope with such display of power.

Luis Enrique is performing a fantastic job at the helm of Barcelona, but his future at the club remains uncertain. The former Spanish international is a strong willed manager and his relationship with some of Barça’s main stars has not been  particularly peaceful.

The match against Bayern Munich will surely present a major test to the overall skills of this new Barça. Luis Enrique brought with him a new game style to the team, quite similar and different at the same time from Guardiola’s famous tiki-taka, but the truth is that Barça’s game is highly effective and truly overwhelming.

As for Bayern Munich, it is fair to say that they aren’t living the best of moments currently. The Bavarian team experienced some unexpected difficulty in overcoming FC Porto on the previous round of Champions League, especially on the away match, and their recent campaign for domestic competitions has been far from brilliant. After losing to their rivals of Borussia Dortmund in the Pokal semi-finals match in the middle of the week, Bayern lost again last weekend at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen.

It was only Bayern’s third defeat of the season for Bundesliga and since they were already coronated league champions last weekend, it is understandable that they may have somehow decreased the intensity of their game.

It is hard to name any favourites for a match such as this one, however, given Barcelona’s recent demolishing streak, it is fair to say that they gather all the premisses necessary to win next Wednesday’s match and to build a comfortable advantage for the second-leg clash that will take place next week.

Barcelona

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWW

Bayern Munich

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - LLWWW

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - ter Stegen - Dani Alves - Mathieu - Piqué - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Xavi - Iniesta - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Bayern Munich (3-4-3) – Neuer - Rafinha - Benatia - Dante - Bernat - Xabi Alonso - Lahm - Alcantara - Götze - Müller - Lewandowski

Injury List / Suspended Players

Barcelona - None

Bayern Munich - Arjen Robben (inj) - Franck Ribery (inj) (in doubt) - David Alaba (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

Top Players:

Barcelona - Lionel Messi - Luis Suarez - Neymar

Bayern Munich - Robert Lewandowski - Mario Götze - Philipp Lahm

League Positions