Bayern Munich vs Manchester City Preview

Bayern Munich will welcome Manchester City to the Allianz Arena this Wednesday for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.

The Bavarians are looking to overturn a three-goal deficit in this tie having suffered a 3-0 defeat when they visited the Etihad in the first leg. The aftermath of that game was overshadowed by the altercation between Sadio Mane and Leroy Sane that saw the Senegal international draw blood from the German winger.

The ex-Liverpool winger has since apologised and reintegrated back into the squad, so the focus for Thomas Tuchel will now turn to getting his side back to winning ways.

The ex-Chelsea coach has not enjoyed his reign at Bayern, with just two wins in five games (D1, L2), including a 1-1 draw with Hoffenheim last weekend. Ahead of this game, Tuchel has maintained his side “won’t give up” as they look to become just the fifth side to progress from a UCL knockout tie after losing the first leg by a 3+ goal margin.

No German side has ever achieved that feat, and the Bavarians now look to avoid losing both legs of a UCL knockout tie for just the third time in their history. But the omens don’t look great in avoiding that feat, considering Bayern have scored more than once in just one of their last six games, while Tuchel has lost each of his last three personal meetings with City boss Pep Guardiola without his side scoring a single goal.

Meanwhile, Manchester City travel to Germany on the back of a ten-match winning run in all competitions, last tasting defeat back in early February (W12, D2 since).

A first-ever UCL title for the club is now firmly in Guardiola’s sights. At the same time, he sits just one win short of 100 in this competition, a landmark only Carlo Ancelotti and Sir Alex Ferguson have reached prior to the Spaniard.

City have good reason to believe that they will win here given that they have suffered just one defeat from their 20 meetings with German opposition in the UCL (W16, D3) but it likely won’t be plain sailing, as the Cityzens have won just one of their last six European road trips (D4, L1).