Manchester City vs Bayern Munich Preview

The Champions League returns this week as Manchester City face Bayern Munich in arguably the most prominent fixture of the semi-final round.

Both sides are among the favourites to win the title this year given their quality and wealth of resources.

Manchester City, however, are the better team on current form with the Cityzens on a run of eight consecutive wins in all competitions. They are also unbeaten in their last 12 games in all competitions (W10, D2) and have scored a whopping 21 goals in their last four games.

Current Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola swapped the Bayern Munich hot seat for England almost seven years ago and he will be desperate to get a win over his former side in this first leg.

His side finished first in their UCL group for a sixth successive season and they will hope to get a foothold in this tie by extending their impressive 24-game unbeaten run in European home games (W22, D2). In fact, City can make history here as one more win or draw will set a new record for the longest UCL undefeated home run of any English side.

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich have enjoyed a solid run in the Champions League this year. They are the only side to win all their UCL games this season and have been brilliant having won against Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona in this edition.

However, Bayern have been eliminated at this stage of the UCL in the last two seasons and are at risk of failing to reach the semi-final stage for three straight seasons since 2008/09. But the fact that the Bavarians have claimed a result from five of their last seven away games against English opponents should boost hopes (W3, D2, L2), as will the fact that they progressed from 63% of their UCL quarter-final ties (W20, L12).

Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel also has a decent record against Pep Guardiola having defeated City in the 2021 UCL final.