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Bayern Munich vs Barcelona: Five reasons Pep Guardiola's team can overturn 3-0 deficit

The German side have their work cut out, but still have a chance

Tom Sheen
Tuesday 12 May 2015 11:14 BST
Comments

Never mind that Bayern Munich have now lost four in a row or that star men Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery are missing - this tie is far from over.

1) Bayern have been excellent at home (mostly)

Bayern may have lost their last two at home this season, but that has not been indicative of how well they've played at the Allianz Arena this year.

Bayern have won 19 and drawn one of their 23 matches in front of their home support (82.6 per cent) and have incredibly scored 70 goals in those matches, conceding just eight along the way.

They may be shorn of their two star attackers, but Bayern are still a force in front of their own.

2) They've been here before - in the last round

Cast your mind back to the quarter-final of this competition. After the first leg Bayern were staring an early exit in the face after a shock 3-1 defeat away to Porto.

What happened next? Bayern put in a performance for the ages to go 5-0 up before half-time.

Barcelona will, of course, provide a much tougher test than Porto did, and Bayern did have an away goal, but it's not too much of a stretch to believe Bayern could score three against this side - they had chances in the first leg.

3) The last time the two sides played at the Allianz

One does not have to go too far back into history to see Barcelona being dominated by Bayern in Germany. In 2013, Barcelona arrived and were promptly smashed 4-0 by Jupp Heynckes' team, who went on to win the treble that season.

A lot has changed since then but six or even seven Barcelona players who were part of that defeat will play on Tuesday night. Nightmares like that are hard to forget.

4) Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola took a battering after the defeat last week, with plenty questioning if the Spanish coach got all his success because he was lucky enough to inherit two of the very best teams in the world.

Pep Guardiola will want to prove his critics wrong

There is some truth in that but Guardiola is clearly a very talented manager who has too much pride not to force a big reaction from his team. He knows the Barcelona players better than almost anyone and while that didn't do much for him in the first leg, the Spaniard knows his reputation depends on a performance in this game.

5) Do Barcelona stick or twist?

It's something we've seen plenty of times (Porto, again) in the Champions League over the years, with players and coaches unsure whether to hold on to what they have or to go for the kill and potentially leave themselves exposed.

Barcelona have a commanding lead but if Bayern can get an early goal, the visitors won't be completely sure about how to approach the rest of the match.

Bayern have been poor recently but there is still plenty of football to play.

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