Barcelona v Bayern Munich

Wednesday night’s Uefa Champions League semi final action sees Barcelona clash with Bayern Munich and the first leg will be staged at Camp Nou.

Barcelona

Current La Liga Position 1st (as of 4th May)

Last Six League Results W5 D1 L0

Home Record P17 W15 D0 L2 GS 60 GC 9

2014/15 Champions League: P10 W9 D0 L1 GS 23 GC 7

With the exception of a defeat away from home to PSG in the group stage, Barcelona have made short work of all their opponents and they set the record straight with the French Ligue 1 Champions in the quarter finals, winning 3-1 in Paris and 2-0 at Camp Nou. Barcelona also beat Manchester City home and away in the Round of 16 and they are in terrific form with 15 wins and one draw in their last 16 matches in any competition. The last time they won this trophy came in 2011 and they have been crowned Champions of Europe on four occasions in addition to finishing as runners up three times. In La Liga, Barca currently have a two point lead over Real Madrid at the top of the table and the Spanish title race looks set to go down to the wire.

Bayern Munich

Current Bundesliga One Position 1st (as of 4th May)

Last Six League Results W4 D0 L2

Away Record P16 W11 D3 L2 GS 33 GC 9

2014/15 Champions League: P 10 W7 D1 L2 GS 30 GC 8

Bayern are already assured of the German Bundesliga One title but the tail end of their season has seen some key players picking up injuries, most notably Arjen Robben. Bayern coach Pep Guardiola now returns to Barcelona where he played and then coached and his time in charge of the team saw him pick up 14 trophies in just four seasons. Bayern’s strength in this season’s knockout rounds has been on home soil where they have hammered Shakhtar 7-0 and FC Porto 6-1 but their away results against those two sides were nothing like as impressive, a 0-0 draw at Shakhtar and 3-1 defeat at Porto. Bayern have become a regular fixture in the semi finals and they went on to win this trophy in 2013, 2001 and three times during the 1970’s. Bayern have also finished as runners up on five occasions, most recently in 2012 and 2010.

Champions League Overall Head to Head Record

Played 4

Barcelona Wins 1

Draws 1

Bayern Munich Wins 2

Previous Champions League Head to Heads Results

01/05/13 UCL Barca 0-3 Bayern

23/04/13 UCL Bayern 4-0 Barca

14/04/09 UCL Bayern 1-1 Barca

08/04/09 UCL Barca 4-0 Bayern

Bayern will be hoping recent history repeats itself as when they met with Barcelona in the 2013 semi finals they won both legs comfortably and the aggregate score was 7-0. Barca can point to a 4-0 hiding of Bayern at this stadium back in the 2009 quarter finals.

1st Leg Match Result Betting

Barcelona 1.73

Draw 3.75

Bayern Munich 4.50

*Odds are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.

Summary:

Barcelona are in such good form right now they are very difficult to oppose and we think they can win this first leg although whether the margin of victory will be significant enough to make the second leg in Munich a formality is another matter entirely.

Pick: Barcelona to win the first leg @1.73