Bayern Munich will move one step closer to claiming their sixth Champions League title with another win here, but can lightening strike twice for this enterprising Lyon side?
Champions League 2019/2020
Date: Wednesday August, 17th
Kick-off: 20:00
Venue: Estadio Jose Alvalade
After making it thus far and just for the second time in their history, Lyon will have every cause for optimism now. The Ligue 1 club will particularly be full of confidence after that impressive performance last time out.
Despite the odds stacked against them, Les Gones somehow capitalised on a hesitant, spiritless Manchester City performance to beat them 3-1.
Though Kevin De Bruyne had managed to cancel out Maxwell Cornet’s opener deep into the game here, Moussa Dembele came off the bench to net a late double and ultimately land Rudi Garcia’s side a place in this fixture.
They face a different animal in Bayern, it must be said, and will particularly be banking on their disciplined defence and compact set up to see them past a team that has been scoring for fun this season.
Bayern Munich on their part, are the team to beat in this season’s edition. The mad-cap walloping they meted out to Barcelona is still fresh in memory and very much underlined them as potential champions of the title.
That staggering success over Barca was their 19th consecutive victory in all competitions, and there are very few teams at the moment who can match or better that streak.
Die Roten are the first side ever to score eight in a single UCL knockout match, so Lyon will have a lot of work curtailing the effervescence of the German matadors.
Team news
Lyon
Karl Toko Ekambi has surprisingly started
Lyon’s last two Champions League games ahead of Dembele. The latter however, came off the bench and scored twice against City last week and now gives Garcia some selection headache.
Bayern Munich
Bayern remain without the services of defender Benjamin Pavard, who suffered an ankle injury in training last month.
Other than his absence, there are really no absentees for the Bavarians for this clash.
Head to Head
Bayern have won four of the last eight meetings with Lyon, winning each of the most recent three. Lyon had managed to win twice and had drawn against their German opponents on two occasions.
Team form
Lyon last five competitive games: WWLLW
Bayern last five competitive games: WWWWW
Betting tips
In knocking out tournament’s heavyweights Juventus and City, Lyon have now proved themselves a well-drilled outfit that need not be underestimated. The manner in which they stifled Pep Guardiola’s usually potent troops reeked of diligence and perhaps, there could be more to this team than we had already witnessed.
However, it is almost impossible to pick
against a team as confident and incisive as Bayern after watching them pick apart Barcelona last time. The German side have already scored a whopping 39 goals in just nine European outings this season, boasting considerable threats all over the pitch, so we will go with goals here. Over 3.5 at odds of 10/11 is a potential punt worth picking, and is our first pick here.
Thomas Muller scored twice in the demolition job last time out here, and is evens to get in on the act anytime yet at odds of 6/4. So let’s finish off our tips with backing the midfielder to score on the goal-scorers market.
You can view all other betting markets for this game here
Check out our Leipzig v PSG preview and betting tips here.
