Welcome to the best football match of the night. That’s right folks, forget Barcelona v Arsenal: there’s no point, it’s already finished, está terminado. You can watch the Messi highlights reel later. Welcome to snowy Bavaria where we’ve got two juggernauts, both top of their league, both in the form of their lives: Bayern Munich and Juventus. Oh yes, make no mistake, this Champions League last-16 second leg is – like a light that Morrissey kept banging on about – ON.
That’s because unlike events that are about to unfold in Catalonia, this tie is very much in the balance, thanks to a first-leg second half in which Bayern, 2-0 up in Turin, continuously fluffed their lines in front of goal and uncharacteristically let in two the other end, with Juve’s Paulo Dybala and Stefano Sturaro salvaging a 2-2 draw for the Old Lady.
Bayern Munich will still fancy themselves as the favourites. They have the away goals, they have home advantage, they have Pep Guardiola. But what they might not have is a one Arjen Robben – who scored the most Arjen Robben goal of all time in the first leg, an R2 Fifa special, cutting in on off the right flank, feinting to shoot a couple of times before … you know the rest – who is a doubt with a cold. A cold. Holger Badstuber, Javi Martinez and Jerome Boateng are all out, meaning that David Alaba and the young-but-impressive Joshua Kimmich – look set for another night in central defence together.
Juventus, meanwhile, have doubts and absentees of their own. Their best defender Giorgio Chiellini and arguably their most potent attacker Paulo Dybala are notably joined on the sidelines by Claudio Marchisio and Martín Cáceres. Ouch. Gianluigi Buffon will have to live up to his Superman tag to keep Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller and Douglas Costa at bay but for a man that hasn’t conceded in the last 10 Serie A matches – 926 minutes – that might not be an impossible task. Juve only need one more clean sheet, one more goal and they are through.
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT, 8.45pm in Munich
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