Barcelona visits Bayern Munich on Tuesday (3:00 p.m.) on matchday two of the Champions League, in an exciting ‘return home’ for Robert Lewandowski, who heads the scoring charts for the continental championship.
The azulgrana team faces its first big test at the Allianz Arena in Munich, after beating the Czech Viktoria Pílsen 5-1 on Wednesday, the most humble rival in the key.
Xavi Hernández’s team leads Group C tied on 3 points with their rival on Tuesday, ahead of Inter Milan, third, who will face Viktoria on the same day.
In the victory over the Czech team, Lewandowski stood out with his hat-trick, which allows him to lead the scoring charts in the Champions League.
Surpassed last year by Karim Benzema as the top scorer in the Champions League, the German has accumulated nine goals in six official matches, six of those goals in LaLiga to also lead the solo scorers table.
– ‘Motivated’ –
The Polish striker, star signing of the last market, has not needed much to become a key player for this reinforced Barça, who dreams of raising an ‘Orejona’ that has resisted since 2015.
“I have seen Robert very well, he is calm, calm, he transmits confidence, he is a natural leader,” said Xavi Hernández this Monday at a press conference.
“I imagine it will be a very special match for him, but he is motivated”, added the Barça coach, who once again considered it “very important”.
The Pole saw the door again on Saturday in the 4-0 win over Cádiz, a match in which Xavi made many rotations thinking about Tuesday’s match, in which Barça will play for the leadership of the group with the German team.
Lewandowski will once again be the center of the Barça attack on Tuesday, accompanied by the Brazilian Raphinha and Ousmane Dembélé, another of the scorers on Saturday.
– Munich, land to conquer –
Barça visits an Allianz Arena in which they have never won in an official match, including the six times they have visited it to face the German team, where they also look at the return of their idol.
“I don’t know if he is Barça’s most dangerous player, but what is certain is that he is the most dangerous in front of goal,” Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann told a news conference.
“I will be happy if our fans give him a good reception. It’s normal when someone gave so much for the club. Generally, it should be like this. He was an important part of the Bayern family. Glad to see you again,” he added.
The German team receives Barça favored by the statistics in their previous clashes.
Bayern have beaten Barcelona on the last four occasions they have met, with the memory of Barcelona losing 8-2 in the quarter-finals in 2020.
The German team comes to the match after beating Inter Milan 2-0 last week, the other great contender for qualifying for the round of 16.
However, it is not showing the strength of other years with an irregularity that has led it to accumulate three draws in a row in its championship, where it points to third position, two points behind the leader Union Berlin.
On Saturday they could not get past the 2-2 draw with Stuttgart on matchday six of the championship.
