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Milan's "Inter" against Munich's "Bayern" - an uncompromising battle awaits. About it, our portal tells the story of the German club's enthusiast Tomas.
It was fate that the finalists of last season's Champions League, meet in the very first stage of this season's knockout phase. The first match will take place in Milan, Italy, at the "Giuseppe Meazza" stadium. The whole football world eagerly awaits the meeting of the most powerful European teams from last season. It is a rematch of the final, although this time in two matches.
I will share my thoughts about the first meeting, which I have been eagerly anticipating for weeks, and about the Munich team itself.
Changes in the lineup
Compared to last year's final, there are changes in the starting lineup of the Bayern team, and they are, I would say, positive. For a couple of months now, the team's main goalkeeper has been Thomas Kraft, replacing Jorg Butt. Coach Louis van Gaal decided to give a chance to the young player hoping that he will show his skills and the team will not need to buy a goalkeeper in the near future, although many fans would like to see either Manuel Neuer or Rene Adler, who are currently considered top German goalkeepers.
The team no longer has the two central defenders who played in the final, through whom both goals were conceded. This time, the young German football talent Holger Badstuber will come out onto the green field, alongside him, following the Bayern matches of this season, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk will appear, who is more of a defensive midfielder, but this season he has proven that playing as a defender he can handle his tasks well and not yield to top-level defenders. This central defender duo, in my opinion, is much better than Martin Demichelis and Daniel Van Buyten. However, it is worth noting that Bayern needs to strengthen the central defense line as quickly as possible. Let's hope that the central defenders will avoid childish mistakes that have been happening this season.
Speaking of full-backs, on the right side currently plays Philipp Lahm, who is not in the best athletic form, but the team captain has a lot of experience both from club matches and from matches with the national team. Therefore, I believe that he will play solidly in this match and will be one of the team's leaders. On the other side, somewhat unexpectedly for me and other Munich team fans, the winter acquisition Luiz Gustavo plays. The player, in my opinion, was supposed to replace the departing Mark van Bommel. Joining the team was difficult for him, but watching the last few Bundesliga matches gives the impression that he has already adapted to the team and is playing in a somewhat unusual position.
The most important changes compared to the final are in the defensive line. On the field will appear Franck Ribery, who missed the final due to, in my opinion, too harsh a punishment. He, together with Dutchman Arjen Robben, form the most powerful attacking duo in world club football at the moment. They are even called by one name, simply - Robbery. When this duo is on the field together, opponents have a very hard time trying to stop them. And they are stopped quite heavily, often injured, so for Bayern fans it is a real celebration when they run onto the field together and create real football miracles.
It is worth keeping an eye on how the team's playing style rises in the national championship when the team gets used to both players' game and thinking. The "Inter" players Chivu, Zanetti, and Maicon will have to watch them very carefully, but without crossing any boundaries, as some players receiving a card would have to miss the return match at the Munich "Allianz Arena."
In the center of the defensive line, as always, reigns one of the best safeties in the world at the moment - Bastian Schweinsteiger, whom, in my opinion, in these matches should be supported by Danijel Pranjič. It will be a real challenge for them to deal with the excellent Wesley Sneijder.
"Bayern's" attacking line has been shining recently, and it should cause much concern for Inter's coaches. Thomas Muller, playing a bit withdrawn, is undoubtedly the best striker in his age group in the world at the moment. He forms an excellent duo with the goal machine of this season - Mario Gomez, who should appear in the starting lineup, although after the weekend league match he complained of shin pain. However, the very experienced Miroslav Klose is sitting on the bench, who, according to the coach, is in excellent shape and would certainly not spoil the picture on the field.
However, strategist Louis van Gaal is very unpredictable, and anything can be expected from him - he often instructs footballers to play in positions other than their primary one. As an example, I can mention last Saturday's match with the "Mainz" team, when one player played in three different positions, and at the same time there were no real center-backs on the field.
The best defense is offense
This season, the Munich team has conceded quite a few goals, and even leading 2-0, fans cannot be sure of victory because, unfortunately, the defense is the team's weakest link. However, on the other hand, the team scores a lot of goals, so defensive mistakes have to be fixed in the offense.
The same can be said about the opponents this season. This is no longer the same "Inter" team that started everything from defense and patiently waited for their chance. Coach Leonardo is quite different from Jose Mourinho and demands to play beautifully, score goals, but this does not always lead to victories. Therefore, this season is a real test for the Milan fans.
About the chances
As I mentioned earlier, both the Munich and Milan teams are more successful in offense this season than in defense, which gives Bayern players more chances to achieve a positive result in this series.
We are good at controlling the ball, and we do it well, we are good at scoring goals, and we are capable of that as well, so all that remains is to "shut down" Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto'o, and everything is in our hands. We just need to take advantage of the opportunities to score goals.
Assessing my team's chances of advancing to the next stage, I would give 55% to 45%.
