© EuroFootball.com
On Tuesday, the Champions League second round matches begin.
Lithuanian neighbors BATE face a very difficult task - to stop the Munich "Bayern" team, which this season has no equal opponents and aims to win the tenth victory in a row in all tournaments.
The latest victims of Jupp Heynckes' pupils were Bremen's "Werder", who were defeated 2-0. Meanwhile, BATE can boast of last Friday's victory against Grodno "Neman" (5-1).
Among the guests, Mario Gomez and Arjen Robben are currently recovering from injuries.
Predicted line-ups:
BATE: Gorbunov, Polyakov, Radkov, Simic, Bordachev, Pavlov, Likhtarovich, Volodko, Bressan, Hleb, Rodionov.
"Bayern": Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Badstuber, Martinez, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Kroos, Ribery, Mandzukic.
Interesting match facts:
BATE have already played against representatives of Bavarian football. In 2002, in the Intertoto Cup tournament, the Belarusians beat the "1860 Munich" team with an overall score of 5-0.
The Barysaw team includes the famous Aliaksandr Hleb, who in the past has tasted the flavor of the Bundesliga - the 31-year-old midfielder represented clubs like "Stuttgart" and "Wolfsburg".
Munich's "Bayern" will try to improve the team's reputation that has deteriorated since the end of last season by playing away matches in the European tournaments - out of the last five games, the Germans won only one.
BATE cannot find equal opponents in Belarus - they have won six consecutive championship titles.
A few weeks ago, during the World Cup qualifying matches, Franck Ribery scored a goal against the Belarusian national team, but so far he has not been able to score for "Bayern". On that occasion, the Belarusian team was represented by Maksim Bordachev, Vitali Rodionov, Artem Radkov, Renan Bressan and Denis Polyakov.
Last weekend's victory for "Bayern" against "Werder" forced the dust off an old record in the history books - the last time the Munich team played so successfully was in the 1984-85 season.
