© EuroFootball.com
On Wednesday evening in Barcelona, at the "Camp Nou" stadium, the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal will be played.
After a complete fiasco in Munich, the hosts Barcelona will try to revenge on the excellent football-playing Bayern team.
Barcelona - Bayern Munich
Tournament: UEFA Champions League
Stadium: "Camp Nou", Barcelona
Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)
Date and time: 2013/05/01, 9:45 PM
Live broadcast: TV6 and Viasat Sport Baltic
The Bavarian team led by Jupp Heynckes presented one of the biggest sensations of the last few seasons last Tuesday at home, sweeping aside the Barcelona club by a score of 4-0 and putting the opponents on the edge of the abyss.
In Munich, the home team tore apart the Catalan defense, with the main initiator being Thomas Muller, who scored two goals. Arjen Robben and Mario Gomez also contributed significantly to the victory. Meanwhile, "blaugrana" fell into the German defense trap and did not cause significant problems for goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
The game in Barcelona should be different. The Catalans will be supported by the "Camp Nou" stadium, which can hold almost 100 thousand people, and Bayern has done their job in Germany, so they should pay more attention to maintaining the result and their own defense. However, it should not be forgotten that the Bavarians know how to counterattack and will not miss the opportunity to do so today.
Over the weekend, Barcelona last visited the old "San Mames" stadium, where they faced the Basque team "Athletic". The Catalans conceded the first goal but later turned the score around, yet they failed to secure a victory, and the match ended in a 2-2 draw.
Meanwhile, the Bayern club on Saturday allowed themselves to relax against the "Freiburg" team, and most of the main players of the team rested. Nevertheless, the team managed to secure a narrow victory, decided by Xherdano Shaqiri's goal.
Predicted starting lineups:
"Barcelona"
Valdes
Alves - Pique - Bartra - Adriano
Xavi - Song - Iniesta
Pedro - Messi - Sanchez
"Bayern"
Neuer
Lahm - Boateng - Dante - Alaba
Martinez - Schweinsteiger
Robben - Muller - Ribery
Mandzukic
After serving a one-game suspension, defender Adriano Correia returns to the ranks of Barcelona. Meanwhile, his place in the list of suspended players will be taken by the same position player Jordi Alba.
Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano have not fully recovered and will not appear in the match, while team captain Carles Puyol continues to recover from a knee injury and will watch the match from the stands. Eric Abidal stretched a thigh muscle during the match with "Athletic" and will also not be available to the team.
The Bayern team will still be without defender Toni Kroos, who recently underwent knee surgery, and after serving a one-game suspension, Mario Mandzukic will return to the team.
Javi Martinez, Mario Gomez, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Luiz Gustavo, Dante, and Philipp Lahm, all of whom received yellow cards in the first leg, risk missing the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium, but team strategist Jupp Heynckes has confirmed that these players will not be rested.
Predictions from the Eurofootball.com team:
Paulius Ambrazevicius: "Barcelona" 1 - 1 "Bayern"
Paulius Jakelis: "Barcelona" 2 - 1 "Bayern"
Gediminas Reklaitis: "Barcelona" 2 - 2 "Bayern"
Valdas Dambrauskas: "Barcelona" 1 - 1 "Bayern"
Arturas Rimkevicius: "Barcelona" 2 - 2 "Bayern"
