FC Barcelona return to La Liga action tonight with a match against Sevilla, but most of the Blaugrana fans will already be looking forward to the two upcoming crunch ties against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
The Bayern Munich match will be particularly special for Hansi Flick, as this is the only club other than Barcelona where he has worked as the head coach, and he will be looking to prove the mettle of his Blaugrana team against such a big side.
In this aspect, the German might have received an advantage as one of Bayern Munich midfielders, Aleksandar Pavlovic, suffered a collar-bone fracture in the 5th minute of the match against Stuttgart, and is ruled out for the upcoming UCL game. Bayern Munich have officially confirmed this injury.
The midfielder trained in Bayern’s youth academy has been an important player for Vincent Kompany since the start of the season. At only 20 years of age, the €50m-rated player has played in 9 games in this campaign, scoring 1 goal and providing 1 assist.
But despite this setback, it was a good night for the Bavarians as they thrashed Stuttgart 4-0, with Harry Kane scoring a hat-trick. However, the match was not as one-sided as the scoreline suggests, as the first goal did not come till the 57th minute.
After the opener, Die Roten continued to pile misery on the visitors with Kingsley Coman scoring the 4th goal after Kane’s hat-trick right at the end of the match.
With this win, Bayern return to the top of the Bundesliga table. However, Kompany will have a selection headache for the upcoming blockbuster tie against Barcelona, as Pavlovic is not available for this game, while another of his star midfielders, Jamal Musiala, was already a doubt.
Still, this Bayern team has enough talent in its ranks to put on a challenge for the Catalans, who themselves have some important midfielders returning from injury, but it remains to be seen whether they will be ready for such an intense game.