Bayern Munich v Manchester City live! Barry Glendenning
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Hats off to the Manchester City delegation, led by life president Bernard Halford, current assistant manager Brian Kidd and former captain and manager Tony Book, who laid a wreath in the Manchesterplatz in Munich to commemorate the Munich air disaster earlier today.
It's common knowledge that 23 people died when the plane that was carrying them crashed on the runway on 6 February 1958, but many of those knucklehead City fans who spent Saturday afternoon at Goodison Park referring to Phil Neville as "a dirty Munich bastard" may not be aware that one of those who perished was the journalist Frank Swift, a former City goalkeeper. Or perhaps they are aware, but just don't care. Who knows?
How Bayern Munich will line up: It looks like they'll go with a 4.2-3-1, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Luiz Gustavo screening the back four and Mario Gomez playing alone in front of a three-man support act comprised of Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller on the left and right of Toni Kroos.
Some scene-setting: On Sky Sports, former Bayern Munich legend Alan McInally speaks from his position in the Allianz Arena. "There's a lot of German people really looking forward to this because Manchester City have come on the scene and spent a lot money," he says, adding that the same folk would like to see their team put City back in their box after! Roberto Mancini promised, in the immediate aftermath of his side's draw with Napoli, that City would beat Bayern Munich in Munich.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Rafinha, Van Buyten, Boateng, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Gustavo, Muller, Kroos, Ribery, Gomez.
Subs: Butt, Petersen, Robben, Usami, Contento, Alaba, Tymoschuk.
Man City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Toure, Clichy, Nasri, Barry,
Toure Yaya, Silva, Aguero, Dzeko.
Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Lescott, Milner, Kolarov, Tevez, De Jong.
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)
Good evening all. Manchester City's players will be hoping their travelling supporters are sober enough to unhand their steins and lurch from the Oktoberfest Schottenhamel tent to the Allianz Arena for their first away fixture in the Champions League this evening. City's task could hardly be more daunting as they march into the belly of a Bayern beast that has won its last nine Bundesliga and Champions League matches, scoring 26 goals and conceding none. Yes, none. Nada. Nil. Null.
Since shipping the only goal of the game against Borussia Mnchengladbach on the opening day of the season, Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has not conceded for 838 minutes. For anyone who's interested, the world record for the length of time a a goalkeeper has gone without conceding is held by Geraldo Pereira de Matos Filho of Vasco Da Gama and stands at a whopping 1,816 minutes. That's the length of time it takes to boil 602 eggs, presuming you like them very runny and do them one after the other in the same saucepan, rather than all together in one big pot. Anyway, I digress
With Bayern top of the group having torpedoed the Yellow Submarine of Villarreal in their opening game, Manchester City are already playing catch-up after creditable but ultimately disappointing draw at home with Napoli on their maiden Champions League voyage. " It is fantastic to play against a club like Bayern,! " said R oberto Mancini in the run-up to the game. "We do not want to lose the game, that is for sure. We want to win it as we always want to win. But we have to improve a lot. We are a good team already, but if we want to become a team like Bayern, to become part of the history of football, we have to learn a lot; we have just played one game in the Champions League."
Bayern manager Jupp Heynckes, who takes on English opposition in Europe for the first time this evening despite 139 previous matches, was equally complimentary when discussing his opposite number. "They have an Italian coach, but still they play quite attacking football," he said. "We anticipate a tactical game on a very high level. For viewers it will very, very interesting. The type of players they have tells us how we can expect them to play quite attacking! But we are in a good shape and I am confident we can improve further. We are very well prepared. Man City have a very strong team but so do we. It will be a challenge for both clubs."
Heynckes revealed that former City player Jrme Boateng will start against old club tonight, while Arjen Robben, Mario Gomez, Daniel Van Buyten and Luiz Gustavo all returned from injury to play against Bayer Leverkusen last weekend. Ivica Oli and Breno (knee and under arrest on suspicion of an arson attack on his own house) miss out tonight, while Holger Badstuber has flu and will see how he feels later. For Manchester City, Mario Balotelli will sit this one out on the naughty step, while Nigel de Jong is still suffering from an ankle injury he picked up against Swansea City back in August. We'll bring you the line-ups just as soon as they appear on the news wires. Or Twitter, which tends to be a quicker, if less reliable source of news than the actual news wires these days.
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