After the historic 8-2 victory over Barcelona in the quarter-finals, Bayern are now just one game away from the Champions League final. Standing in the way on Wednesday are Lyon in the last four.
Bayern Munich will play Lyon on Wednesday in the second of two Franco-German Champions League semi-finals in Lisbon. The other Franco-German Champions League semi-final was between Paris Saint Germain and RB Leipzig on Tuesday night with PSG coming out victorious.
Read more: PSG through to the Champions League final after coasting past RB Leipzig
Lyon, however, have been the surprise package of the final four, having been among the third seeds ahead of the group stages back in September.
They scraped through a group containing Benfica, Zenit Saint Petersburg, and RB Leipzig growing from strength to strength.
Rudi Garcia’s side have hit on a winning formula for playing against more fancied opponents having, shocked Manchester City in the previous round.
The Ligue 1 club’s 3-5-2 set-up will pose Bayern problems, while Moussa Dembele’s double against City demonstrated the quality of Garcia’s options on the bench.
Reflecting on the City scalp, forward Maxwel Cornet says: “It was a great joy for all of us. We had time to recover and to process our feelings because against City it was an incredible night. We really savored those moments, and now we are focused on tomorrow’s match.
Team news
Bayern Munich team news
Bayern Munich defender Benjamin Pavard, who has fully recovered from an ankle injury, could play a part and add quality to the squad from the bench.
Pavard, who had an outstanding season as Bayern won the domestic league and Cup double, injured ligaments in his ankle late last month and has returned to fitness quicker than earlier expected.
He missed their sensational 8-2 demolition of Barcelona in the quarter-finals last week but has now joined up with the team in Lisbon.
Kingsley Coman is pushing for a recall in place of Ivan Perisic, but Flick is unlikely to make changes to his starting XI.
Lyon team news
Following Lyon’s heroics against Manchester City, Dembele could push for inclusion in front of goal after his double from the bench against City, which could mean Karl Toko Ekambi dropping out.
Maxence Caqueret, Bruno Guimaraes, and Houssem Aouar are expected to link up again in midfield.
Stats and facts going into the match (backed by Opta)
- FC Bayern München and Lyon will meet in European competition for the ninth time, with the German side winning four of the previous eight (D2 L2). Indeed, the last time they met was also in the Champions League semi-finals, with Bayern winning 4-0 on aggregate in 2009-10.
- This will be FC Bayern München’s 12th appearance in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, with only Real Madrid (13) reaching the final four of the competition on more occasions; the German side have failed to progress from each of their last four semi-finals, since winning the competition in 2012/13.
- Lyon manager Rudi Garcia is looking to become just the second French manager to lead a French team to the Champions League final, following Didier Deschamps with Monaco back in 2003-04.
- FC Bayern München are just the second side in UEFA Champions League history to win their first nine games in a campaign (after Barcelona in 2002/03 – a run of nine), whilst a victory in this match would see them equal the longest winning run in the competition’s history (10 set by Bayern in November 2013 and Real Madrid in February 2015)
- Lyon midfielder Houssem Aouar has assisted seven goals in his 14 appearances in the Champions League; since his debut season in the competition in 2018-19, only Kylian Mbappé (10) and Riyad Mahrez (eight) have more assists.
- In all competitions, FC Bayern München are on the longest unbeaten run across Europe’s top five league’s (P28 W27 D1 L0), scoring 94 goals during this run (3.4 per game) and winning each of their last 19. In the UEFA Champions League alone this season they have netted 39 goals, with only three sides scoring more in a single campaign in the competition’s history.
- Lyon have not won consecutive Champions League matches in a single campaign since the 2011-12 season when defeating Dinamo Zagreb and APOEL Nicosia; 2019-20 is their fourth Champions League campaign since then.
- Robert Lewandowski has scored in eight consecutive UEFA Champions League appearances for Bayern München – only Ruud Van Nistelrooy in 2003 (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 (11) have scored in more successive matches in the competition’s history; indeed, only Cristiano Ronaldo (17 in 13/14, 16 in 15/16 & 15 in 17/18) has scored more goals in a single Champions League season than Lewandowski this campaign (14).
- In their respective quarter-finals, Bayern’s Philippe Coutinho and Lyon’s Moussa Dembele both scored twice as 75th minute substitutes. They now both jointly hold the record for fewest minutes played in a Champions League knockout match while scoring at least twice (15 minutes).
Prediction
Bayern Munich 4-0 Lyon
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