FC Bayern will host FC Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, April 23rd at the Allianz Arena.
Bayern already won the Bundesliga title and is leading the Bundesliga by 20 points. Bayern literally celebrated football in the last weeks and scored 15 goals in the last 4 games. In recent weeks, they have beaten Hamburg (9:2), Frankfurt (1:0), Nurnberg (4:0) and Hannover (6:1). Mario Gomez has been on the forefront scoring 2 hat-tricks in a row even tough he was criticized and benched in previous weeks. Ribery, Robben and Pizarro are other players that are in great shape and always a threat. Bayern has overcome Juventus Turin in the quarter-final and is ready to take on the Catalan side.
Barcelona holding on to a 13 point lead in La Liga. The team of manager Vilanova was lucky this weekend against Levante and won 1:0 at home after a goal from Fabregas. Barcelona also has been challenged in the Champions League by PSG and AC Milan. Barca advanced against both, but the team doesn’t seem to convince as in previous years. Barcelona will be looking to extend their 8 match unbeaten run on German soil especially with Lionel Messi back in the squad after suffering a hamstring injury. However, the last time Bayern and Barcelona met was in the 2008/09 quarter finals which saw Barcelona triumph 5-1 on aggregate.
Zubizarreta, Director of Sport at Barcelona, said: “It will be a demanding match. When you get this far, you already know how difficult it will be.”
Bayern’s Thomas Muller, on the other side, said: “This is it! We want to crown our season, so we’ll go to the limit in every respect, myself included.”
This is the highlight of this years Champions League season and the second leg is scheduled for May 1st at the Nou Camp. Borussia Dortmund faces Real Madrid in the other semi-final on Wednesday, April 24th at the Signal Iduna Park.
