Bayern copying Barcelona’s model of Champions League success
Published:Bayern Munich’s odds have shortened to 8/1 to win the Champions League following the football lesson that they taught Manchester City and there are certainly similarities between them and favourites Barcelona.
Jupp Heynckes has come in and made an immediate difference, with the team looking the complete opposite from that managed by Louis van Gaal last season that only just scraped into the Champions League.
Heynckes has cleared taken note of the Barcelona model of success and can call on many of the same attributes.
There is a regular goalscorer in attack in Mario Gomez, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben provide the wizardry and Bastian Schweinsteiger is Xavi-esque in the middle of the park.
Meanwhile, there is also the argument that Bayern are better than Barcelona when it comes to defending.
They certainly have the better goalkeeper in Manuel Neuer, while ten straight clean sheets in all competitions shows how well organised Bayern are, with Gustavo steadying the ship and mopping up in front of the back four.
This is in comparison to Barcelona, who have full backs who very rarely venture into their own half and central defenders who are more at home in midfield.
The other leading comparisons between the two are that Bayern are happy to string 40 passes together in order to keep possession, while without the ball, they hunt in packs of two or three in order to win it back quickly.
Bayern have begun their Champions League campaign with back-to-back victories in arguably the toughest group and will now be heavily fancied to reach the knockout stages.
It is 1/4 in the Champions League odds that Bayern win Group A, ahead of Manchester City, Napoli and Villarreal.
Barcelona are the 13/8 favourites to win the Champions League for the second year in succession.
