08:42 PM
MISSED PENALTY!!
BREAKING NEWS: Erling Haaland is human…he’s skied the penalty by a good foot or two. He was made to wait but that’s still a big miss.
08:40 PM
PENALTY FOR MAN CITY!!!
Gundogan has a shot on the edge of the box, it’s defected and Sommer saves. BUT Turpin points to the spot, Upamecano has handled the ball. The replay reveals it’s harsh but you can see why it’s given….the Bayern defender is also given a yellow. He’s had a lively game, been shown a red and a yellow in the first half hour.
08:38 PM
32 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Rodri losses the ball in his own half and Musiala breaks clear and drives towards the box. But in trying to find Sane he loses the ball.
08:37 PM
31 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
City have weathered the early storm and Bayern are finding harder to get in behind the visitors’ defence. The hosts have enjoyed 61 per cent possession but are finding it increasing tough to create clearcut chances with it.
08:35 PM
28 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
From the resulting corner Choupo-Moting tries to flick on but only succeeds in heading it over for a goal kick.
08:34 PM
26 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Pavard charges forward on the right and centres for Musiala who feels he’s fouled by Rodri, the replay suggests he has a case but Turpin waves play on much to the Bayern youngster’s dismay.
A minute later Pavard is again delivering a cross from the right and earns a corner in the process, you feel Bayern need at least a goal before the break.
08:30 PM
Oliver Brown at the Allianz Arena
Bayern supporters are howling with derision at Clement Turpin, the French referee. They did not much like it after Turpin arrived on the field four minutes late after struggling to communicate with his assistants, but they just gave him a bombardment of abuse for his initial straight red card against Dayot Upamecano. Count it as a reprieve that he had to rescind it once the offside went up. Turpin is enduring a torrid evening.
08:29 PM
22 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Another good chance for Bayern – they play to the right through the middle, the ball comes to Sane who seems unwilling to pull the trigger. The momentum is lost and his pull back for Goretzka is skied well high and wide. Another waste.
08:27 PM
The moment Bayern were nearly down to 10 men
They were saved by the assistant referee’s flag…
08:25 PM
20 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Coman has the beating of Ake on the right and wins a free-kick in the final third. Sane has a go and Ederson saves well at the near post, albeit there would have been questions had that one found the back of the net.
08:24 PM
18 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Haaland is through and brought down by Upamecano that’s surely a red and Clement Turpin does indeed brandish the red card BUT the City striker was offside and so the Bayern defender is given a reprieve…it would have been game over had the hosts been down to 10 men. The replay show it was offside but only just…
Meanwhile, Tuchal has been shown a yellow for arguing on the touchline, not sure what about…
08:22 PM
16 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Great chance for Sane to score against his former club – that should have been 1-0. Bayern turn the ball over in their own half, Sane is played through. The German international shows his pace and is clean though with a one-on-one with Ederson. He dinks the ball over the on-rushing keeper but his attempt is wide. Cliche alert – you have to take chances like that if you are to come back from this deficit.
08:19 PM
14 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
First attack and chance for City – Bernardo dances into the area on the right and plays in De Bruyne who pulls the ball back for Gundogan, but Sommer in the Bayern goal claims well.
08:18 PM
13 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Still Bayern with the majority of possession but City keeping them at arm’s length at the moment.
08:16 PM
10 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Cancelo sees yellow against his parent club for a late tackle. Not the start to the match the Portuguese would have wanted.
08:14 PM
8 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Another rampaging run from Coman on the right – he’s had a great, menacing start – sees him get to the byline, he pulls the ball back and Dias just gets a vital touch with danger lurking in the middle.
As I said, Bayern have started well and there’s been enough hints to suggest that this tie isn’t necessarily over yet.
08:13 PM
6 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Ake tries to find Grealish but it goes out on the full and Bayern have a throw. They go backwards before a ball over the top on the right sends Coman chasing down the flank, he delivers another fine cross for Choupo-Moting that is just too long. Another warning sign for City. There’s been enough so far to give the hosts hope.
08:10 PM
What will give the hosts hops is that they have this lot backing them
08:08 PM
4 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Man City are far from sitting back – they’re pressing high, did we expect any different from a Guardiola side?
Bayern still with the lion’s share of possession but Choupo-Moting passes the ball out of play and the promising move comes to an abrupt end.
08:06 PM
2 mins: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
Bayern with more of the possession so far and Coman delivers a cross for the right that is well dealt with by Stones. A warning from the hosts there, Choupo-Moting was waiting in the six-yard box.
08:04 PM
1 min: Bayern Munich 0-0 Man City (0-3 agg)
They’re under way in Bavaria after waiting for the ref, Clement Turpin, who was trying, I think to sort out his comms with his assistants. The hosts are in their famous red strip and City in their garish yellow and navy number.
There’s only one way this is going to finish up, no? We’re about to find out…
07:59 PM
The teams are out on the pitch
The rather grandiose Uefa anthem (a sporting governing body grandiose? Perish the thought…) has blared out and we’re moments away from kick-off.
07:57 PM
Oliver Brown at the Allianz Arena
Every announcement of a City player’s name has just been roundly booed by Bayern Munich fans, but they fell into respectful silence at the mention of Pep Guardiola, the manager who steered them to three successive Bundesliga titles before his departure in 2016. The incumbent, Thomas Tuchel, who learned much battling with Guardiola in his time leading Borussia Dortmund, is already under pressure. Bayern are out of the DFB-Pokal, Germany’s premier cup competition, after a tame loss to Freiburg, and could only draw with Hoffenheim last weekend. Rejecting any talk of institutional decline, he claims that the club are simply ‘in transition’.
07:53 PM
Thomas Tuchel speaks to BT Sport – ‘We have to take it step by step’
On whether this is as tough a task as his team could have…
“Yes, you’re right but cannot get overwhelmed by the scale of what we have to do. We have to take it step by step. If we win both halves then it’s realistic.”
On Cancelo facing Man City tonight…
“We don’t change position today, we don’t have enough time for this. We hope he can have one or two shots and some good assists.”
07:50 PM
Pep Guardiola speaks to BT Sport – ‘it will be tough’
“It’s an honour to be here – it will be a tough game. We have to focus on the game, not the future, future, future, future.”
07:43 PM
Some inspiration for Bayern
These are the ties that saw sides come back from three-goal deficits in the Champions League…
2019
Barcelona 3-0 Liverpool
Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona
2018
Barcelona 4-1 Roma
Roma 3-0 Barcelona
2004
AC Milan 4-1 Deportivo La Coruna
Deportivo La Coruna 4-0 AC Milan
07:32 PM
Des Kelly is speaking to Lother Matthäus on BT Sport
Having originally had his old Bayern Munich team as favourites the first-leg defeat means he now has City as favourites, big call…In fact he says the chances of the hosts coming through tonight are ‘impossible’.
Whenever I think of the German great I think of his wonderful performances in Italia 90 and the chapter of his autobiography his one-time team-mate and arch-rival Stefan Effenburg dedicated to him – it consisted of a blank page under the title: “What Lothar Matthaus knows about football.” Harsh…
07:26 PM
Ederson inflating the ball up
I find it easier to use a pump…
07:07 PM
City unchanged
Pep Guardiola has put his faith in the same team who beat Bayern 3-0 at the Etihad last week. Eight of those players started against Leicester at the weekend but many were hauled off before the end in preparation for this.
Phil Foden returns to the bench after recovering from the appendix surgery.
07:03 PM
Big selection news
Joao Cancelo starts for Bayern Munich tonight against the side he is currently on loan from.
07:00 PM
‘We face 11 players, not their history’
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola:
We don’t play against what they achieved, but having something like that is something special.
We must focus on what we have to do to control the game, punish them, come here to win the game in Munich against one of the most historic teams in the competition.
06:58 PM
Bayern’s dressing room bust-up
In the wake of Bayern’s first-leg hammering, the lion’s share of attention was placed not on the performance but on the dressing room bust-up between stars Leroy Sane and Sadio Mane.
Tonight, Sane starts for the German side, with Mane on the bench.
06:50 PM
Team news
06:46 PM
Pep’s ‘incredible memories’
By Oliver Brown, in Munich
For Pep Guardiola, this return to Bavaria could be a sentimental affair. At 3-0 up in a Champions League quarter-final, he could be forgiven for indulging what he has called “incredible memories” of his three years in charge of Bayern Munich. “Ah, Oktoberfest,” he grinned. And yet as he surveyed a potentially defining week in Manchester City’s pursuit of the Treble, the manager admitted in his limited German: “We are here for business.”
Once, City had a habit of folding at these critical junctures in Europe. In 2020, against Lyon, a team that just finished seventh in Ligue 1, they succumbed feebly in the last eight. A year earlier, they had suffered a nightmarish 4-3 defeat to Tottenham at the same stage. This time, there is scant evidence of any lingering fragility. They are among the continent’s true behemoths, bulldozing opponents just when the pressure is highest, while setting what Thomas Tuchel describes as the “benchmark” in Europe.
“We have been at the top of all competitions for six or seven years, and still we are there,” said Guardiola, whose team have struck an irresistible vein of form ahead of this second leg. “First Bayern, then an FA Cup semi-final, then Arsenal next week. I have no doubt how much players want this success. A decade ago, we were watching these matches on TV. Now we are trying to make the semi-finals once again. This is our model. What do you do to achieve it? Be yourself as much as possible.”
Such is City’s aura, Tuchel concedes that Bayern require a “miracle” to turn this match around. “We don’t have to talk about belief at 3-0 down,” he said. “You have to be realistic.” Once, he might have trusted in Bayern’s ominous home record on this stage to kindle hope of an improbable recovery. But City are a vastly different beast with the addition of Erling Haaland. It is not just that the Norwegian is shredding all available scoring records, with 47 so far this campaign. It is the fact that he is doing so without sustaining any injuries. Here at the Allianz Arena, he is about to make his 41st appearance this season: the most of his young career to date, and it is still only mid-April.
“He has only missed one game so far,” said his team-mate Ilkay Gundogan, smiling. “Our medical department is one of the best in the world. I’ve been playing here for seven years and always been looked after very well. There was only one injury, and that was an accident. Erling knows what his body needs to perform at such a high level every few days. And we need the best possible version of him.”
If Guardiola seemed a touch tense, it was because he knew precisely what was at stake. The last time he confronted Tuchel in the Champions League, it was in the 2021 final in Porto, where City’s outwitting by Chelsea drew accusations that he had tinkered with his starting XI too much. So, when informed of Tuchel’s tributes to City’s strengths, he was wary of accepting the compliment. “I was here at Bayern, and I know the mentality of this club,” he reflected. It’s everywhere, it’s in your skin. Everything is possible.”
For all his circumspection, his side are overwhelming favourites to advance. Guardiola has the luxury of being able to call again on Phil Foden, fit again after appendix surgery, even if he has been usurped in City’s pecking order by Jack Grealish. Plus, there is an inescapable sense that Bayern are not the force they were. In their last four matches, they have scored just three goals, all by defenders. Tuchel, still adjusting to the scale of the task after Julian Nagelsmann’s sacking, was visibly irritated at the suggestion the club were “in demise”.
“I don’t feel a club in demise, I feel a club going through change,” he shot back. “Big leaders have left the club. We need a bit of time. Bayern have still been champions 10 years in a row. If that is demise, I think a lot of clubs would want to be in demise.”
A multi-lingual talent head, Allen is fluent in languages such as Spanish, Russian, Italian, and many more. He has a special curiosity for the events and stories revolving in and around US and caters an uncompromising form of journalistic standard for the audiences.