San Siro in sight for semi-finalists

This season’s UEFA Champions League final takes place at Milan’s hallowed San Siro on 28 May and, with both semi-final ties in the balance, all four remaining clubs harbour realistic ambitions of reaching the showpiece event. Manchester City’s first leg against visiting Real Madrid finished goalless, while Atletico Madrid will defend a 1-0 lead at the Allianz Arena – a venue synonymous with UEFA Champions League drama –against Bayern Munich, for whom Thomas Muller will hope to start.

The fixturesTuesday 3 MayBayern Munich - Atletico Madrid

Wednesday 4 MayReal Madrid - Manchester City

Match of the day
Bayern Munich - Atletico Madrid, Allianz Arena 20:45 (CET)

When Bayern play at home in the UEFA Champions League, entertainment is practically guaranteed. Back in this season’s group stage, Pep Guardiola's men dispatched Dinamo Zagreb 5-0 and Arsenal 5-1, while their thrilling 4-2 extra-time win over Juventus in the Round of 16 second leg was a knockout tie that will live long in the memory.

Last season, Bayern produced more of the same, beating Porto 6-1 in the last eight, Barcelona 3-2 in the semi-final and racking up a 7-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in the last 16. Germany’s record league champions have won their last 11 home games in the UEFA Champions League, and victory against Atletico would equal the record of 12 set by Manchester United between 2006 and 2008.

The Bavarians will no doubt look to build on that formidable home form on Tuesday night, but while they remain on course for a treble this season, their impeccably high standards have appeared to slip of late. Guardiola’s side, showing eight changes from the line-up that featured in Madrid last week, were held to a 1-1 home draw by Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday and missed out on securing a 26th German Bundesliga title.

After the game, Muller admitted something was missing from their play. “We’re lacking fluency in our game, and we’re not able to score many goals right now,” said the FIFA World Cup™ winner and top scorer at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Yet while Bayern's goals-per-game ratio has indeed dropped from three to two since the end of the winter break, Muller is confident they will set the record straight against Atletico and equal AC Milan’s record of reaching a sixth final in the UEFA Champions League era.

“We’re still looking for that special ingredient [but] we’ll use the emotions to our advantage," Muller said. "We’ll give it absolutely everything we have and then we’ll see where that gets us. We need an explosive performance.”

For Atletico, Uruguayan defensive lynchpin Diego Godin, perhaps the clearest embodiment of his coach Diego Simeone’s philosophy on the pitch, will likely return after missing the first leg with injury. Like Bayern, Simeone’s men are also in the running to be domestic champions after a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano at the weekend, but for now, their focus is entirely on the Bundesliga leaders.

 “The chance of getting to the Champions League final is spurring us all on,” said Antoine Griezmann, the matchwinner against Rayo. “We’re all looking forward to a fantastic game on Tuesday.” 

In the spotlightAs for the second tie, opinions remain divided as to whether Manchester City’s goalless draw with Real Madrid last Tuesday was a good result. The Citizens were playing in their first-ever UEFA Champions League semi-final and a clean sheet at home is a good platform on which to build, but there was a nagging sense of disappointment that Manuel Pellegrini’s side did not take something more from the encounter, particularly considering Real Madrid badly missed Cristiano Ronaldo's services.

The Portuguese talisman had to sit out with a thigh injury, but he resumed training on Sunday and Real coach Zinedine Zidane is optimistic he will be fit for the return game. “I hope and think that Ronaldo and Karim [Benzema] will be ready on Wednesday,” Zidane said.

That Pellegrini is prioritising the semi-final over City’s domestic engagements was made clear not just by the Chilean making eight changes to his team for Sunday’s English Premier League match at Southampton – a 4-2 defeat – but also by his post-match comments. “I would do exactly the same again,” said the 62-year-old in defence of his team selection. “We have an important game ahead of us on Wednesday. We’re playing for a place in the final of the Champions League.”

The defeat leaves City in further danger of missing out on qualifying for next season’s UEFA Champions League, but Pellegrini maintained that fielding a much-changed side was necessary in view of the trip to Madrid. “We want to finish in the top four but we had to risk that [today],” he said.

Player to watchThomas Muller was top scorer at South Africa 2010 and is level with Robert Lewandowski on eight goals as Bayern’s leading marksman in this season’s UEFA Champions League, but he was an unused substitute for the first leg at Atletico. Former Bayern coach Louis van Gaal once said, “In my team, Muller always plays,” but current boss Guardiola had other ideas.

“The reason Thomas didn’t play is simple: I wanted to play with just one striker," Guardiola said. "Maybe it would have been better to play him. Maybe! But I thought every possibility through and when it came down to it, I had to make a decision.”

The Bavarian native himself has already put the disappointment of the first leg behind him and is now looking forward to the return game, where he looks likely to be restored to the starting line-up.

“We have to make sure we function as a team and as a club," Muller said. "I’m confident we’ll get through. We have a huge challenge ahead of us, but that’s how we’ve always wanted it.”

The stat
0 – The number of goals Real Madrid have conceded at home in this season’s UEFA Champions League. Los Blancos have also scored 18 goals, winning all five home matches, and since 2011 have lost just one – a 4-3 reverse against Schalke in the 2014/15 Round of 16 – of their last 29 UEFA Champions League encounters in Madrid.

What they said“Everyone killed me after the game, but I’m not dead yet. I’m, wow, full of energy for this week. We still have 90 minutes to play and we’ve managed it [a positive result] in other situations. I’m happy. I like these situations.”
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola