UEFA Champions League Preview: Group E
After their opening day win against Roma, last year’s Champions league finalists, Bayern Munich will travel to Switzerland tonight to take on Swiss minnow FC Basel.
While the other match in the Group E is between Romanian outfit CFR Cluj and Claudio Ranieri’s AS Roma.
Bayern would be bitterly disappointed by the loss in the last year’s final and will be looking to go one step better and they will make the task at hand a lot easier tonight if they can beat the Swiss at the St. Jakob Park. A win would give them six points
after two matches and they will be in pole position to progress to the knock out stages of the game.
Roma on the other hand will be bitter about their opening day defeat to Bayern and will be looking to take their anger out on Romanian minnows Cluj.
Basel vs Bayern Munchen
Going into the match FC Basel are not in the best of form as they are struggling domestically and have also lost their last three home games in the Champions League. They look out of depth and kind of lost. Bayern will take full advantage of the situation
as they are out on a mission of their own to avenge the bitter loss against Inter in last season’s final.
Basel play their football in a manner where they mostly rely on possession and that style of play is not going to work against an opposition of Bayern’s class, who like to play their football fast and with pace. Even a draw for the Swiss side will be a good
result and will keep their pride intact as Bayern are expected to have too much quality for their opponents tonight.
Bayern were the form team in last year’s competition and their last 9 games in the Champion’s League average 4.2 goals per game and although tonight’s game is not likely to be a high scoring one, Bayern will be looking to be as ruthless as possible on the
road.
Bayern will prove too hot to handle for a frail Basel defense as they have sublime class in their ranks with Robben, Meuller, Ribery and Klose all likely to feature in the starting lineup at the St Jakob Stadium tonight.
Roma vs CFR
Roma have failed to live up to their reputation in recent years in the Champions League and after slumping to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Bayern on match day things are not all rosy for Ranieri’s side.
Domestically too Roma are struggling but they notched up an impressive win against champions Inter Milan at the weekend and will be in a buoyant mood.
The same two teams met at the group stages of the same competition two years ago when Cluj got the better of Roma but Ranieri will try to make sure there is no repeat this time around.
Cluj will hold no fear going into the match as they have done before what they will need to do tonight and will be anxious to repeat the result from two years ago.
The incentive for Romanians is the fact that a win against Basel tonight will put them in pole position to qualify for the knock out stages and that will be a big achievement for the club as they have never ever progressed past the group stages of the Champions
League.
A loss tonight will compound matters for Roma as they will then depend on other results to progress out of the group but Ranieri is aware of this fact.
The current group league standings after match day 1 are as follows:
Group E
Clubs
Pld
W
D
L
F
A
+/-
Pts
1
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/clubs/club=50037/index.html
1
1
0
0
2
0
2
3
2
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/clubs/club=88131/index.html
1
1
0
0
2
1
1
3
3
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/clubs/club=59856/index.html
1
0
0
1
1
2
-1
0
4
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/clubs/club=50137/index.html
1
0
0
1
0
2
-2
0
Tags: