Michael Owen has stated his prediction for the forthcoming Champions League round of 16 first leg clash between Chelsea and Bayern Munich at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues overcame a four-match winless run in the Premier League at the weekend where they picked up a 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in front of their home fans.
In comparison, Bayern have been in stupendous form in the Bundesliga and they have dropped just two points from the previous nine matches in their division.
As a result, Frank Lampard’s team definitely go into the game as potential underdogs and Owen believes the reigning Bundesliga champions should beat the Blues and take the away goal advantage for the return leg.
“Both these sides were knocked out of the Champions League at this stage of the competition 12 months ago, but I expect the Bundesliga champions to take a lead back to Munich for the second leg next month when they visit Stamford Bridge on Tuesday,” he told.
Lampard will definitely reconsider the three-man backline which worked splendidly against Spurs on Saturday. Still, they can’t go overly defensive against a Bayern side, who have the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry in splendid scoring form at the moment.
Olivier Giroud should lead the line for the Blues with his strong hold-up and link-up play and the Frenchman has a good scoring record against the Bavarian giants, having scored four times from the previous seven meetings – each of them came with former club Arsenal.
Leave a Reply