Barcelona will be hoping to still be in with a chance of reaching the knockout round of the Champions League when they welcome Bayern Munich to Camp Nou on Wednesday night.
The Catalans are third in Group C, three points behind second-placed Inter Milan, who would qualify by beating Viktoria Plzen earlier in the evening. In comparison, Bayern top the section with 12 points, having won all four of their matches to progress to the round of 16 with two games to spare.
Barcelona scored 28 points from 11 La Liga matches this season by beating Athletic Bilbao 4-0 on Sunday night, with Ousmane Dembele, Sergi Roberto, Robert Lewandowski, and Ferran Torres on the scoresheet.
Inter host Viktoria Plzen earlier in the evening, and a win for the Italian side would see them qualify, ending Barcelona’s hopes of reaching the round of 16 in the process. Xavi’s side would then be confirmed to finish third in the section, dropping into the Europa League for the second season in a row.
The La Liga giants need a favor from Plzen to beat Bayern. Still, they have picked up just one point from their last three games in the competition, losing back-to-back matches to Bayern and Inter before being held to a 3-3 draw by the Italian giants at Camp Nou on October 12.
Bayern’s spot at the top of the section is not a surprise considering their quality, and it has been an impressive group-stage performance thus far from the Bundesliga champions, recording four wins from four matches, scoring 13 times in the process, and conceding just twice.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side beat Inter 2-0 and Barcelona 2-0 in their first two group fixtures before doing the double over Plzen, winning 5-0 at home at the start of the month and 4-2 away last time out.
Bayern has not lost to Barcelona since the semi-finals of the 2014-15 Champions League, going down 3-0 at Camp Nou in the first leg; they would be confirmed as group winners on Wednesday with a victory, although the first would be secured ahead of this match if Inter fails to overcome Plzen.
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