Pep Guardiola and Mehdi Benatia return to their former stomping ground. Benatia's connection with the club is a more recent one than Pep's; the defender left the club in a rather unfortunate manner and transferred to Bayern in the past summer. Roma has spoken about him in a manner which has surely angered him; he will be looking to prove his point if his manager does start him in this match. Pep Guardiola would have been happier at this point if Benatia had been a goalkeeper. Bayern's bad luck with back up goalkeepers has continued this season.
If Manuel Neuer gets injured or is sent off, youngster Leopold Zingerle will have to step in. Zingerle plays with Bayern's reserves; he is, in other words, Guardiola's fourth choice keeper. Pepe Reina was injured in a meaningless friendly while Tom Starke recently picked up a problem. Aside from the keepers, Pep will have to continue life without the services of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Javier Martinez and the unfortunate Thiago Alcantara. Holger Badstuber, another unfortunate injury victim, is out for a relatively short period as well. David Alaba's involvement is not guaranteed because he picked up a minor knock against Werder Bremen in the weekend.
Bayern is coming into this one on the back of a 6-0 victory over Werder Bremen. The occasion was a particularly special one for Philipp Lahm, who in his 200th win in Bayern colors, struck two goals. Xabi Alonso also picked up his first Bundesliga goal. Mario Götze struck twice as well, propelling himself to the top of the Bundesliga scoring charts while Thomas Müller added a goal from the penalty spot for good measure. They sit atop their Champions League group, having collected two one-goal victories against Manchester City and CSKA Moskva.
Roma sits just behind Bayern, having collected four points. They drew against Manchester City in their previous Champions League match, a game in which Francesco Totti scored, becoming the oldest Champions League goalscorer in the process. They registered a 3-0 win over Chievo in Serie A during the weekend. Roma will have to do without the services of Kevin Strootman, Marco Boriello, Seydou Keita and Leandro Castian.
They will nonetheless provide a tough test for the Bavarians. Bayern is not guaranteed even a single point by any means.
Will Roma come away with a point or more from this fixture? Interested in learning how you can watch the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League? Check out our UEFA Champions League Multi-Platform Broadcast Guide.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Follow the game on-the-go
Download our iOS and Android apps to follow soccer on-the-go. It comes packed with features - live scores, fixtures, results, tables, line-ups, stats, TV schedule and much more! Sorry, no live streaming within the app.
