Bayern have an underlying confidence in their abilities; they fluidly adjust to any formation. The recent injuries have not impacted them to the extent that they were expected to. In their most recent match against Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern proved they can do just fine with the talent they have at their disposal currently. Leverkusen came into this match third in the table. After the first ten minutes, they seemed to have lost a lot of energy. Bayern though did not press home the advantage. In the second half, a change by Pep Guardiola allowed Bayern to completely dominate Leverkusen.
Sebastian Rode replaced the somewhat ineffective Mario Götze; he covered every blade of grass after coming on. His energy was simply too much to handle for Leverkusen. Minutes after he came on, Leverkusen fell a goal behind courtesy of Franck Ribery's 100th Bundesliga strike. A team filled with talented midfielders in Bayer 04 could not even complete half their passes; Hakan Calhanoglu, Heung-Min Son and Karim Bellarabi were rendered ineffectual on the night. Bayern's confidence in their team is understandable considering that their goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, is not afraid to come out of goal and play brilliant passes.
As far as the UEFA Champions League is considered, Bayern's task is already done. They have qualified for the Round of 16 already. They are also assured of their spot as group winners. For the sake of fairness, Guardiola would do well to field a strong line-up. He is under no obligation to do obviously as he still has to negotiate three Bundesliga games and in the least, maintain the seven point lead over VfL Wolfsburg. This game would be a good chance for him to give Germany's captain Bastian Schweinsteiger a long run out after his return from injury.
For CSKA, the odds are somewhat against them. They have to beat Bayern and make sure that Roma do not beat City. The match between Roma and City is finely poised. This battle for second place is in fact finely poised.
Will CSKA take second place in Group E? Interested in learning how you can watch the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League? Check out our UEFA Champions League Multi-Platform Broadcast Guide.
Bayern vs CSKA starting lineups
Bayern's lineup: Neuer - Dante, Ribery, Gaudino, Boateng, Bernat, Götze, Rode, Müller, Schweinsteiger (C), Hojbjerg.
CSKA's lineup: Akinfeev, Fernandes, Ignashevich, V. Berezutskiy, Nababkin, Wernbloom, Natcho, Musa, Eremenko, Dzagoev, Doumbia.
Bayern's Subs: Zingerle - Alonso, Lewandowski, Robben, Rafinha, Kurt, Weiser.
CSKA's Subs: Chepchugov, Tosic, Efremov, Cauna, Milanov, Vitinho, Chernov.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
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