Villarreal and Bayern Munich will lock horns at the Ceramica on Wednesday night in the first leg of their quarter-final tie. Owning to the precedence set in the Round of 16, there will be a lot of focus on this particular encounter, with fans leaving room for another potential upset to ensue. The Yellow Submarines surprised many when they knocked Juventus out of the last round of the Champions League and it is only fair to anticipate that they could defy the bookies' prediction and cause another major upset.
Villarreal headed to Turin with more hope than expectation after drawing 1-1 in the first leg, but ended up giving the Old Lady a humbling inside the Allianz Stadium. Gerard Moreno, Pau Torres, and Arnaut Danjuma all scored within the last 20 minutes of the proceeding, with the host failing to manage a response.
However, since their exploits in Turin, not much has gone in favor of Unai Emery's men. They will approach Wednesday's game on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Cadiz with an equally disappointing 2-0 loss to Levante at the weekend. Villarreal enter Wednesday's first leg having strung together a nine-game unbeaten streak on home soil and will look to do enough to keep their run going.
For Bayern Munich, they will be out to avoid a repeat of what happened in the first leg of their Round of 16 clash with RB Salzburg. Julian Nagelsmann's side failed stamp their dominance in the first leg against Salzburg's youthful set-up and had to finish the job when the pair met at the Allianz Arena two weeks later. On Wednesday, they will go into the encounter with eight games unbeaten in all competitions and in pole position to win the Bundesliga title for a record-extending 10th successive season.
Over the weekend, the Bavarians secured an emphatic 4-1 win over Freiburg to get into the mood for their upcoming test. Against Villarreal, they will aim to avoid a second successive quarter-final exit in the Champions League after crashing out at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in the last edition.
Head to head record
Bayern and Villarreal played against each other for the first time in the group stage of the 2011-12 Champions League. The former secured a 2-0 win away win before a defeating the Yellow Submarine by three goals to one route to finishing as runners-up against eventual winners Chelsea.
Key stats
-
Lewandowski has so far averaged a goal every 58 minutes in this season's Champions League.
-
Villarreal are unbeaten at home in nine games across all competitions.
-
Bayern will feature in the Champions League quarter-finals for a competition record 20th time.
-
Bayern Munich have not lost on the road in Europe since Matchday 1 of the 2017/18 Champions League groups (3-0 at Paris Saint-Germain).
Predicted starting XI
-
Villarreal: Rulli; Aurier, Albiol, Torres, Estupinan; Pino, Parejo, Capoue, Trigueros; Danjuma, Moreno
-
Bayern Munich: Neuer; Pavard, Sule, Upamecano, Hernandez; Kimmich, Goretzka; Sane, Muller, Coman; Lewandowski
Broadcast information
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
