Key events
19 min: Bayern suddenly have Chelsea where they want them, streaming forward and massing their ranks around the penalty area. Gnabry has a shot blocked, and again the defensive hunger from Chelsea is excellent. The hosts have a free-kick about 30 yards out. Kimmich tries to slide it diagonally but it hits the referee’s boot and it’s a drop ball.
17 min: Pedro is clattered by Tah as he tries to turn away from his marker. It’s a handy position for a free-kick, halfway inside the Bayern half, but they play it backwards. Neto makes a run on the left, chasing a ball from Cucurella, but Pedro is caught offside in the process.
14 min: Palmer turns superbly around halfway, using his skill and power. He lofts a good-looking ball for Neto on the left but it’s cut out. Bayern then win a free-kick for a handball at very close quarters, that is clearly accidental, and on commentary Glenn Hoddle insists the law is a nonsense – before Bayern take the set-piece.
Bayern take it short, Olise clips a cross to the far post, but Chelsea step up and several home players are offside when the cross comes over. Again, Chelsea look the better-coached side based on that little exchange.
10 min: Bayern’s players look just slightly rattled by Chelsea’s high-tempo opening. Now they get a foot on it – Stanisic plays inside for Kane, who can’t control – then Gnabry makes a perky run on the left and hammers a shot wide from outside the area.
Chelsea come again, down the right, where they are getting a lot of joy against Tah and Stanisic. And yet again they attack down that side, winning a corner, that leads to a headed chance for Cucurella! The former Brighton man nods it wide. Chelsea are significantly the better team here after nearly a quarter of an hour.
7 min: Huge chance for Chelsea! They slice Bayern open down the right with worrying ease from the hosts’ point of view. Palmer plays a typically astute low ball across to Fernandes, by the penalty spot, who should probably hit it first time, but chooses a touch and is then crowded out by his marker. I think a flag was up anyway. Then, at the other end, Kane has a header from a Diaz cross, but it’s a long way from goal, a quarter-chance at best.
5 min: It’s been a bright start from Chelsea. They’ve been instructed to press the ball at every opportunity, and Bayern are not being allowed a chance to settle. The energy level from Maresca’s side is very good but can they keep this intensity up?
2 min: Chelsea look keen to press straight away. Bayern move the ball out of defence, but Chelsea win it back, and the goalie Robert Sánchez drills an excellent long ball from the back into the path of an on-rushing João Pedro, on the right. He crosses, an awkward one bouncing towards the penalty spot, and it’s a big chance – but no one can get on the end of it. Chelsea appeal for a handball, too, but nothing doing.
First half kick-off
Allez! Bayern get things started.
Chelsea players huddle before the start. A big night for Maresca, his debut as a coach in the Champions League.
Bayern’s front four have 18 goals between them in this campaign, after just five games. Kane has eight of those. Are they going to get medieval on Chelsea here?
The teams are lined up on the pitch. Massive Bayern Munich flags are being waved all over the shop. João Pedro, leading the line for Chelsea this evening, points to the sky as he walks out of the tunnel looking ultra-focused.
Louise Taylor
It is only two years since Eddie Howe attended his first Champions League match but now Newcastle’s manager is on a mission to disrupt Europe’s elite.
As Barcelona arrived on Tyneside on Wednesday Hansi Flick’s La Liga champions certainly displayed no sign of complacency. Indeed Flick warned of the “intensity” his players must be braced for at St James’ Park on Thursday night.
The beginning of the game is important, then. That said, the middle and the end are going to be equally crucial.
Less than 10 minutes until kick-off!
Enzo Maresca speaks to TNT Sports. Is this a similar lineup and approach to the Club World Cup final win against Paris Saint-Germain?
“Levi [Colwill] is out. Tosin [Adarabioyo] will replace him,” Maresca says, comparing the lineups.
“Two different games, two different teams – we don’t expect from them what we expected from PSG.”
Is the first 10, 15 minutes important tonight, to quieten the crowd?
“It’s very important. The beginning of the game, the first 10 mins, 15 mins. But then 90mins, 100mins. But for sure, the beginning is very important tonight.
“They are a very good team. Like I said yesterday, the are one of the favourites to win the competition. At the same time, any team can have some weaknesses, and we will try to exploit them.”
Is the pressure on Bayern?
“No, I feel pressure. As a Chelsea player of manager, you have a duty to win all the games. Yeah, we’re going to try and win the game.”
Formations-wise, both sides may line up in a 4-2-3-1. As they mentioned in punditry, that Chelsea forward lineup is pretty flexible, though.
Just think, if we’d not had a solid 90 minutes to build up on this blog, we might never have known that Felix Magath played chess against Garry Kasparov in 1985.
“Fully expecting us (Chelsea) to get tanked this evening by a very strong Bayern side,” emails Matt. “Olise is a superb player and feels like one that got away (anyone would think the club is only interested in signing players with whom the sporting directors have longstanding historical relationships, though who knows why that might be the case…).
“I’d feel a lot happier had we kept Jackson rather than having [Marc] Guiu on the bench, who has looked like a Vanarama player whenever I have seen him play. 3-0 to the Germans, if we’re lucky.”
Thanks for your email, Matt. Good luck.
Harry Kane has scored eight goals and has three assists in five matches for Bayern this season. That’s sensational! But maybe some of the opposition was not.
“We feel very good right now, it’s going to be a great game under the lights,” he said.
As Jacob mentions in that story, Mourinho would be back at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday 30 September for a Champions League tie, if he and Benfica agree a deal.
Jacob Steinberg
Benfica are closing in on the appointment of José Mourinho after sacking Bruno Lage in the wake of their defeat by Qarabag in the Champions League.
Mourinho is on the market after leaving Fenerbahce last month and is in advanced talks over a return to his former club, whom he briefly managed in 2000.
“Last season was disappointing,” Harry Kane said yesterday, of Bayern’s quarter-final exit against Inter. “It’s about building on that and hopefully we can go all the way.
“Being here at Bayern there is a big expectation around the Champions League. There is a lot of excitement, and we have a great game at the Allianz to try and get off to a good start.
“With Michael [Olise], the second year, I feel our relationship is getting stronger and stronger … Nico [Jackson] shows a lot of great attributes, if we can get the best out of him, he’ll be a great asset this year.”
Liverpool are also in action this evening, and Simon Burnton is blogging their curtain-raiser against Atlético Madrid, right here:
Hargreaves just mentioned Felix Magath, the former manager, who was not happy when Bayern Munich lost to Chelsea in 2004/05. A couple of Wiki snippets here:
“Magath is the son of a Puerto Rican former soldier in the US Army stationed in Aschaffenburg … Magath is a chess enthusiast, an interest which he developed during the 1978 World Chess Championship, while he was bedridden due to hepatitis. In 1985, he played in a simultaneous exhibition against Garry Kasparov.”
Every day is a school day.
Please do email me with your thoughts.
The TNT Sports pundits Cole and Owen Hargreaves, who played in the 2004/05 tie between these sides, are reminiscing about José Mourinho hiding in a laundry basket to give a team talk, due to a Uefa touchline ban.
“This is what it’s all about,” says pundit Joe Cole of tonight’s mouthwatering clash, which is a fair point.
Team news
Jackson is on the bench for Bayern, who are unchanged from the 5-0 win against Hamburg. Palmer starts for Chelsea, and is one of four changes made by Maresca: Marc Cucurella, Reece James and Malo Gusto also come into the side.
Michael Olise and Luis Díaz are a couple of other former Premier League players starting for Bayern ce soir.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Laimer, Upamecano, Tah, Stanisic, Kimmich, Pavlovic, Olise, Gnabry, Diaz, Kane. Substitutes: Ulreich, Urbig, Kim, Goretzka, Jackson, Bischof, Boey, Kiala, Karl, Daiber.
Chelsea: Sanchez, Gusto, Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Cucurella, James, Caicedo, Palmer, Fernandez, Pedro Neto, Joao Pedro. Substitutes: Garnacho, Estevao, Buonanotte, Guiu, Acheampong, George, Fofana, Jorgensen, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Hato, Curd.
Referee: Jose Sanchez Martinez (Spa)
You can enjoy the highlights of Chelsea’s 2012 triumph over on the uefa.com live blog.
In shameless self-promotion news, I wrote about Chelsea v Napoli in 2012 (their last-16 encounter on the way to the trophy) during lockdown:
Jacob Steinberg
Reece James said Chelsea would make their Champions League return confident they were capable of competing with the best teams in the world.
Enzo Maresca’s young side are back at Europe’s top table after a two-year absence and face a stern test when they open the league phase by facing Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday. Yet James is not worried about Chelsea’s lack of experience and accepts that July’s triumph in the Club World Cup means they are contenders to become European champions.
“First of all, you know since last season, I always like to go game by game,’ the Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca revealed on Tuesday, in another jaw-dropping development. “You cannot think about the final or semi-final if you can’t win games in the group stage.
“We have the first one against a fantastic team, one of the three or four favourites in this competition, but we are going to try to do our job in the best way.
“I think Bayern Munich is a team that showed last year that they are very close and they can compete to win this competition. This is my view. I see them together with three or four more clubs as one of the favourites for this competition.”
Jacob Steinberg
A trip to the Allianz Arena offers Chelsea fond memories of the greatest night in their history, a meeting with two what‑might‑have-beens and a swift reunion with a player desperate to prove they were wrong to let him go.
Perhaps Enzo Maresca will be feeling nervous if his team have to face Nicolas Jackson when they open their Champions League campaign against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night. There are plenty of examples of loanees coming back to haunt their parent club in the tournament and Jackson will not be short of motivation if he features against Chelsea less than a month since he left on loan.
What’s the vibe on the old team news? Well, Cole Palmer is expected to slot into Chelsea’s starting lineup after a groin injury, which is nice for Blues fans and neutrals alike, because he is well good at playing football.
Bayern remain without long-term absentees Alphonso Davies (cruciate ligament), Hiroki Ito (metatarsal fracture) and Jamal Musiala (dislocated ankle and fractured fibula). Raphaël Guerreiro was injured in the 5-0 win against Hamburg on Saturday, and is ruled out, although Kompany said his stomach muscle injury is “not serious” and he might be back for Hoffenheim on Saturday. Also nice.
“We want to win the Champions League, everyone’s 100 per cent up for this competition,” revealed the Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany on Tuesday, in a quite astonishing development.
“We’ve developed momentum,” Kompany added. “We’ve fulfilled all the to-dos. We’re looking forward to a Champions League night at the Allianz Arena. That’s always special.”
Preamble
“It’s the greatest night in Chelsea’s history,” commentator Clive Tydesley memorably said as Didier Drogba belted the Champions League-winning penalty past Manuel Neuer in 2012. “These are the moments Chelsea will always cherish and never forget,” wrote Daniel Taylor. There has been plenty of water under the bridge since that magical night in Munich, but that remains indubitably true.
Chelsea won it again in 2021 under Thomas Tuchel, of course, while as far as these opponents are concerned, they were thrashed 7-1 on aggregate in a last-16 tie back in 2019/20. The six previous matches between the clubs have produced four goals each on average – the Blues edged through 7-6 on aggregate in a quarter-final in 2004/05 – so more of the same, please.
The most interesting sub-plot tonight is the possible involvement of the forward Nicolas Jackson, who forced through a loan move to Bavaria from Chelsea during the summer transfer window, and by the admission of the visiting players knows “exactly the way we approach games”.
The mighty Bayern have a perfect five wins out of five this season while Chelsea are not exactly in a bad moment, and are unbeaten in five after their summer Club World Cup glory. It’s chance for both to make a statement of some sort, and it might even be fun!
Kick-off: 8pm UK time.
