Tonight, December 8, 2021, is the last day of the UEFA Champions League group stage campaign. Two of the most interesting fixtures to look out for tonight are Bayern Munich vs Barcelona and Manchester United vs Young Boys.
Recall that on September 14, 2021, Bayern Munich traveled to Spain to take on Spanish La Liga giants, FC Barcelona in a UEFA Champions League group stage game. Unfortunately for FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich silent the home fans with a 3-0 defeat.
The defeat sent panic to Camp Nou and contributed to the subsequent sack of the then-coach of the club, Ronald Koeman.
Tonight, Xavi Hernandez, a new coach who happens to be a former player of the club that has played against a couple of the players at Bayern would lead FC Barcelona to Germany.
The game which will kick off at 21:00 later tonight at Allianz Arena is seen as an opportunity for FC Barcelona to revenge by beating the home team.
Apart from the fact that Barca would want to take revenge on Bayern tonight, the Spanish giants are condemned to beat Bayern to earn a spot in the next round of the competition.
Currently, Barca is sitting on the second spot in Group E, with 7 points in 5 games, two points above third-place Benfica, and 7 points below first placed Bayern that have already qualified for the next round of the competition.
Based on the current standing of the group, if Barca manage to beat Bayern Munich, Barca would qualify for the next round no matter what happens in the other game. However, if Benfica beat bottom-placed Dynamo Kyiv and Bayern beat Barca again, Benfica would scale through.
The good news for FC Barcelona supporters is that if Barca and Benfica record defeat in their respective games tonight, Barca will still scale through.
But Barca coach, Xavi, believes that his team does not need a miracle to beat Bayern Munich tonight.
“It’s in our own hands and we’ll give it everything we’ve got. After the game, we’ll see,” said Xavi in his pre-match press conference.
“I don’t see it as a miracle.
“It’s one game and we can beat any opponent.”
On the other hand, Manchester United will host Young Boys, a less popular team that defeated the Premier League giants 2-1 on September 14, 2021.
When Young Boys stunned the world with the famous victory over Manchester United, Ole Gunnar Solskjær was still the coach of the club. But now, the club is being coached by a respected German tactician Ralf Rangnick.
Hence, Manchester United are expected to run riot on Young Boys tonight, 21:00, at Old Trafford, even though United have already qualified for the next round.
Young Boys who are currently sitting at the bottom of UEFA Champions League Group F with 4 points in 5 games have nothing to lose but Manchester United have their prestige to regain and they can only achieve that by beating Young Boys convincingly tonight.
"For us, it's a final."
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 8, 2021
— Xavi ahead of #BayernBarça pic.twitter.com/ILdY2ILzEZ
