Overview
Chelsea will return to the Champions League from the 2022-2023 season. Since their final match in this arena in April 2023, Chelsea have won 12/13 matches in the European Cup (excluding qualifiers).
This achievement includes the journey to the UEFA Conference League last season, along with the feat at the FIFA Club World Cup last summer. Enzo Maresca's side beat defending Champions League champions Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final.
Meanwhile, under the leadership of coach Vincent Kompany, Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga last season in a spectacular way and continued to show their destructive form this season. They scored 14 goals in just 3 rounds and won all of them. Bayern ended Hamburg 5-0 last weekend, while Chelsea were held to a 2-2 draw by Brentford.
Bayern Munich stopped at the round of 16 of the Champions League last season because Inter Milan - the team that later reached the final. To be fair, Vincent Kompany and his team do not always show convincing performance in the European arena.
They suffered defeats against Aston Villa, Barcelona and Feyenoord in the group stage, before having a hard time overcoming Celtic in the knockout round play-off.
However, statistically, Bayern are still one of the most formidable forces. Since UEFA dropped the second group stage in the 2003-2004 season, the "Gray Tigers" have had the highest win percentage in the Champions League group stage (73%), with 93 wins in 128 matches.
Bayern's record against English sides is also impressive. They have lost just one of their last 11 home games in the Champions League against Premier League sides (W8 D2). Jurgen Klopp's only loss to Liverpool came in March 2019 (1-3).
In the same series of matches, Bayern have defeated 5 different English teams: Chelsea, Arsenal (3 times), Manchester City, Manchester United (2 times) and Tottenham.
Their most anticipated star is still Harry Kane. The English striker is in explosive form with 11 goals in all competitions this season, far exceeding the expected goals (xG) of 5.3. Despite scoring just eight goals in his 22 previous encounters with Chelsea, Kane will certainly try his best to make a special mark in this encounter.
Supporting Harry Kane in attack will be Michael Olise, Serge Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich. Gnabry is in impressive form with 4 assists, equal to Kane to lead the list of assists of Bayern. Olise - who almost joined Chelsea when he was playing for Crystal Palace - also contributed 3 passes to goals.
Meanwhile, Kimmich continued to affirm his role as a conductor when he assisted 2 goals from 4.3 xA and created 28 chances, the most in the team.
Not only has attacking power, Bayern also possesses an experienced leader in goal. Manuel Neuer has now won 99 Champions League games and could become only the fourth player in history to reach the 100-game mark, behind Cristiano Ronaldo (115), Thomas Muller (111) and Iker Casillas (101).
On the other side of the front line, Chelsea could present a notable young face. Brazilian talent Estevao missed the draw with Brentford due to illness. However, if he recovers in time to debut in the Champions League, he will do so at the age of 18 and 46 days.
Head-to-head record
Bayern have won three of their last four Champions League meetings with Chelsea (D1), except for a penalty defeat in the 2012 final.
Notably, they beat the Blues in the 2019-2020 round of 16 with a total score of 7-1, after winning 3-0 at Stamford Bridge and 4-1 at the Allianz Arena.
As for Chelsea, the London team has lost 60% of their matches against Bayern in the C1/Champions League Cup (1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses). This is their highest defeat rate against any opponent they have met at least 5 times in this arena.
In fact, only Barcelona (4 times) have beaten The Blues more than Bayern (3 times) in the C1/Champions League Cup.
The match between Bayern Munich and Chelsea takes place at 2:00 am on September 18 (Vietnam time).
