Olympique Lyonnais vs Bayern Munich 20/08/20

20 August 2020

Bayern Munich will be looking to maintain a 100% record in the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League when they lock horns with Olympique Lyonnais in the revamped semi-finals at the Estádio José Alvalade this midweek.

Lyon finished runners-up to RB Leipzig in Group G, having endured mixed fortunes in the opening six games of the tournament (W2, D2, L2). The Ligue 1 giants moved on to defy the odds in the knockout stage, dumping Juventus in the round of 16 on the away goal rule (1-0 H, 1-2 A) before easing past Manchester City in the revamped quarter-finals. A 3-1 thumping of City now means Rudi Garcia’s men have found the back of the net in all but one of their nine UEFA fixtures this season, scoring over 1.5 goals on five of those occasions. However, Les Gones have won only two of their last ten European clashes against German teams (D4, L4), winning only one of their previous five such match-ups outside of France (D2, L2).

It’s been one hell of a season for Bayern Munich, who enter this encounter as the only side to win all nine of their Champions League fixtures this term. The way the ‘Bavarians’ have been hammering their rivals has been nothing short of outstanding, as they finished the group stage with 24 goals under their belt before putting seven past Chelsea in their last-16 tie (3-0 A, 4-1 H). Bayern’s standout performance came in the revamped quarter-finals versus Barcelona that saw them demolish the Spanish heavyweights 8-2. As a consequence, Hansi Flick’s players boast an intimidating +31 goal difference (GF:39, GA:8), having netted an average of 4.33 goals per Champions League game. Indeed, reigning German champions have scored over 1.5 goals in all nine of their UEFA outings so far.