Bayern Munich vs Barcelona Odds: Back the Lewandowski brace against Barca

Barcelona head to the Allianz Arena to take on Bayern Munich, with the knowledge that anything but an away win likely sees them eliminated from the Champions League at the Group Stage for the first time since the turn of the century.

It’s a precarious position that the Blaugrana find themselves in against a Munich side that has already won the group, and has had the beating of them consistently over the last few years. Not since May 2015 have Barça managed to beat this opponent, losing the following three fixtures by a combined 14-4 and being embarrassingly outmatched in the most recent pair of games (11-2).

The 8-2 home defeat, a permanent stain on the recent history of the Catalan side, showed clearly how outmatched they really are against Bayern - whilst the 3-0 dismantling they were handed to start the post-Messi era in September was a stark reminder of the gap between these two sides. The first defeat spelled the end of Quique Setién’s reign at Barcelona, whilst the man in charge of the second - Ronald Koeman - was recently dismissed and replaced by club legend Xavi, who suffered his first defeat at the weekend.

Koeman’s days were numbered long before that game though and as Barça continue to struggle to find an identity without Lionel Messi to guide them, Bayern continue to go from strength to strength.

Julian Nagelsmann, unsurprisingly, has the Bavarians sitting atop both the Bundesliga and this Champions League group - and his side come into this full of confidence having just extended their domestic league lead in a 3-2 victory over Dortmund at the weekend.

Robert Lewandowski, who scored a brace in that win, has been firing on all cylinders once again and was arguably unlucky not to win the Ballon d’Or earlier in the week.

He has bagged an unbelievable nine goals in his five Champions League appearances and will be looking to reach double figures here, that is if he isn’t rested.

Having already secured the group win with five wins from five, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Nagelsmann rest some of his key players to keep them for their trio of Bundesliga games in seven days before the winter break. It means the Polish striker might not get the chance to break Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 11 goals in a single group stage and could mean a host of other important players are rested too.

Pique is one of the great defenders of the modern era, but he’s way off where he once was and it shows in some of his performances.

While his mind still works the same, his body often lets him down and it leads to him getting caught out often in transition.

He’s committed 21 fouls in his last 10 starts and picked up five bookings in those games. With so much on the line for his side here, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see his desperation get the better of him.

Assuming Nagelsmann lets Lewandowski have a crack at breaking Ronaldo’s record (and improve on his strong goalscoring record (4 in 4) against Barcelona), I fancy him to bag a couple against a leaky Blaugrana defence.

He’s scored 10 braces for club and country already this season, including three in five UCL games, and bagged a brace at the Camp Nou in September.

I feel like these two go hand in hand and I’m happy to take this price on both landing here.