Manchester United is going into this 2-game quarterfinal leg as clear favourites to progress. Bayern has lost their last 2 games in the German Bundesliga since beating Italian side Fiorentina on away-goals whereas Manchester is running over all opposition in the Premiership. Further this is a rematch of the historic final in 1999 between the two teams. Since the final Bayern Munich got the better of Manchester in the 2001 Champions league, eliminating them and the year after they recorded 2 draws against each other but there is no doubt that Bayern is still bleeding from the last minute double in the 1999 final.

Bayern Münich
Ruled out: Bastian Schweinsteiger (suspended), Arjen Robben (doubtfull)
Home game record (Champions League) 1-1-1

All eyes are focused on whether or not Dutch star Arjen Robben will be able to play tonight. Coach Louis Van Gaal decided not to start him this weekend to give him some rest but as the game against Stuttgart progressed (Bayern lost 1-2) he put Robben on the pitch and unfortunately it resulted in him being injured. The extent of the injury is somewhat difficult to predict as Bayern are keeping their information close – chances are that it is just spin from the Bayern side and that Robben is fit but we will have to wait for that until the start 11 is revealed app. 1 hour before the game. Much of Bayerns offence lies in the hands of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben and it goes without saying that it will be a major blow for them if they are to play without Robben. Lately 6 of Bayerns 7 home games has resulted in the team scoring at least 2 goals and taking into consideration that they have only played to nil 2 times, it seems like we could be in for a high scoring game. Returning from injury for this match is striker Mario Gomez and defender Martin Demichelis.

Manchester United
Ruled out: Wayne Rooney (doubtful)
Away game record: 4-0-0

Like Bayern, Manchester United also has their key player, Wayne Rooney, somewhat doubtful for this game. Again the information coming out of Manchester has been scarce. Rumour has it that he has been struggling with a knee injury but this has been denied by Alex Ferguson claiming that he is 100% fit for the game. Rooney was ruled out of the squad for the weekend’s game against Bolton where Manchester cruised to an easy 4-0 victory. In the Premiership they are back on top after a good run of 5 wins. In between they have managed to beat AC Milan 7-2 overall to reach this quarter final and it seems like Manchester are firing on all cylinders, at least offensively. Wayne Rooney has been amazing this season with 33 goals in all tournaments and has really stepped up after the leave of Christiano Ronaldo. Wingers Nani and Valencia have also been magnificent this season, feeding Rooney with a lot of chances. On the bench they have striker Berbatov and also Ryan Giggs is coming back from a broken arm. Defensively they seem a little more fragile than what we are use to see from Manchester. Before the last 2 games they hadn’t played an away game to nil in 10 games. Rio Ferdinand will return for this game but neither he nor Vidic seems to have reached the top of their form.

Conclusion
Offensively both teams are lethal with star-quality beyond normal capabilities. However defensively they both seem a little unstable and this could lead to a high scoring game. If Bayern is to have any hopes of progressing, they will have to score in this game and come away with at least a 1-goal win. Statistically 10 of the16 combined games that the teams have played in this year’s Champions League have resulted in more than 2.5 goals. With this in mind and the offensive qualities on the pitch, I recommend betting on more than 2.5 goals in this match.