Barcelona will play their first Champions League group stage match (on Paramount+) since Lionel Messi’s shocking departure to PSG when the Spanish club welcomes title contenders Bayern Munich to the Camp Nou Tuesday. Barca are heavy underdogs at home against a team that has given them nightmares in the past, including that 8-2 defeat in the competition in 2020. Bayern, with a loaded squad and coming off a convincing win over RB Leipzig, are favorites to walk away with Group E, which also includes Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv. Here’s are storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Tuesday, Sept. 14 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: Camp Nou — Barcelona, Spain
- TV and Live stream: Paramount+
- Odds: Barca +250; Draw +295; Bayern -105 (via Caesars Sportsbook)
Storylines
Barca: Messi’s gone, Antoine Griezmann’s gone, and they brought in very little quality outside of Memphis Depay. Luuk de Jong is hardly the answer in attack, so where in the world is Barca going to get production from? This has a chance to get out of hand quickly. Expect Barca, as usual, to hold onto the ball as long as they can, but they are going to need Depay to play out of his mind, show tons of individual brilliance and be involved in at least a couple goals for this team to even sniff a victory.
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Bayern: It’s time to pray for that Barca defense, because Bayern have to be licking their chops. In two of their last five games, Bayern were able to score three goals. Pretty good, right? Well, that pair of three-goal games was actually their worst performance as of late. Four goals against RB Leipzig at the weekend, five at the end of August against Hertha Berlin and 12 against Bremer in the German Cup in August mean Bayern have a total of 27 goals in their last five matches. Expect them to get enough good looks in this one to again score at the very least two, but it wouldn’t be all that shocking if they push four or five goals against a Barca team that is simply overmatched.
Prediction
The worst Barca on paper in recent memory gets demolished at home thanks to Robert Lewandowski’s brace. Pick: Bayern Munich 3, Barcelona 0
