Bayern Munich v Manchester City – live! Barry Glendenning

• All tonight’s latest scores are here • The world’s league tables are here • Email barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Or follow him on ‘The Twitter’ • Follow Man Utd v Basel here 12 min: “I am not in any way condoning the use of ‘Munich’ as a perjorative, and I find ‘Munich’ chants horrible and unacceptable, but …” writes Don. “I have heard all sorts of vile comments, both from individuals and organised, at football grounds all over the country, and those are almost never, ever, commented upon in the media- or addressed at the time, for that matter. I believe that if the media and Manchester United could refrain from knee-jerking to every instance of ‘Munich’, that would take the word’s power away from the ‘knuckleheads’ who say it looking for a response.” 10 min: Deep in Manchester City territory, Bayern Munich win a throw-in and take it quickly, catching Manchester City’s players unaware and allowing right-back Rafinho to try his luck from the corner of the penalty area. His effort goes high and wide. 9 min: Manchester City attack down the left flank, with four men committed to the outskirts of the Bayern penalty area. Edin Dzeko runs down a blind alley, is dispossessed by a defender and the home side clear their lines. 8 min: Sergio Aguero sends a weighted through-ball down the inside left channel for David Silva to chase. His pass isn’t weighted enough and the ball runs out of play for the Spanish winger can chase it down. 6 min: David Silva is hobbling a little with an ankle injury after a challenge from Jerome Boateng that he thought was worthy of a penalty. Referee Viktor Kassai didn’t concur. 4 min: Micah Richards bombs down the right flank and drills a low cross to Edin Dzeko, unmarked at the near post. his effort is weak and doesn’t trouble Manuel Neuer unduly. That was a glorious opportunity to put Manchester City one up, but he just didn’t put his boot through the ball. 3 min: Not much going on so far, with the ball spending most of its time being passed around midfield, with play occasionally punctuated by the occasional foul. 1 min: Manchester City kick off, lining up in a 4-4-2 and playing from left to right. Within 40 seconds, Bayern Munich defensive midfielder Luiz Gustavo goes down in a heap under a heavy challenge, but is quickly on his feet, grimacing with pain but fit to continue. Not long now: Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack. The teams march out the tunnel, with Bayern Munich’s players wearing red shirts, shorts and socks with white trim. Manchester City’s wear their customary sky blue shirts and shorts, with blue and white hooped socks. Philipp Lahm wins the toss after Vincent Kompany is asked to call “yellow or blue” (it’s probably a token from one of the Oktoberfest tents) and opts for yellow. Hats off to the Manchester City delegation , led by life president Bernard Halford, current assistant manager Brian Kidd and former captain and manager Tony Book, who laid a wreath in the Manchesterplatz in Munich to commemorate the Munich air disaster earlier today. It’s common knowledge that 23 people died when the plane that was carrying them crashed on the runway on 6 February 1958, but many of those knucklehead City fans who spent Saturday afternoon at Goodison Park referring to Phil Neville as “a dirty Munich bastard” may not be aware that one of those who perished was the journalist Frank Swift, a former City goalkeeper. Or perhaps they are aware, but just don’t care. Who knows? How Bayern Munich will line up: It looks like they’ll go with a 4.2-3-1, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Luiz Gustavo screening the back four and Mario Gomez playing alone in front of a three-man support act comprised of Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller on the left and right of Toni Kroos. Some scene-setting: On Sky Sports, former Bayern Munich legend Alan McInally speaks from his position in the Allianz Arena. “There’s a lot of German people really looking forward to this because Manchester City have come on the scene and spent a lot money,” he says, adding that the same folk would like to see their team put City back in their box after Roberto Mancini promised, in the immediate aftermath of his side’s draw with Napoli, that City would beat Bayern Munich in Munich. Bayern Munich: Neuer, Rafinha, Van Buyten, Boateng, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Gustavo, Muller, Kroos, Ribery, Gomez. Subs: Butt, Petersen, Robben, Usami, Contento, Alaba, Tymoschuk. Man City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Toure, Clichy, Nasri, Barry, Toure Yaya, Silva, Aguero, Dzeko. Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Lescott, Milner, Kolarov, Tevez, De Jong. Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary) Good evening all. Manchester City’s players will be hoping their travelling supporters are sober enough to unhand their steins and lurch from the Oktoberfest Schottenhamel tent to the Allianz Arena for their first away fixture in the Champions League this evening. City’s task could hardly be more daunting as they march into the belly of a Bayern beast that has won its last nine Bundesliga and Champions League matches, scoring 26 goals and conceding none. Yes, none. Nada. Nil. Null. Since shipping the only goal of the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on the opening day of the season, Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has not conceded for 838 minutes. For anyone who’s interested, the world record for the length of time a a goalkeeper has gone without conceding is held by Geraldo Pereira de Matos Filho of Vasco Da Gama and stands at a whopping 1,816 minutes. That’s the length of time it takes to boil 602 eggs, presuming you like them very runny and do them one after the other in the same saucepan, rather than all together in one big pot. Anyway, I digress … With Bayern top of the group having torpedoed the Yellow Submarine of Villarreal in their opening game, Manchester City are already playing catch-up after creditable but ultimately disappointing draw at home with Napoli on their maiden Champions League voyage. ” It is fantastic to play against a club like Bayern,” said Roberto Mancini in the run-up to the game. “We do not want to lose the game, that is for sure. We want to win it – as we always want to win. But we have to improve a lot. We are a good team already, but if we want to become a team like Bayern, to become part of the history of football, we have to learn a lot; we have just played one game in the Champions League.” Bayern manager Jupp Heynckes, who takes on English opposition in Europe for the first time this evening despite 139 previous matches, was equally complimentary when discussing his opposite number. “They have an Italian coach, but still they play quite attacking football,” he said. “We anticipate a tactical game on a very high level. For viewers it will very, very interesting. The type of players they have tells us how we can expect them to play – quite attacking! But we are in a good shape and I am confident we can improve further. We are very well prepared. Man City have a very strong team but so do we. It will be a challenge for both clubs.” Heynckes revealed that former City player Jérôme Boateng will start against old club tonight, while Arjen Robben, Mario Gomez, Daniel Van Buyten and Luiz Gustavo all returned from injury to play against Bayer Leverkusen last weekend. Ivica Olić and Breno (knee and under arrest on suspicion of an arson attack on his own house) miss out tonight, while Holger Badstuber has flu and will see how he feels later. For Manchester City, Mario Balotelli will sit this one out on the naughty step, while Nigel de Jong is still suffering from an ankle injury he picked up against Swansea City back in August. We’ll bring you the line-ups just as soon as they appear on the news wires. Or Twitter, which tends to be a quicker, if less reliable source of news than the actual news wires these days. Champions League 2011-12 Champions League Bayern Munich Manchester City Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.