Bayern Munich vs Chelsea live: Cole Palmer starts in blockbuster Champions League clash

In partnership with

The Independent

·17. September 2025

Bayern Munich vs Chelsea live: Cole Palmer starts in blockbuster Champions League clash

Close

'We back ourselves to beat anyone' - Kane on Chelsea clash at the Allianz

OneFootball Videos

Bayern Munich and Chelsea meet in an early collision of possible Champions League contenders in a key week one staging post in the new continental campaign.

The London club return to Europe’s top table laden with silverware, a Europa Conference League crown secured in Enzo Maresca’s first season and backed up with Club World Cup success during the summer. Hopes are high that Chelsea can now contend for prizes of perhaps greater meaning – though a mixed start in the Premier League continued as Brentford snatched a last-gasp equaliser at the weekend.

This will be a useful early test for Maresca’s side against a Bayern team that will harbour ambitions of another Champions League success themselves, and boast Chelsea loanee Nicolas Jackson in their squad.

The Germans exited at the quarter-final stage last year against an impressive Inter Milan having suffered three defeats during the league phase, and will hope for better this season. A free-scoring start in the Bundesliga, with 14 goals in three games, will leave confidence high for Harry Kane and co. ahead of their opening European outing.

The biggest issue that comes with Chelsea’s historical financial discrepancies

In long meetings at the top of the FA and Premier League about the Chelsea breaches of agent regulations, there was one issue that caused the most debate, and could still affect outcomes. That is how much a current ownership should bear the weight of a previous ownership.

It may well set a significant precedent in football, given how legally complex the sport is becoming in what is definitively now the era of the owner.

Sources state that the prevailing view within legal teams is that all of this must be put in context of how the previous regime, of Roman Abramovich, bears all the blame, and it was self-reported by Clearlake. That is why there is an expectation that it will end with financial sanctions.