Three talking points ahead of Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid | UEFA Champions League | OneFootball

While Real Madrid are perennial favourites in the UEFA Champions League, Bayern Munich are one of the biggest frontrunners to lift the trophy this season given their impressive form all season.

The Bavarians, after all, have been in imperious goalscoring form across all competitions and even took a 2-1 win away from the Santiago Bernabeu last week in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid.

Merely avoiding a defeat at home, at this point, is enough for the Germans to seal a place in the semi-finals of the competition, but they will look to inflict a heavy defeat on Real Madrid given their history over the years.

Concurrently, however, Los Blancos cannot be ruled out in any sense. Their efforts last week forced a man-of-the-match performance from Manuel Neuer, and they will look to do one better and beat the German goalkeeper tomorrow night.

Madrid Universal brings you three talking points ahead of Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid.

The only trophy to compete for

Real Madrid are a club that runs only on the basis of results and one where a trophy is not only symbolic but seen as a direct indication of the team’s performance.

Last season, Los Blancos failed to win any of the four big competitions in the season including the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Spanish Super Cup.

This season again, two competitions are done and dusted from their perspective while La Liga has slowly gone out of hand in recent weeks given the team’s results.

Now staring a nine-point gap with Barcelona and having just seven games to go, it is safe to say that La Liga is not coming home either. The UEFA Champions League, thus, remains their only hope of securing a trophy and making something of the season.

The importance of a win tomorrow, thus, cannot be understated for a failure to advance will label the ongoing season as a failure. 

As a result, major decisions will be taken by the board, both concerning the dressing room and the management, with nobody’s future likely to be safe.

A lot, thus, rides on the result Real Madrid can pull off tomorrow, not only in terms of the team’s current season but also the administration’s plan ahead.

The midfield riddle

Valverde to replace Tchouameni as the holding midfielder? (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

The single-biggest blow to Alvaro Arbeloa’s plans ahead of tomorrow’s game is the absence of Aurelien Tchouameni who has earned a suspension and will be unavailable on the night.

So far this season, the Frenchman has been an immovable piece in the manager’s dynamics, leaving the coach with few options to replace him.

Eduardo Camavinga, needless to say, stands out as the best-placed option to replace Tchouameni in the defensive midfield against Bayern Munich, but the Frenchman was disastrous against Girona and squandered his own chances.

The manager, thus, now faces a dilemma as to who to start in midfield, particularly in the pivot position, in Tchouameni’s absence.

If reports from earlier in the day are to be believed, Federico Valverde is currently the frontrunner to start in the role with Jude Bellingham and Thiago Pitarch set to occupy two of the other spots in midfield.

How solid a performance the Uruguayan star delivers out of position, needless to say, will decide a massive part of how the game progresses tomorrow. At this point, it can also not be ruled out that Camavinga makes a comeback to Arbeloa’s plans.

A big night for the star duo

When Real Madrid signed Kylian Mbappe, it seemed to be the general consensus of the football world that the Merengues’ attack was now head and shoulders above the competition in Europe.

Mbappe and Vinicius Jr., needless to say, are a formidable combination on paper, and the team’s primary need for such a duo was said to be their pursuit of the UEFA Champions League year after year.

Despite all the hype, however, the duo has not really clicked together on the field and it is clear that there is a lack of synergy between the two players, while it also affects the overall balance of the team.

The big players, however, are always destined for the big nights and it simply does not get bigger than the game Los Blancos play tomorrow.

If Real Madrid are to stand any chance against Bayern Munich away from home, they will need Mbappe and Vinicius to put the team first and deliver their best performances. After all, this was what they were always brought in for.