Bayern Munich vs Chelsea – Team News: Maresca falls back on his favourite Reece James experiment | OneFootball

Chelsea face Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in just over an hour, and the teams are in!

The Blues are back in the Champions League, and you can’t tell how much we enjoy being able to say that after two and a half years in the wilderness. It’s a cracker too – Bayern are a team of the true elite and one we’ve got a huge amount of history with in this competition.

Enzo Maresca had things pretty easy with his rotation last year – play the A team in the league and the B team in the cups. That’s all changed now – he’s got two huge games a week most weeks now, and he will have to balance things much more delicately.

This is a massive game, not only in terms of points for the league phase but also just for the prestige of being back on this stage, and he’s gone as strong as the available players allow.

Here are the full team line-ups for Bayern Munich vs Chelsea (kick off at 20:00 GMT)

CHELSEA:

Chelsea’s team to play Bayern Munich in their Champions League return.

Maresca tweaks team with Gusto and James included

We predicted 10 of the 11 players in this lineup earlier today, but missed one crucial detail.

We debated whether Maresca would go with Malo Gusto or Reece James at right back – it looks like he’s gone with Gusto, but has put James in the team too. Whether that’s as a holding midfielder or a sort of right winger we’re not sure.

If it’s a 4231, it’s Robert Sanchez in goal, Gusto at right back, Tosin and Trevoh Chalobah at centre back, Marc Cucurella at left back, Moises Caicedo and James in midfield, Cole Palmer and Pedro Neto on the flanks with Enzo Fernandez in the hole, and Joao Pedro leading the line.