All square so far between FCB and OL

Bayern plus Lyon means Beckenbauer for the majority of loyal Bayern fans. “That’s not football, that’s the Uwe Seeler Old Timers, veterans’ football!” the Kaiser thundered to a cowed team at the banquet following a dismal 3-0 defeat away to Olympique Lyon on 6 March 2001. “That had nothing to do with football. We were playing some other sport.” And there was a bitter parting shot too: “Basically, it’s been a great trip, apart from the match.”

The angry outburst by the then Bayern President dates back some nine years, but it is always a hot topic when FCB meet OL. The latest resumption of rivalries comes on Wednesday, when Germany’s most successful club meet the men who won seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles between 2002 and 2008 in the Champions League semi-final first leg. It is the seventh clash between the pair, all of them in Europe’s premier competition, although it is the first knockout encounter.