The German record champions and their Croatian counterparts face off in the Allianz Arena on Tuesday. Dinamo Zagreb have clinched no fewer than 17 championship titles since Croatian independence in 1991. They won the former Yugoslavian championship four times.
First CL match against Croatian team
FC Bayern and Dinamo have met only two times in competitive fixtures so far, 52 years ago. The men from Munich were eliminated from the 1962/63 European Fairs Cup in the quarter-finals. It is the first time they are up against a Croatian team in the Champions League.
Free-scoring at home
Six wins and 22 goals in the last six Champions League home matches: the Allianz Arena is a stronghold. On average the Reds scored 3.7 goals per match, conceding only 0.5. Manuel Neuer kept a clean sheet in four out of six.
Dinamo break the spell
The recent group stage opener against Arsenal (2-1) was Dinamo's first victory in the elite club competition since 1999. In particular, the Blues have struggled away from home: they lost all six away matches in their last two Champions League campaigns.
Unbeaten in 2015
The Croatians are in top form, and not only against Arsenal. Dinamo have not lost in 45 fixtures; they left the pitch as winners 29 times, with 16 ending in a draw. The last defeat was over ten months ago when they lost to Romanian club Astra Giurgia in the Europa League group stage, a 1-0 reverse on 27 November 2014.
Belarusian as referee
Alexey Kulbakov from Belarus will referee the first Bayern home match in this year's Champions League campaign. The 35-year-old takes charge of a Bayern game for the first time. So far Kulbakov has overseen six matches in the elite club competition.
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