Final Champions League home match of the year! FC Bayern welcome FC Copenhagen to the Allianz Arena on Wednesday evening (live text and free Web Radio commentary from 21:00 CET on fcbayern.com and in the FC Bayern app) on Matchday 5 of the group stage. Having already qualified for the knockout stages, the Bavarians want to continue their fantastic runs in Europe's premier club competition. All the key info on the meeting with the Danish record champions is in the preview.
Here are the best photos from the day before the match against Copenhagen:
The state of play for Bayern
The 2-1 win at home to Galatasaray three weeks ago confirmed Bayern's qualification for the Champions League round of 16 as group winners. With a perfect record of four wins from four games, the Munich men have once again been mightily impressive in the group phase as well as extending a simply unbelievable run: Bayern have won their last 17 group matches in the competition and are now unbeaten in 38. "It's a very impressive run. It shows the strength of the club and how ingrained the winning mentality is," said coach Thomas Tuchel at Tuesday's pre-match press conference.
After the international break, FCB claimed a 1-0 victory at 1. FC Köln last Friday to gain further confidence. "We're at a very good level at the moment and also playing consistently and steadily in the games," added Tuchel. For Konrad Laimer, there's no question of the team giving anything less than their all despite already securing their place in the next round. "It's a Champions League game. Just hearing the anthem, wearing the FCB shirt and walking out at this stadium is enough to make you want to win," said the Austrian. "We're on a run and are in good form. We don't want to interrupt this artificially," emphasised his coach.
Our live blog has all the main statements from the press conference as well as other updates from the day before the match:
The opponents: Copenhagen
Copenhagen are level with FC Midtjylland at the top of the Danish Superliga with 33 points from 16 games. Jacob Neestrup's men slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Viborg FF last Saturday, though. In the Champions League, the Danes are in second place behind Bayern in Group A, level on four points with Galatasaray going into the fifth matchday. Last time out, they won 4-3 in a thrilling encounter at home to Manchester United. If the Danish record champions are to be in a good position ahead of their final group game against Galatasaray, they need points in Munich. "Copenhagen have performed very well across the whole group stage. It was extremely difficult to win there," said Tuchel on the opponents. "All of our matches have been extremely close-fought so far and we expect the same tomorrow."
More on Copenhagen's defeat at the weekend ahead of the trip to Munich:
The team news for Bayern vs. Copenhagen
Bayern will again be without Matthijs de Ligt (partial tear of knee ligament) against Copenhagen. "My feeling says that he won't feature again this year," updated Tuchel. Wednesday's game is also too soon for Jamal Musiala (muscle injury). "He'll do 20-30 minutes of the group session today then continue individually. Hopefully he'll be back in full training on Thursday. He's not an option for tomorrow, but we'll see if he's fit for Union," confirmed Tuchel on Tuesday.
For the visitors, Khouma Babacar, Birger Meling (muscle injuries), Davit Khocholava (knee problems) and William Clem (broken foot) are ruled out.
The facts on the match against Copenhagen:
What Thomas Tuchel says
We have to bring the fire and passion ourselves without the immediate pressure to get a result. That's not always easy. The run proves we can do that and is an obligation to keep doing that.
Thomas Tuchel
The meeting with Copenhagen is Bayern's 100th European match at the Allianz Arena:
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