Bayern Munich face a mammoth-sized task in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona, with sporting director Karl-Heinz Rummenigge admitting he is praying for a "once in a century" display as the Germans trail 3-0 from the first-leg.
In last week's opening leg at Camp Nou, Bayern matched Barca for 75 minutes until Lionel Messi scored two brilliant goals before Neymar added a third to take control of the tie and put one foot in into the final of the UEFA Champions League in Berlin.
Despite resting major players, a 1-0 home defeat to Augsburg saw Bayern extend their losing streak to four games with Pep Guardiola under pressure despite winning the Bundesliga. In his pre-match press conference he stated that he will be staying at club and not heading to Manchester City, despite rumors linking him with a move to England.
Bayern do have previous though when it comes to recovering from a first leg defeat. In the quarter-final they were beaten 3-1 by Porto before storming back to win 6-1 at the Allianz Arena and reach the last four, whilst they beat Shakhtar Donetsk 7-0 at the Allianz Arena after a 0-0 draw away from home in the Round of 16.
Barcelona, on the other hand, will be looking for three trophies this season as they are the only team in all of Europe with the chance of completing a treble. They have a Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao to look forward to, while Saturday's 2-0 win over Real Sociedad and Real Madrid's 2-2 draw with Valencia gave them a four-point lead at the top of La Liga with two matches remaining, with a win against Atletico Madrid this week would secure the league.
Luis Enrique's men are on a blistering run of form at just the right time, winning all of their last eight matches, scoring 28 goals and keeping seven consecutive clean sheets.
Team News:
Franck Ribery (ankle) and Arjen Robben (stomach) are still out for Bayern as are David Alaba (knee), Sebastien Rode (hamstring) and Holger Badstuber (thigh).
For Barcelona, Luis Enrique is likely to name the same XI that won so convincingly in the first leg with no injury problems to worry about from the weekend.
Possible line-ups:
Bayern: Neuer; Rafinha, Benatia, Boateng, Bernat; Xabi Alonso; Müller, Lahm, Thiago Alcántara, Götze and Lewandowski.
Barcelona: ter Stegen; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Rakitić, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez and Neymar.
Pre-match quotes:
''We are happy we are in the semi-finals. We are 3-0 down and we are up against the best team of the last 15 years. We have to defend well first and foremost and then see how the game goes. You never know what might happen – for 77 minutes it was 0-0 in Barcelona. Everything comes down to the players – I am not fighting for my own reputation, I am here for the players. We are Bayern and I never think we have no chance. It is not a game we cannot win, but we have to use our heads and our hearts.'' - Bayern manager Pep Guardiola
''Yes, we are the best counterattacking team. If Pep said that, we accept it – we don't want to have a crazy game. We want to have the ball and create chances, as Bayern will too. We will need to focus on attacking and defending because if we just defend, we have no chance of scoring goals. You can't be too confident as you have to respect your opponent, so we will need to keep our players calm. We know how big Bayern are so we will try our best not to allow them too many chances. They will have their fans behind them, so we will try to keep possession and create as much as possible up front.'' - Barcelona manager Luis Enrique
