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No EPL, no worries: You can’t miss Lewandowski in Barcelona colours takes on old club Bayern Munich 

September 10, 2022
Henry Club

With the Premier League postponing all weekend fixtures after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the eyes of the footballing world will be on the other leagues as well as the Champions League, later in the week. So, here’s a lowdown on the newsworthy matches you can keep an eye on this week in the absence of the EPL.

Bayern Munich vs Barcelona (UCL, Wednesday 12.30 AM)

The pairing of Barcelona against Bayern Munich in recent years have been what Marvel’s Thanos would term as “inevitable.” Since 2013, these two European powerhouses have met 6 times and every time, Barcelona have come up short against the Bavarians. The gulf in level was never truly apparent than that fateful night at Estadio da Luz in the 2019-20 when Bayern mauled Barcelona 8-2.

Something changed in the apparent harmonious Catalan outfit after that night, something came undone and the Barcelona people knew would disappear. With just 3 players of that starting XI left in the club now, it’s apparent how much Barcelona had transformed. They met Bayern twice last year as well but the end results remained the same. This time though, there might be a twist in the tale with a glut of new players making their way to Camp Nou, with the chief among them being Bayern’s former talisman and Barca’s ex-nightmare Robert Lewandowski.

The Polish icon knows his former club inside out, he knows how they work and most importantly, he is aware of the chinks in their armor. Barcelona will hope that he will be the ace up their sleeves in the upcoming match so that they can finally get the monkey off their backs.

Manchester City vs Dortmund (UCL, Thursday, 12.30 AM)

Just like Lewandowski is preparing to lace up his boots to face Bayern, another former Bundesliga star is also waiting for his former club to stop by his new stomping ground. Erling Haaland will be standing opposite his former Borussia Dortmund brethren on a Champions League night at the Etihad. Once Dortmund’s favourite son, now City’s goal machine, Haaland will look to keep his blistering form going for the Sky Blues. In the 4 meetings these clubs have had, City have won twice while Dortmund have won once and the remaining fixture resulting in a draw.

A relatively fresh fixture in the UCL due to them not really facing each other all too often, this promises to be a blockbuster match. City annihilated Sevilla 0-4 in their last UCL match with Haaland scoring a brace and Dortmund themselves are coming into the match with a 3-0 domination of Copenhagen. The White and Yellow brigade have an in-form Marco Reus in the ranks as well as prodigy Jude Bellingham and even though City look the more likely winners on paper, they should never take Dortmund lightly. Dortmund will be wary of the threat of Haaland but you can bet anything that coach Edin Terzić has a contingency plan for the Norwegian attacker.

Manchester United vs Sheriff (Europa, Thursday 10.15 PM)

Minnows from Moldova Sheriff Tiraspol, who last year defeated the mighty Real Madrid in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League in one of the biggest upsets of the game, face a Manchester United outfit still looking for an identity under manager Erik Ten Hag. Even though United will go into this match after winning 4 EPL matches on the trot, they started their Europa League campaign on the backfoot, having already lost to Real Sociedad last week.

On paper, it should look like a walk in the park for United but they have always had the habit of losing matches where they were considered favourites to win (2011-12 to Basel, 2015-16 to Midtjylland, 2020-21 to Basaksehir come to mind).

Honourable mentions

Liverpool vs Ajax (Wednesday 12.30 AM)

Chelsea vs RB Salzburg (Thursday 12.30 AM)

Real Madrid vs RB Leipzig (Thursday 12.30 AM)