Bayern show early signs of Champions League dominance

Dr Joseph Kamugisha Former champions Bayern Munich have resurrected their high scoring profile in the lucrative UEFA Champion’s league competition after Tuesday’s 7-1 victory over AS Roma at the Olympic stadium in Italy. Bayern hold a very good record in champions’ league and have won the title five times. The Bavarians are among top four European clubs in the likes of Real Madrid, Liverpool and AC Milan to have won this competition more times than other top professional European clubs. Milan and Liverpool have lost the consistency whereas Bayern and Real Madrid have maintained their high profile performance in the champions’ league. Football is a big industry and in economic sense you can say the Germans and Spanish capital club have been more industrious than their counterparts. Based on the Bavarians recent level of aggressiveness in this competition, Bayern seem to be chasing the sixth champions’ league title this time. The champion’s league title is not only about accolades but there are heavy financial incentives involved. For example the winners of the competition usually get a net income of 100 million euros and in most cases clubs use this money to strengthen their teams. Bayern won the fifth European champions league title in the 2012-2013 season with brilliant performances especially on advancement. In 2012-2013, they finished top of their group standings and convincingly overcame most of their favoured opponents. They beat Lille LOSC of the French league outfit by 6-1 victory. Though they became complacent in some games, they went ahead to win the competition. Bayern is a club with high sporting character, during the course of their previous champion’s league title victory; they humiliated most of the big clubs that were highly rated in Europe. They beat Italian giants Juventus with a 4-0 aggregate over two-legs during the quarter-final stage and then went ahead to eliminate Barcelona with a 7-0 aggregate victory in the semi-final stage of the competition. Last year, they were so close to making history and win the premier European competition for the second successive season but were stopped by a determined Real Madrid side that had been chasing their 10th champion’s league accolade. Real Madrid fought to win this title again for a period of 12 years. Last season, real Madrid looked to be the most aggressive side in Europe and had initially been tipped to win the competition as well. Real Madrid was very strong with the likes of Angel Dimaria and Xabi Alonso in the side. However, they now seem to have lost their defensive architecture with the arrival of more adventurous players like Toni Kroos from Bayern Munich and James Rodriguez from As Monaco. In the due course, they have also declined in their offensive style as Di Maria is a more penetrative winger than James Rodriguez or Spanish youngster Isco. Real Madrid is still one of the favourites in this competition but Bayern has shown more hunger with their recent magnificent 7-1 victory over a side that has performed so well in their Italian domestic league. Bayern mid-week victory came only five days after they beat werder Bremen by 6-0 goals in the Bundesliga game. Though most of the Bavarian star midfielders in the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Javi Martinez and Frack Ribery among others have been sidelined by injuries, they have recently started to return into action. Ribery was on Mark against As Roma in the mid-week and we might see his form explosion again. We shall soon watch Robben-Ribery offensive combination that is very hard to stop. I think now Bayern is more solid defensively than most of European top clubs and this makes a difference. Xabi Alonso signed from Real Madrid last season has performed so well in the central midfield role and Bayern deep midfield injuries have not been felt so much. Bayern Munich does possess midfielders with great sporting character and you expect them to dominate even with teams like Barcelona that possess top offensive stars in the likes of Neymar and Lionel Messi. I think only Chelsea could pose a stiff challenge to the Bavarian side if they can maintain their consistency performance in England and replicate the same form in Europe.

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Bayern show early signs of Champions League dominance