The 26-time champion and 30-time Spanish Cup winner in the last tournament passed its championship credentials to Real Madrid, but got a ticket to the group stage of the Champions League. The Catalan club started off confidently in this tournament, getting a victory over Ferencv?ros (5:1) and Juventus (2:0) brought the vice-champion of Spain to the first line in the standings. The main acquisition of the team were the defensive midfielder Miralem Pjanic from Juventus (60 million), Trincan from Braga (31 million) and defender Serginho Dest from Ajax 21 million). In the summer the team had a new mentor, who was Ronald Koeman. In the La Liga championship the Blaugranas took an unusual 12th place in the standings after six rounds. Bar?a won only two victories and drew two times. In the last four rounds the team has never won. Moreover, after two defeats in a row the “blue-garnet” pulled out a draw with “Alaves” (1:1) with great difficulty. Remarkably, the underdog in this match ended the fight with ten men. In addition, hosts scored only 10 goals in six games, which is very little for such a team. Today Araujo, Coutinho, Puig and Umtiti will not be able to enter the field.
Bayern are continuing the tradition of last season and are collecting titles. This season Hans-Dieter Flick’s team have already got hold of two trophies in the form of the UEFA Super Cup and the German Super Cup. In the Bundesliga, the German champion is also in perfect order. Bayern are leading with 15 points in the table, but ahead there is a second match with Borussia from Dortmund. They managed to break out into the leaders only in the last round. At a visit Bayern beat Cologne 2:1 and, due to the failure of Leipzig, was on the first line. The German champion was dissatisfied with the quality of football in this match. The goats had chances to snatch even a draw. The situation in the Champions League is much more successful for Bayern. So far not a single mistake has been made in this tournament. In the first round the Munich club had no problems with Atl?tico, having sent four unanswered goals to its goal. It was more difficult with Lokomotiv away, but despite the resistance of the Russians, they managed to get a 2:1 victory in the class and stay in the lead.
