Spotlight on… Bayern Munich

We round off our Champions League group stage campaign with a trip to Bayern Munich on Wednesday night (kick-off 8pm UK time).

With both sides having already qualified for the knockout stages and Bayern assured of top spot due to their five-point lead, there is little at stake in the game other than professional pride.

Ahead of our visit to Bavaria, we put Bayern under the spotlight…

Team news

Bayern Munich boss Hans-Dieter Flick has confirmed that midfielder Corentin Tolisso will miss the clash at the Allianz Arena with a calf issue.

Defender Jerome Boateng is expected to be fit for the game, however, while long-term absentees Niklas Sule, Jann-Fiete Arp, Lucas Hernandez and Michael Cuisance remain unavailable.

Bayern’s domestic form

Since we last faced Bayern Munich at the start of October, the German side have parted ways with Head Coach Niko Kovac. The former Croatian international departed the Allianz Arena on 3 November following a 5-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, with Hans-Dieter Flick then placed in interim charge of the side. Following Flick's appointment, Bayern won four games in a row including a 4-0 triumph in Der Klassiker against Borussia Dortmund, but they have lost in their last two league outings (both 2-1 against Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Moenchengladbach).

Bayern’s group stage campaign

Bayern Munich secured top spot of Group B on matchday five having sealed their fifth victory of this stage – a 6-0 win away to Crvena zvezda. It was against the Serbian outfit that Bayern had kicked-off their European run – a 3-0 victory in Munich - before they sealed two consecutive wins on the road - a 7-2 win over us in N17 and then a 3-2 win against Olympiacos at the Karaiskakis Stadium. Die Roten then repeated the feat against their Greek opponents back home at the Allianz Arena, sealing a 2-0 win before that 6-0 win over Red Star which continued their perfect run in the competition.

One to watch

Having invariably started games from the bench at the start of the season, Thomas Muller has worked his way back into the Bayern Munich starting XI in recent weeks and, in that time, has shown exactly why he has been a mainstay of the side in Bavaria for the last decade.

The 30-year-old is a club legend for Bayern having played over 500 times for Die Roten and scored 188 goals as well as assisting on 178 occasions and, since the appointment of Hans-Dieter Flick at the start of November, the 2013 Champions League and 2014 World Cup winner has been directly involved in six of Bayern’s 10 goals. And, despite having played just under 800 minutes of his side’s Bundesliga season so far, the German international has still managed a return of a goal or an assist every 79 minutes.

Leader of the opposition

Hans-Dieter Flick was placed in interim charge of Bayern Munich at the start of November after the club parted ways with Niko Kovac. Like his predecessor, Flick is also a former player for Die Roten having spent five years in Bavaria during the 1980s.

As a manager, it was with Hoffenheim where he first made his name as he brought the club up into the third tier of German football as well as leading Die Kraichgaue into their first German Cup fixture. A significant step up came for Flick in 2006 as he moved from the Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion to the German national team to become Joachim Low’s assistant. It was a role in which he enjoyed great success as, in his eight years in the job, he helped oversee Die Mannschaft's journey to the Euro 2008 Final, their third-placed finish at the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals, their passage to the semi-finals of Euro 2012 and then ultimately World Cup glory in 2014.

Previous competitive meetings

1 October, 2019 – Spurs 2-7 Bayern Munich – UEFA Champions League, Group B
7 December, 1983 – Spurs 2-0 Bayern Munich – UEFA Cup third round, second leg
23 November, 1983 – Bayern Munich 1-0 Spurs – UEFA Cup third round, first leg
3 November, 1982 – Bayern Munich 4-1 Spurs – European Cup Winners’ Cup second round, second leg
20 October, 1982 – Spurs 1-1 Bayern Munich – European Cup Winners’ Cup second round, first leg

The numbers game

1983 - This will be our first visit to Bayern for a competitive match since November, 1983, in the UEFA Cup last 16.

2 – We are looking to win consecutive away UEFA Champions League matches for the very first time, having won 4-0 at Crvena zvezda on matchday four.

10 - Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski has scored 10 UEFA Champions League goals in this season’s group stage. The record for goals in the group stage of a single campaign is held by Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 11 in 2015/16 for Real Madrid.

20 - Harry Kane scored his 20th UEFA Champions League goal on matchday five against Olympiacos, reaching the tally in the fewest number of appearances of any player (24). Harry has scored in all four matches he has played against German opponents (five goals).

8 - This is the eighth time in the last 10 seasons Bayern have topped their UEFA Champions League group – however, they have never won all six group stage matches in a Champions League campaign. In fact, only one club has ever won all six of their group stage games in a single season – that being Real Madrid who have done so twice (2011/12 and 2014/15).

Played for both

Allan Nielsen became a Club legend in 1999 when he scored the winning goal late in injury time as we triumphed in the League Cup Final against Leicester City.

It was with Bayern Munich that Allan began his career in 1989, but he only featured fleetingly for Die Roten before he left Germany in the summer of 1991. Five years later, he joined us in north London and went on to make over a century of appearances in four years at White Hart Lane, but his time in a Spurs shirt will be best remembered for his performance and goal in that League Cup Final of March, 1999.

In the dying moments of the encounter, Steffen Iversen battled down the wing and managed to squeeze a ball in to the front post. The Foxes' goalkeeper Kasey Keller reacted to palm the cross away but the Danish international was on the follow up to nod the ball over the line. For his Man of the Match display, the midfielder was presented with the customary Alan Hardaker Trophy.

In March this year, he returned to the pitch in N17, scoring for our Legends team as they took on Inter Forever in one of two test events at our new stadium.