Update: Confirmed teams are here
Bayern Munich vs. Manchester City lineups: Projected teams for Wednesday’s Champions League match
It’s difficult to predict lineups for Manchester City and Bayer Munich, but it should be easy to make sense of them once they come out.
Manchester City and Bayern Munich are the favorites to win their UEFA Champions League group, and Wednesday's match (2:45 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) should go a long way towards determining who will come out on top. If City can take advantage of Bayern's injury troubles to steal a point away, they'll be favorites to top the group.
Bayern are without a huge group of players and will have to patch together a bit of a makeshift team. Holger Badstuber, Javi Martinez, Rafinha, Franck Ribery, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thiago are all absent. Because Pep Guardiola prefers not to play Philipp Lahm as a right back, this leaves the Bavarians extremely thin in defense.
Over the weekend, once Badstuber was substituted, Bayern played a strange team with Xabi Alonso as a very deep midfielder that dropped between the defenders, almost like a libero. Pep could go to a hybrid three or four-man defense again, with Lahm shifting into a right back role and Alonso dropping between the defenders. But if Arjen Robben or Xherdan Shaqiri gets a start, it's likely that they will play as a very attacking wingback while Lahm plays in the center.
City’s formation is a lot more straightforward, but their team selections might dictate what they’re trying to accomplish. If both of Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko play, they probably feel like they can score against Bayern’s patchwork defense. If only one plays and David Silva is in the hole, they’re aiming to keep the ball. And if one plays while Yaya Toure, Fernando and Fernandinho are all selected, City are aiming to defend and play on the counter.
Projected Bayern Munich XI (4-3-2-1): Manuel Neuer; Juan Bernat, Dante, Jerome Boateng, Philipp Lahm; David Alaba, Xabi Alonso, Sebastian Rode; Mario Götze, Thomas Müller; Robert Lewandowski
Projected Manchester City XI (4-2-3-1): Joe Hart; Gael Clichy, Martin Demichelis, Vincent Kompany, Bacary Sagna; Fernando, Yaya Toure; David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Jesus Navas; Edin Dzeko
Update: Confirmed teams are here
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