Bayern Munich take on the visitors Atalanta in the second leg of UEFA Champions League round of 1/8-finals. First leg result: 6-1. The match will be played on Wednesday, March 18th at Allianz Arena (Munich).
Bayern Munich experienced an unexpectedly deep slump the season before last, failing to win a single trophy. Even afterward, already under Kompany in his first year in Germany, they essentially only fulfilled the minimum task by winning the Bundesliga title. Recently Bayern have looked extremely dominant in domestic competitions, confidently winning match after match. Their consistency has allowed them to build a significant gap over their closest rivals well before the decisive stages of the season. Now there is no doubt about their dominance on the domestic stage. They had already secured the German Super Cup in the summer. By spring they had pulled more than ten points clear of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, effectively killing the intrigue there as well. The only thing left domestically is to win the cup, but the semifinal against Bayer Leverkusen is still some time away. So it makes sense to focus all efforts on the Champions League. In the main round the Germans lost only away to Arsenal, winning all their other matches and therefore only starting the playoffs last week.
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Atalanta have in any case shown themselves quite well. The Bergamaschi had long played under the same head coach, Gian Piero Gasperini. But he left in the summer, having finished with the team in 3rd place in Serie A. Recently Atalanta have shown mixed results, alternating strong performances with disappointing defeats. Their attacking approach still allows them to compete even against stronger opponents, especially in high-scoring encounters. Unfortunately, his successor in Bergamo was initially Jurić, who struggled badly. Only later did Palladino arrive, trying to fix the situation — but in Serie A the gap had already become too large. In the cup, against Lazio, the first semifinal away ended 2–2. In the Champions League, after starting with a 0–4 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, the Italians then collected 13 points by the end of the year. However, they seemed to relax, losing twice in January — not only to Athletic Bilbao but also to Union Berlin. It seemed that the team could already be written off after losing 0–2 in Dortmund in the first playoff match. But at home they produced a full comeback, winning 4–1, with a late penalty in stoppage time. Then against the Rekordmeister they managed to score again, but only once while conceding six.
Before last week the clubs had never met, not even in friendly matches. The Bavarians are clearly expected to win again, and not by a minimal margin. A bet on a –1.5 goal handicap looks reasonable.
Prediction for the match: Bayern Munich to win with -1.5 handicap.
