Focus on Leverkusen

The only factor preventing the midnight banquet turning into a full-blown party was the bald fact of a game every three days. Guardiola and his troops face their next huge challenge just three days from now when they travel to Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. For that reason, Rummenigge politely asked the fans, sponsors and VIPs at the Lowry to leave the stars in peace over dinner: "They have to come down and relax. We have an incredibly difficult game on Saturday."

In any case, the players had patently turned their focus to the next job of work, as the first of them were already on their way to their rooms a quarter of an hour after Rummenigge's short speech. "It's important we don't now start thinking it'll all happen automatically. We have to keep it up," demanded Manuel Neuer. Robben echoed the keeper's words: "Let's stay calm, with both feet on the ground. We carry on from here!" However, one particular stat stood out on an evening of the superlatives: whenever Bayern have won a European tie in England, as in 1996, 2001 and 2013, a trophy has made its way to Munich at the end of the season!

Bayern Masterclass !!

"Brilliant Bayern!" screamed The Guardian on Thursday morning. "Bayern Munich masterclass" declared The Times, describing the treble winners' display as "superhuman". Even the Manchester City home page joined in: "City beaten by Bayern brilliance," said the club's official match report. Bayern's 3-1 victory away to the Premier League giants drew a chorus of critical praise from all sides, including warm applause from the generous and sporting home crowd at the Etihad Stadium. FCB President Uli Hoeneß awarded his team “full marks with distinction”.

"For 80 minutes, I think we saw a brand of football I've basically never seen before in my life," Hoeneß said after the final whistle. The President believes Pep Guardiola has succeeded in taking the team up to yet another level, even after the glories of the previous treble-winning season: "We used to have a super team, and now we have a super-super team."

The triumph in Manchester was Bayern's seventh straight win in the Champions League and the fourth in a row away from home in the competition, both setting new club records. City lost at home in Europe for only the second time ever, and were beaten on their home patch in European competition for the first time in 20 games or five years. Before Wednesday, the Sky Blues had never conceded three goals at home in a UEFA competition.

International press reaction

The sporting home crowd at Etihad Stadium applauded a stunning display by the visitors – and they weren't the only ones. The day after Bayern's magnificent 3-1 triumph away to Manchester City, the press around Europe unpacked the superlatives. "Pep Guardiola's side produce attacking masterclass," said the Daily Mirror. The Guardian felt: "It was another night to admire the awesome power of Bayern Munich." And the Spanish commentators were just as impressed. "It was a show of supremacy,” admitted Marca.

ENGLAND

Daily Mirror: "Pep Guardiola's side produce attacking masterclass to leave Etihad stunned. Forget the scoreline. That doesn't tell half the story. Certainly ignore the last 10 minutes. Bayern had already declared by then. But remember the chaos caused by Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, a defensive debacle caused by a tactical disaster. Do not forget the utter disarray as Munich took City to the cleaners."

Daily Mail: "Bayern Munich are the best team in Europe. Not that they had to be on Wednesday night. Their best wasn’t required here. Manchester City made sure of that. City surrendered; City resigned. An orgy of incompetence and unforced errors handed the game to the Germans, meaning Munich’s excellence was largely wasted.”

The Guardian: "It was another night to admire the awesome power of Bayern Munich and, in the process, a collective ordeal for Manchester City and a personal one for Joe Hart. They have never been so comprehensively outclassed on their own ground in the Abu Dhabi era, and a club with City's ambitions will surely want more than to see their own supporters clapping off the opposition."

The Telegraph: "This was not just a defeat; this was a lesson for Manchester City. This was also total football at speed from Bayern Munich, who have even moved up a gear from their Champions League-winning pomp."

SPAIN

Marca: "Bayern have achieved perfection. They dominated Man City in their own stadium at will. It was a show of supremacy."

El Mundo Deportivo: "3-1! Guardiola's Bayern steamroller Man City."

Bayern Ease Past Subdued City

Composed and clinical Bayern ended Manchester City's five-year unbeaten run at home in Europe on Wednesday night and took a giant stride towards their target of winning Champions League Group D with a fully merited 3-1 away victory, although the Premier League side did stage a late rally and FCB finished with ten men after Jerome Boateng's sending-off.

The 47,000 capacity crowd at Etihad Stadium, including a noisy 2,500 travelling contingent, saw Franck Ribery fire the visitors into a handy seventh-minute lead, and the Premier League team spent long spells chasing shadows as the Bavarians passed crisply and retained possession with some ease through to the break.

Bayern Quotes: Matthias Sammer

"Bastian is flexible when building an attack and a lifeline when defending. He also organises the team very well. He is the heart and soul of our game."

- Matthias Sammer about Bastian Schweinsteiger

Analysis: Manchester City Vs. Bayern Munich

One of most interesting game in round 2 of UEFA Champions league is game between Manchester City and Bayern Munich at City of Manchester stadium. Both of these teams scored a victory in first round of UEFA Champions league Bayern beat CSKA Moscow 3-0 and Manchester beat Viktoria Plzen with the same score.

Manchester City Team Analysis:
Manuel Pellegrino squad is playing similar to their city rivals Manchester United, one game they play pretty good and then next game they play disastrous. One of those disastrous games was last week against Aston Villa. They lead two times (1-0 and 2-1) but at the end Aston Villa manage to pull another stunning victory in Premiership 3-2. Week before that City demolishes United in city derby so if we count then this game should be their good game. Pellegrino cannot count on Martin Demichelis and Jack Rodwell who are out due to injury, but Aguero and Silva will be ready for this game after missing last week game vs. Aston Villa. Ivory Coast Yaya Toure is club best scorer with 4 goals so far, behind him are Sergio Aguero with 3 and Alvaro Negredo, Edin Dzeko, Samir Nasri and David Silva with two, while Pablo Zabaleta and Alvaro Negredo are club best assistants with 2 assist each. This season Pellegrino mostly used 4-4-1-1  that can easily transformed to 4-2-3-1 tactic:

Bayern Munich Team Analysis:
Bayern is doing excellent in Europe and in national champion, with Borussia they are leaders of Bundesliga, they won the Europe Super Cup and they still wait for someone to beat them. Last round of Bundesliga Bayern beat Wolfsburg with 1-0, but don’t let the score deceive you. Bayern dominate true whole game with 71% ball possession. In terms of player absence Guardiola cannot count on Pierre Hojbjerg, Holger Badstuber, Javi Martinez and Thiago Alcantara who are all on team injury list. Mario Mandzukic is Bayern best scorer with 4 goals, behind him is Frank Ribery with 3 and Arjen Robben with 2, Thomas Muller is best assistant with 3 assist so far. Bayern will probably play in their usual 4-1-4-1 tactic:

Head-to-head:
Manchester City and Bayern went head to head only two times. In season 2011/2012 of Champions league these two clubs where in group with Napoli and Villarreal. Both of their games ended with 2-0 home wins, in Munich Mario Gomez were double scorer for Bayern and in Manchester David Silva and Yaya Toure were the scorers.

Bayern aim "to avoid defeat at all costs"

FC Bayern are back on English soil. On Tuesday afternoon, exactly 129 days after the Champions League triumph at Wembley, the treble winners landed in Manchester, some 300 kilometres north-west of London. The current Kings of Europe play their first away match of this season’s Champions League on Wednesday evening (Live in Astro Channel 810 & 833HD Thursday 2.45am, Malaysian time), and it will be potentially the toughest of the Champions League group stage.

“The away match in England will be a hard one for us, and very important for our goal of finishing top of the group,” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said. “It’s going to be a difficult match, maybe even a first-place decider. We cannot lose this game.”

Bayern travel to Manchester riding a wave of confidence after winning their last five competitive matches, including the 3-0 opening day victory in the Champions League against CSKA Moscow. The German giants feel prepared for a “hard, hard fight” (Dante) against last season’s Premier League runners-up.