Bayern Munich v Olympiacos: Arsenal need a favour from Guardiola´s men

Bayern Munich host Olympiacos in the Champions League on Tuesday looking to win Group F with victory, although a draw will send both sides through and eliminate Arsenal.

The Gunners need Pep Guardiola’s men to secure a victory as well as beat Dinamo Zagreb in their match if they are to stand any chance of progression to the last 16 ahead of their matchday six clash with the Greek side.

Bayern romped to a 3-0 victory in Greece in the reverse fixture with Thomas Muller’s double and a Mario Gotze goal doing the damage. 

The Bundesliga champions warmed up for the game with a 3-1 win at Schalke on Saturday, a result that put them eight points clear of Borussia Dortmund at the top of the table.

Olympiacos’ derby match against Panathinaikos was called off due to crowd trouble. Marco Silva’s side are on a stunning run of form though, having won 10 and drawn one of their 11 games since the loss to Bayern in September.

The Greeks have a poor record in Germany, however, with only one win and five defeats to show for their six trips to play against Bundesliga opposition.

Forward Muller says Bayern are becoming accustomed to opposition sides doing anything possible to stop their free-flowing attack.

“You have to work hard for every single victory,” he said. “Our opponents make it difficult for us, the back five is quite popular at the moment. 

“Our opponents try everything, so we have to give 100 per cent in every match. We played reasonably well [against Schalke] but it was annoying to concede the equaliser from a counter-attack.”

David Alaba is a doubt for the game after injuring his ankle in the win over Schalke, as is Juan Bernat (groin). 

Gotze (groin), Franck Ribery (ankle) and Sebastian Rode (thigh) are all out.

Olympiacos are expected to be without Giannis Maniatis (knee) and Alejandro Dominguez (hamstring).

Goalkeeper Roberto was frustrated not to be able to play the game against Panathinaikos, in what was a major disruption to their Bayern preparations.

“We came to play a football match and we leave very disappointed,” he said.

“We wanted to play. We are very disappointed that this battle was cancelled because of things happened that have nothing to do with football.”