Liverpool could be the new Real Madrid for Bayern Munich in UCL

Liverpool could be the new Real Madrid for Bayern Munich in the Champions League, only fairer and faster.

Nine points clear at the top of the Premier League and dismantling teams with the perfect balance of attack and defence, Liverpool have gone the first half of the season unbeaten to establish their status as the clear EPL title favorites. Things look contrastingly different for Bayern Munich, on the other hand, in the Bundesliga.

While the German champions have started to come to terms with Niko Kovac’s methods, they still aren’t the force teams across Europe feared during the times of Pep Guardiola and Jupp Heynckes. The fight for domestic trophies might go down to the wire, but what is worrying for the Bavarians is the fact that Liverpool might bring the fate Real Madrid have been in the past few seasons, albeit in a more devastating way.

While Jurgen Klopp’s men haven’t been as good in the UCL, losing all three away matches and winning the corresponding home fixtures, they did manage to get out of the “Group of Death” in a winner-takes-all battle with Napoli. Their next assignment in the round of 16 clash is Bayern Munich — a team against which Jurgen Klopp faced defeat with Borussia Dortmund in the 2013 Champions League final.

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Bayern, meanwhile, went unbeaten in the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in a decade, but have found themselves chasing Lucian Favre’s Dortmund for the league title for the most part of the first half of this season.

Although the Champions League has been the competition Die Roten have taken in more seriousness than any other tournament back in Germany for the last few years, it’s been the “Madrid threat” — mostly from Real Madrid — that has prevented them from lifting the European championship title for the sixth time.

Having last failed to go past the round of 16 in the Champions League in the 2010-11 season, Bayern are, for the first time since then, in a real threat of seeing their European adventures come to a premature end — all because of the force Liverpool have made themselves.

The defeats against now 13-time Champions League winners have come in manners which are totally debatable. The German giants might have seen themselves go through against Los Blancos to the next rounds in previous seasons had certain decisions gone the way they should have, but against the Premier League leaders Bayern might not get the opportunity to reason that as a factor.

Their instability at the back could result into the likes of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah ripping into the Bavarian defense, before Joshua Kimmich, Niklas Sule, Jerome Boateng/Mats Hummels and David Alaba realize that they have ground to cover.

On comparison, Bayern presently have the same sort of issues as another English club, Arsenal. While the goals have kept coming, especially since Thomas Muller has been reinstated in the nine-and-a-half role behind Robert Lewandowski, the defense has been lackluster.

Conceding three against Ajax, who too have some speedy forwards, is a hint of what the Liverpool trio can do against Bayern if anyone in the team shuts off even for a second.

Although Klopp’s teams have generally not done as well against the Bavarians in recent seasons, the German will look to overcome this challenge too, having outsmarted some of the finest minds in England so far.