Bayern, Barcelona Do-Or-Die Battle Tonight

There is no doubt that Bayern Munich need a performance of extraordinary measures if they are to overcome Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final tonight.

Barcelona were 3-0 winners in the first leg last week, with a brace from Lionel Messi and late Neymar effort leaving the Spanish side as the strong favourites to make an eighth European Cup final.

Injuries have hit Bayern hard in the last couple of months and they will again be without a number of key players in Munich. David Alaba, Holger Badstuber, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben are all still on the sidelines, but Robert Lewandowski is expected to play once again with a facial mask.

Mehdi Benatia, Xabi Alonso, Rafinha and Manuel Neuer all started the Augsburg match on the bench and should return, while Mario Gotze will be hoping for a spot in the XI.

•Bayern coach, Guardiola (left) and Barca Manager, Enrique go to war tonight in Munich

Notwithstanding this tough duel, David Olatokunbo Alaba is optimistic that the German champions can overturn a 3 – 0 first leg defeat.

The Austria international sat out the tie at the Camp Nou, and will miss tomorrow’s game at Allianz-Arena even though he has resumed light training with the Bavarians.

“In the second leg, we’ll win 4-0 and I hope I’m fit to play the final in Berlin,” said David Alaba.

Josep Guardiola, Bayern coach is very positive going into the match, he said: “We are happy we are in the semi-finals. We are 3-0 down and we are up against the best team of the last 15 years. We have to defend well first and foremost and then see how the game goes. You never know what might happen – for 77 minutes it was 0-0 in Barcelona.”

Thomas Muller believes Munich can make a statement to the footballing world by surmounting their three-goal deficit to beat Barcelona, saying “I wouldn’t say that we need a miracle. Since we left the Camp Nou we have wanted to make up for it.

“If we go through, it will be a statement which the football world didn’t expect. Whether or not that could be classed as a miracle is up to you, but in football, many things are possible.

“That’s why there’s still hope and we still believe in ourselves. We’re in a similar position to when we were sat here two weeks ago. We can’t expect things to go like they did against Porto, but that’s what we need.”