On Wednesday, Bayern Munich will be looking to climb the Champions League standings when they lock horns with Slovan Bratislava in the final round of league phase fixtures.
The hosts are sitting in 15th spot and one point adrift of the top eight, while the visitors are down in 35th position without a point to their name, leaving them with just pride to play for against the German giants.
Match preview
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Vincent Kompany has experienced mixed results in his first experience as a Champions League manager, having seen his Bayern side record four wins and three defeats in their seven league phase matches.
Bayern went from the joy of a resounding 9-2 victory against Dinamo Zagreb to the despair of back-to-back defeats against Aston Villa and Barcelona, before they found some consistency with a run of three successive European wins over Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Shakhtar Donetsk.
As a result of those victories, the Bavarians travelled to Rotterdam for last week's meeting with Feyenoord in 10th position, only to leave the Netherlands in 15th spot after suffering a heavy 3-0 defeat following a Santiago Gimenez brace and a late Ayase Ueda strike.
While Bayern are still just a point adrift of eighth position, there are now six teams between themselves and an automatic last-16 spot, meaning that they will need a number of results to go their way if they are to sneak into the top eight.
Bayern's main focus will be on doing their part by claiming all three points against the Slovakian champions, and they will head into the contest in a positive mood after they extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga table to six points with a 2-1 away win over Freiburg, courtesy of a Harry Kane opener and a Kim Min-jae effort.
After enjoying success on the road at the weekend, Kompany's charges will now return to the familiar surroundings of the Allianz Arena, where they have won 11 of their 13 competitive matches this season, including victories in all three European home games.
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While Bayern are guaranteed to play some form of knockout football, Slovan know that their Champions League journey will come to an end when the referee blows the full-time whistle on Wednesday, having lost each of their seven games in the league phase.
Among those defeats were losses to Manchester City, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid, with Slovan struggling to compete with the elite teams in UEFA's most prestigious club competition.
The Slovakian champions may be fearing their upcoming meeting with Bayern after losing to another Bundesliga side on matchday seven, Idjessi Metsoko's 85th-minute effort proving to be fruitless in a 3-1 home defeat against Stuttgart.
As a result of those three Stuttgart goals, Vladimir Weiss's side now have the worst defensive record in the league phase with 24 goals conceded in seven matches, highlighting one of the key reasons why they are one of two teams yet to pick up a point in this season's main draw.
With their domestic league still on a winter break, Slovan had have a full week to prepare for Wednesday's daunting trip to Munich, with the visitors looking to claim their first win in Germany in major European competition after failing to do so in their previous three visits.
They lost 3-0 in the UEFA Cup to Borussia Dortmund and Kaiserslautern in 1994 and 1995 respectively, before they played out a 2-2 draw with Stuttgart in a 2010-11 Europa League qualifier in their most recent competitive game in Germany.
Team News
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Bayern full-back Alphonso Davies is set to miss around four to six weeks of action with a hamstring issue that he picked up against Feyenoord.
Defender Hiroki Ito remains sidelined with a foot problem, while Dayot Upamecano is a doubt after being absent for the recent league clash against Freiburg.
Leon Goretzka is suspended for an accumulation of yellow cards, although he may have missed through injury anyway after being forced off in the first half of Saturday's win.
Manuel Neuer will be the only senior goalkeeper in the squad, with Daniel Peretz set to sit out a fifth consecutive game due to injury, while Sven Ulreich will serve a ban after he was sent off for complaining to officials in the closing stages of last week's trip to Rotterdam.
In positive news, the versatile Konrad Laimer will return to the fold after serving a one-match suspension in the Bundesliga.
As for the visitors, experienced midfielder Juraj Kucka remains unavailable for selection after missing the defeat to Stuttgart with a knee injury.
Weiss could be tempted to use three central defenders in a bid to deal with Bayern's attacking threat, which could see Guram Kashia, Kevin Wimmer and Siemen Voet offer the final line of protection to goalkeeper Dominik Takac.
Forward David Strelec will continue to lead the Slovan line, having racked up 15 goals in 34 competitive matches this season.
Metsoko may have to settle for a place on the bench despite scoring in his substitute appearance on matchday seven of the league phase.
Bayern Munich possible starting lineup:
Neuer; Laimer, Kim, Dier, Guerreiro; Kimmich, Pavlovic; Olise, Musiala, Coman; Kane
Slovan Bratislava possible starting lineup:
Takac; Kashia, Wimmer, Voet; Blackman, Bajric, Savvidis, Zuberu; Mak, Marcelli, Strelec
We say: Bayern Munich 3-1 Slovan Bratislava
Slovan have conceded three or more goals in six of their seven matches in the league phase, and we think that they could experience another difficult evening when they go up against a Bayern side that have won each of their last four competitive home matches, scoring 17 goals across those four victories.
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