Bayern Munchen-Fiorentina
Football: UEFA Champions' League
Wednesday, 17th February 2010. Kickoff 20:45

---

Bayern Munchen

After a very slow and difficult start to his adventure with Bayern, Louis Van Gaal now sees his team on top of their form right on time. The injury list is empty. Last one to join the first team from the sidelines was Franck Ribery, who sent out a warning to Fiorentina on Saturday with 3 assists on goal as Bayern beat Borrusia Dortmun 3-1. Van Gaal’s men are placed second behind unstoppable Bayer Leverkusen in Bundesliga.

It really does seem that Bayern’s most influential offensive units have reached their best form. Arjen Robben is finally not permanently injured, Mario Gomez is starting to justify his multimillion summer move from Stuttgart, Franck Ribery has put aside rumors and controversy around his future with German giants. The only department, which remains a big dilemma for Van Gaal – is the center of defense. Van Buyten and Demichelis are just catastrophically poor and unstable. Lack of reliability at the back certainly affects team-mates, but level of Bundesliga allows Bayern to get away even with occasional dreadful mistakes.

Bavarian club is at full strength before the start of this evening’s fixture.

Expected formation and line up :
Bayern (4-4-2)
Butt
Lahm,Demichelis,Van Buyten,Badstuber
Robben,Van Bommel,Schweinsteiger,Ribery
Gomez,Muller or Olic

Fiorentina

Fiorentina is seriously drowning in Serie A and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for Cesare Prandelli, perhaps, just for the time being. Difficult to point out what exactly and when went wrong for Viola, but a sudden downtrend has thrown the team out of Top-10 and further down the rankings. In all of his time at Fiorentina, Prandelli has never faced such a severe and deep crisis.

Injuries to the number of crucial players are only making the situation worse for the Italian club. Viola is w/o Gamberini,Santana and Zanetti, with the latter’s absence being especially vital. Suspension of infant-terrible Adrian Mutu has urged Prandelli to revolutionize the offensive line. The changes however are not going all that smooth: Viola is without a scored goal in 2 competitive games in a row.

Expected formation and line up :
Fiorentina(4-2-3-1)
Frey
De Silvestri or Comotto,Felipe,Kroldrop,Pasqual
Bolatti,Montolivo
Marchionni,Jovetic,Juan Vargas
Gilardino

Betting advice

My yesterday's call for Real to win went all wrong, so this time I hope for some compensation. In case Bayern doesn't have a day-off, taking care of crisis-hit Viola side should not present much of a problem.

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Bayern (-1) @ 1.65 with Bet365