On Tuesday, Bayern Munich will welcome Robert Lewandowski's Barcelona to the Allianz Arena to shake themselves out of a slump in their performance in the Bundesliga. Bayern has drawn three straight games and, despite Wednesday's excellent 2-0 victory against Inter Milan, sits in the unusual position of third place after six games. With 31 goals in nine games this season, Bayern has not had much trouble scoring goals, but in recent weeks, they have missed Lewandowski's penetrating on critical occasions.
Lewandowski has made a solid start to life in Spain, scoring six goals for Barcelona in five La Liga games to maintain his position atop the scoring rankings.
Barcelona is unblemished in league with four victories and one tie.
Lewandowski made his Champions League debut against Viktoria Plzen with a hat-trick in Barcelona's 5-1 home victory.
Directly following their Saturday 2-2 home draw with Stuttgart, Bayern's sports director Hasan Salihamidzic said his club was more aware than most of the potential harm Lewandowski may do.
Salihamidzic reacted to his former striker's performance for his new team by saying, "We have been warned."
He makes use of every chance.
Bayern has an excellent recent Champions League record against Barcelona, with two 3-0 wins last season and an 8-2 quarter-final battering on the route to capturing the 2020 championship.
Although this Barcelona team is better than some of the more recent iterations, the six-time European winners are fully aware of this.
Salihamidzic said when asked whether his team was nervous ahead of Barca's arrival, "Worried? I don't know (about that)."
"To beat Barcelona, we must go up two or maybe three gears.
"Lewa" plays up front and makes the most of every opportunity for Barcelona, who have elite players and play superb football.
The team's performance in the Bundesliga, according to manager Julian Nagelsmann, won't affect how they prepare for the encounter on Tuesday.
Nagelsmann stated on Saturday, "I approach the week the way I would have done it if we had won.
"It will be challenging for us to come up with a good idea for Barcelona.
"If we had won 4-0 today, I would have acted the same way."
After his side's 2-0 win over Inter, Nagelsmann claimed his side was "looking ahead" to take on the man who scored 344 goals in 375 Bayern appearances.