Bayern Munich and Auckland City face off for the first time ever in their history as they play their first games each of the FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) at the TQL Stadium on Sunday evening.
The recent Bundesliga champions will be big favourites to kick off their campaign with a win against the team from New Zealand, who are the lowest-ranked side in the tournament. Portuguese outfit Benfica and Argentine giants Boca Juniors make up the rest of Group C.
Bayern are on a seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions, and have won four of their last five matches. Auckland are unbeaten in five games themselves, winning their previous four.
However, the gap in quality in the domestic leagues that they both play in is enormous, and so Bayern will be heavy favourites to kick off their CWC campaign with a victory. Nonetheless, Auckland will still relish the opportunity to test themselves against one of the best teams in Europe.
How the bookies view it: Bayern huge favourites
As expected, Bayern are huge favourites to take all three points, with BoyleSports having them as short as 1/500 for victory. A draw is as far out as 33/1 with the same bookmaker, while an unlikely Auckland victory is even further out at 66/1.
Recent head-to-head: No previous meetings
As mentioned, there have been no previous meetings between Bayern and Auckland.
Players to watch: Kane in for the kill?
Harry Kane has scored in each of his last four games for club and country. The Englishman opened the scoring in three of those, and can be backed to do so again at 15/8 with BoyleSports.
Mario Ilich found the net in each of Auckland's last two league victories, and he perhaps is their best hope of getting on the scoresheet.
Predicted lineups
Jonathan Tah could make his debut for Bayern having signed on a free transfer from nearest Bundesliga challengers Bayer Leverkusen. Leroy Sane is also available despite being on his way to Turkish Super Lig champions Galatasaray after the tournament finishes.
Auckland have no fresh concerns heading into this one, and so have a full squad to choose from.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Laimer, Tah, Stanisic, Guerreiro, Pavlovic, Goretzka, Bischof, Muller, Gnabry, Kane.
Auckland City: Tracey, Legos, Mitchell, Boxal, Lobo, Garriga, Ilic, Yoo, Manickum, Bevan, Zeb.
Anything else catch the eye?
With Bayern such heavy favourites to win, we have to be clever in terms of the markets we select and the odds that they offer. The Bavarians are no stranger to a first-half goal having scored at least one in each of their previous five matches, and BoyleSports are offering a price boost of 7/4 for them to score Over 2.5 1st half goals against a vastly inferior Auckland.
Bayern and Auckland have also seen 19 and 23 total goals scored respectively across their previous five matches, at an average of 3.8 and 4.6 goals per game. Factoring in Bayern's expected dominance in this fixture, we feel that Over 5.5 total goals at 6/5 with BoyleSports could also be worth a punt.
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