BAYERN MUNICH will be aiming to dish out more capital punishment when they travel to Athens for a Tuesday night tussle with Olympiakos.
The German giants hit Spurs for seven in London last time out and after brushing aside Red Star Belgrade on matchday one the Bavarians are firmly positioned in the Group B driving seat.
Yet, closer to home the Bundesliga side are rather unusually not having things all their own way after ending the weekend in third place in the German top flight.
Before the international break Bayern were beaten in their own backyard by Hoffenheim and the Germans followed up that shock defeat with a 2-2 draw away at lowly Augsburg – another surprising setback.
Meanwhile, Olympiakos occupy top spot in the Greek Superleague having won six of their seven matches and a hostile atmosphere is sure to await Bayern in the cauldron that is the Karaiskaki Stadium.
The Athens crowd played a pivotal role in Olympiakos's opening group game when they helped inspire their side to battle back from a two-goal deficit to claim a 2-2 draw with Spurs.
Pedro Martins men looked set to build on that point when they led at half-time against Red Star Belgrade, however, a Yassine Benzia red card turned the game and the Serbian's subsequently put the Greeks to the sword by running out 3-1 winners.
Consequently, Olympiakos's qualification hopes now look ominous – even more so ahead of a double-header with European heavyweights Bayern Munich.
The Greek outfit are 7/1 (bet365) to spring a surprise and defeat Bayern, while picking up another point at home pays 4/1 (bet365) with the same firm.
Unsurprisingly Bayern are big favourites at 4/11 (bet365) to make it three group-stage wins on the spin and that means punters will have to dig deep in trying to source some value from an away success.
Having done just that, one angle that has caught my eye is backing Bayern Munich at 11/10 (SportingBet) in the half time/full time market – a bet that would have banked profit in Bayern's opening two fixtures in this section.
Furthermore, following their aforementioned domestic difficulties in recent weeks I suspect we will see a reaction from the Germans and that could spell trouble for the hosts given the wealth of attacking talent that Kovac has at his disposal.
Bayern's formidable front three of Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry and Robert Lewandowski brilliantly dismantled Spurs and six of the seven goals Bayern scored came via the aforementioned trio.
Lewandowski took his tally for the season to 16 at the weekend and although there is every chance he will add that figure on Tuesday night, better value will lie elsewhere as the prolific Polish striker is as short as 2/1 (William Hill) to score first and a nominal 8/15 (PaddyPower) in the anytime goalscorer market.
However, elsewhere in the anytime scorer market I do like the look of the 7/5 (PaddyPower) on offer for Serge Gnabry to score in this showdown.
The German international shredded Spurs by scoring four second-half goals and he came up with yet another brilliant goal during his side's 2-2 draw with Ausburg on Saturday.
At odds against Gnabry looks overpriced to hit the back of the net against an Olympiakos outfit who have only managed one shut-out in their last six matches in all competitions.
However, Bayern themselves are without a clean sheet in their last four and they will be locking horns with a side who have scored in their last 14 games – so another entertaining encounter between two frequent scorers could lie ahead.
With that in mind, I fancy there to be goals in Greece and I expect Bayern's 10 game Champions League unbeaten run away from the Allianz Arena to remain intact.
During that sequence the Germans have scored at least twice in all but one of those games, and that coupled with Bayern's shaky backline points towards value in backing Bayern to win and over 2.5 match goals at 17/20 (Coral) – a combination that has landed in all seven Bayern Munich victories this season.
This UEFA Champions League match between Olympiakos and Bayern Munich will be played on Oct 22, 2019 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Olympiakos vs Bayern Munich prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
