* BAYERN MUNICH’S three games in the Champions League have all ended 3-0. The Germans overcame Celtic and Anderlecht, but lost by the same scoreline against Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital. The defeat prompted the sacking of boss Carlo Ancelotti the following day. The Italian was replaced by former coach Jupp Heynckes.
* THE teams’ only previous fixtures came in the 2003/04 Champions League group stage, when Bayern picked up four points from their two games against Celtic.
* THE Bundesliga giants, then managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld, came from behind to win 2-1 in Bavaria. Dutchman Roy Makaay scored two late goals (73, 86) after Alan Thompson had given Martin O’Neill’s men a 57th-minute lead.
* THE line-ups at the Olympiastadion on September 17, 2003 were:
BAYERN: Kahn; Sagnol, Kovac, Linke, Lizarazu (sub: Rau 73); Hargreaves, Salihamidzic, (sub: Santa Cruz 73), Ballack, Ze Roberto; Pizarro and Makaay.
CELTIC: Hedman; Agathe, Varga, Balde, McNamara; Petrov, Lennon, Thompson; Sutton, Hartson (sub: Miller 66), Larsson.
* THE game at Celtic Park on November 25, 2003 ended goalless. Hasan Salihamidzic, now Bayern’s sporting director, and Willy Sagnol, now part of the coaching staff, featured in both matches.
* O’NEILL started with the same line-up for the game in Glasgow. Joe Miller and Momo Sylla were second-half substitutes for Didier Agathe and John Hartson.
* BAYERN qualified for the group stage after winning their fifth straight Bundesliga title. They are aiming to reach the knock-out rounds for the tenth season in a row.
* THE Munich club, 3-0 victors at home to Anderlecht in their first Group B game, won all 16 of their European home matches between September 17, 2014 and February 15 this year.
* CELTIC suffered their biggest home Europe defeat when they went down 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in their Group B opener. They ended a 10-game – drawn three, lost seven – four-year winless run in the Champions League group stage by overcoming Anderlecht 3-0.
* THE Anderlecht win was the Hoops’ first for 17 European group stage fixtures in the Champions League or Europa League (drawn seven, lost nine).
* IN 2016/17, the Hoops came fourth in their section, taking three points from six games. They suffered a record 7-0 loss at Barcelona, but drew 1-1 at Borussia Monchengladbach and Manchester City.
* THEY also had a 3-3 stalemate with City in Glasgow and successive 2-0 losses against Barca and the German outfit.
* THE Monchengladbach draw, their second in succession in Germany, left Celtic with the record of no wins, three draws and seven losses away to Bundesliga clubs. Bayern added to that misery earlier this month.
* THE Scottish champions are on an eight-game winless run, home and away, against German clubs, drawn three, lost five. Paul Lambert, Shaun Maloney and Stiliyan Petrov scored when the Hoops last overcame German opposition – 3-1 at home against VfB Stuttgart in the 2002/03 UEFA Cup fourth round.
* ANDREAS HINKEL played right-back for the Germans that night. He moved to Sevilla in 2006 and switched two years later for three-stint in Glasgow.
* CELTIC started this season in the second qualifying round, beating Linfield (2-0 away, 4-0 home) and then Rosenborg in the third qualifying round (0-0 home, 1-0 away). They posted a fifth straight clean sheet with a 5-0 win against FC Astana in the home first leg of their play-off, advancing despite a 4-3 loss in Kazakhstan which ended a four-game – two wins and two draws – unbeaten away run in Europe.
* THE victory in Linfield broke Celtic’s 11-match sequence without an away win in Europe, drawing five and losing five.
* CELTIC are in the Champions League group stage for the tenth time.
* BAYERN’S Arturo Vidal helped Juventus beat the Hoops 3-0 away and 2-0 at home in the 2012/13 Champions League round of 16.
* MOUSSA DEMBELE, Olivier Ntcham and Kingsley Coman are French Under-21 international team-mates.
BRENDAN RODGERS – The Road to Paradise is available now from CQNBookstore.com and for the first 100 sold on the bookstore we will include a free gift.
Available now at CQN bookstore.com
