Aston Villa vs. Bayern Munich preview: Team news and predicted lineups

Here is our preview of Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League clash between Aston Villa and Bayern Munich, including our predicted lineups.

For the first time since Vincent Kompany took over as coach, Bayern Munich dropped points on Saturday as they drew 1-1 at home to Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen.

Although they didn’t get the win, the Bavarians can be proud of a performance that saw them dominate the game throughout, but fail to find the decisive goal.

One big fly in the ointment, however, was the fact that Harry Kane limped off towards the end of the game with an ankle injury after a challenge from Amine Adli.

Fortunately for Bayern, the injury wasn’t serious and Kane himself said after the game that he expected to be fit for Wednesday’s away clash with Aston Villa. However, he didn’t train on Monday and remains a big doubt for the trip to Birmingham. 

Bayern’s final pre-match training session takes place on Tuesday at 14:00 CET and if Kane doesn’t take part, it can be assumed that he will miss the game. If the England captain is unavailable, Thomas Muller is the most likely candidate to deputize.

Even without Kane, Bayern have plenty of reason to be confident, having won all their games this season apart from the one against Leverkusen at the weekend.

Their Champions League campaign got off to a flying start when they thrashed Dinamo Zagreb 9-2. Although their win wasn’t as big, the same can be said of Wednesday’s opponents, Aston Villa, who recorded a convincing 3-0 away win over Young Boys away from home.

The Villans, fifth in the English Premier League, have started the season well, but Sunday’s 2-2 draw with newly-promoted Ipswich Town was a disappointment.

On the injury front, Boey (knee), Ibrahimovic (thigh), Ito (foot) and Stanišić (knee) are all definite absentees. Kane, as mentioned, is a doubt with an ankle problem.

Aston Villa will be without Kamara (knee), Mings (knee) and McGinn (thigh), while Cash (thigh) is questionable.

Click here to see our predicted Aston Villa vs. Bayern Munich lineups.