Bundesliga blog: Can Bayern Munich triumph in Europe this season?

Published 16:35 20/02/12

Welcome to our German football blog, courtesy of Ross Dunbar of brand new German football site bundesligafootball.co.uk .

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As we approach the business end of the campaign the German clubs still in Europe are all eyeing the chance to add to their silverware collections.

There are two Bundesliga sides in the Champions League and two in the Europa League and all four would argue this is their year.

Here is a look at the contenders and their chances of European glory.

Champions League

The Champions League resumed last week with Bayer Leverkusen flying the flag for German football at home against the holders Barcelona.

It was always going to be a difficult game for Robin Dutt’s men but they made it a very interesting contest for long spells of the game.

Their preparation was helped by an away clash with Borussia Dortmund on the Saturday before as the current German league-leaders are probably the closest side to Barca in the Bundesliga in terms of passing style, tempo and so on.

After a very even first half hour, Barcelona swept in to action, playing some lovely football and eventually opening the scoring on 41 minutes through Alexis Sanchez.

But Leverkusen were resilient and keen to ask questions of Victor Valdes and left-back Michal Kadlec headed home the equaliser early in the second half.

In the end, goals from Sanchez and Messi made it 3-1 to the Spanish champions, leaving Der Werkself with an almost impossible task of overturning that deficit in the Nou Camp to qualify for the last eight

This week it is FC Bayern Munich’s turn to stake a claim for the trophy with an away trip to Swiss champions FC Basel. The Bavarians have been very poor since the start of the second half of the campaign and they had a lacklustre 0-0 draw against Freiburg at the weekend.

Basel impressed in the Group Stages with four points from two games against Manchester United and given Bayern’s problems on the park, could fancy their chances of sneaking in to the quarter finals.

Jupp Heynckes’ men do have a realistic chance of winning the Champions League on their home patch in May but The Reds will seriously need to improve their performances if they are going to go all the way.

Europa League

Both Schalke and Hannover made hard work of their Europa League ties on Thursday but despite that they are each in excellent positions to progress to the last 16.

Die Konigsblauen managed a draw in their first leg match away to Czech champions Viktoria Plzen with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar grabbing the equaliser with around 10 minutes to play.

Schalke are likely favourites to progress to the next round and should be in the mix to win the competition outright given the resources at their disposal. If the German side hold on to win against Plzen, they will face either Steaua Bucharest or FC Twente in the last 16.

The second German club in the Europa League is last season’s fourth-place finishers Hannover 96 who are major underdogs for the competition.

Despite not being among the favourites, Hannover have a very well-organised side under Mirko Slomka with a solid defence and really quick counter-attacking play which is capped off well by the prolific striker Mohammed Abdellaoue.

Despite going 1-0 down to opponents Club Brugge on Thursday, Slomka’s men fought back with an impressive late performance and goals from Artur Sobiech and Jan Schlaudraff put HSV in pole position to progress.

A positive result in Belgium would mean that Hannover face either Wisla Krakow or Standard Liege in the next round.

Considering their opponents, a lengthy run in the Europa League for Hannover is certainly not impossible and they will be a difficult nut to crack even against the better sides in the competition.

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Read more from Ross at the new site bundesligafootball.co.uk or follow @rossdunbar93 on Twitter

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