Bayern face the Liverpool test

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Struggling for consistency this season, German champions face a trial by fire when they visit Liverpool for the first leg of their Round of 16 clash

BERLIN: Bayern Munich head to Liverpool for Tuesday’s crunch Champions League tie at Anfield demanding improvements and shouldering Germany’s flagging hopes of having a club in the quarter-finals.

Since the 2005-06 season, at l east one German s i de has always made it to the last eight.

That proud run will be under threat if Bayern suffer a heavy defeat in the last-16 first leg ahead of the return game on March 13.

“You can’t make mistakes in these games, but I think we can cause Liverpool problems,” said Bayern midfielder James Rodriguez.

“We have a team that’s good enough to go through, if it goes well.” Yet confidence in Bayern’s chances at Anfield dipped on Friday when they twice needed to come from behind for a 3-2 win at Bundesliga strugglers Augsburg, where Rodriguez was substituted after an ineffective 56 minutes.

Despite sitting just above the relegation places, Augsburg were the latest Bundesliga team to expose Bayern’s weaknesses defending against quick counterattacks.

“Everything must be better, but we had Liverpool at the backs of our minds,” admitted Bayern coach Niko Kovac.

“We have to perform differently, but it’ll be at international level and that’s a very different focus -- I assume that it will be a completely different perform- ance from us.” After Borussia Dortmund’s 3-0 mauling at Tottenham Hotspur last week, and with Schalke facing English champions Manchester City on Wednesday, Bayern hold Germany’s best hope of quarter-final representation.

VAN DIJK SUSPENDED

Fortress Anfield has become even more impenetrable for visiting sides in the 13 months since Liverpool made Virgil van Dijk the world’s most expensive defender, but the commanding Dutchman’s absence for Bayern Munich’s visit leaves Jurgen Klopp with a selection headache.

Van Dijk is banned for the last 16, first leg on Tuesday after being booked three times as last season’s finalists squeezed through the group stages by the narrowest of margins thanks to more goals scored than Napoli.

In stark contrast to their Premier League form, where Liverpool have been beaten just once all season, Klopp’s men lost all three of their group games on the road against Napoli, Paris SaintGermain and Red Star Belgrade to underline the importance of taking a lead to Germany for the second leg.

Three wins at Anfield pulled them through to the last 16 and Van Dijk has yet to taste defeat in 25 Premier and Champions League games on home soil as a Liverpool player, keeping 16 clean sheets in the process to tighten up a leaky defence that undermined Klopp’s first two years in charge.

“Straightaway he was organising the defence, he was the JURGEN KLOPP, Liverpool manager leader at the back, and as time has gone on he is even more important,” said former Liverpool captain Sami Hyypia.

“He gives confidence to the players and makes many other players play better.

“It is very difficult to find a weakness. He is an ultimate centre-back.”

Missing the £75 million man is a big enough blow, but Liverpool will also be without Joe Gomez and most likely Dejan Lovren through injury.

LEWANDOWSKI THREAT A makeshift centre-back pairing of Joel Matip and Fabinho are therefore likely to be tasked with stopping another former pupil of Klopp’s -- Robert Lewandowski.

The prolific Pole won two Bundesliga titles under Klopp when the pair were together at Borussia Dortmund.

“Of course over the years I have watched a lot of Bayern games and this season as well,” said Klopp.

“They were six times in a row champions of Germany, which is not easy, and they were one of the teams in the last 10 years who were pretty much all the time in the quarter-finals, semi-finals, final of the Champions League.”

As Van Dijk kept the back door shut, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane fired Liverpool to the Champions League final last season.

Without their talismanic defender, all three will need to shine more than ever to give Klopp’s men a lead to defend when Van Dijk returns for the second leg on March 13.

We had Liverpool at the backs of our minds. We;ve to perform differently. It’ll be at an international level; that’s a very different focus.

NIKO KOVAC, Bayern manager I have watched a lot of Bayern games and this season as well. They were six times in a row champions of Germany, which is not easy. You can’t make mistakes in these games but I think we can cause Liverpool problems. We’ve a team that’s good enough to go through. JAMES RODRIGUEZ, Bayern player