When Bayern Munich and Juventus were paired together during the draw earlier this month, many tipped this Champions League quarter-final tie to be the one to watch out of the four that came out of the hat.

As it stands, both of these teams hold comfortable advantages at the top of their respective leagues. Bayern Munich lead the Bundesliga by a massive 20 points, while Juventus are nine points in front of Napoli at the Serie A summit.

It's Bayern that head into this encounter as the favourites to progress through to their third semi-final in four years, despite the fact that they are playing the home leg first.

They warmed up for this encounter by hitting nine goals against Hamburg on Saturday afternoon.

However, they will have to make do without the services of Javi Martinez for the visit of Juve because the Spanish international has picked up a one-match suspension.

There are no such problems for the Italian champions, who have no players who are banned. They could be without main striker Mirko Vucinic, though, because of a fever.

From the six matches that these two have played against each other, Juventus have recorded three victories to Bayern's two.

Recent form

Bayern: WWWLWW

Juventus: WDWWWW

Possible starting lineups:

Bayern: Neuer; Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Alaba; Schweinsteiger, Gustavo, Kroos; Muller, Ribery; Mandzukic

Juventus: Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Pogba, Pirlo, Vidal, Marchisio, Vucinic, Giovinco

Sports Mole says: 3-1

Previews by email