The stardust of the UEFA Champions League lures Chelsea outside the M25 for the first time this season. Club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton look ahead to a tough matchday one assignment against Bayern in Munich.
This will be the Londoners’ first return to Bavaria’s regional capital in front of a crowd since the unforgettable triumph there in May 2012. Our Covid-era visit five years ago in the round of 16 ended in defeat at an empty stadium.
Enzo Maresca’s team, back among Europe’s elite after a two-year hiatus, face a change of format, but arrive as winners of the UEFA Conference League, which has a similar structure.
Back in 2022 we won each of the four Group E fixtures, contributing to a record of 15 victories from our past 23 group-stage matches, with just two defeats, both on the road.
This will be our 100th away trip in this competition (including qualifiers) and we have won 42 of the previous 99.
Vincent Kompany’s Bayern team reclaimed their Bundesliga crown last season and have made a perfect start in pursuit of title number 35, quietening concerns about a shallow squad. They thrashed struggling visitors Hamburg 5-0 on Saturday evening and Nicolas Jackson, on loan from the Blues, was a half-time substitute.
However, the Reds rolled out of last season’s Champions League with a quarter-final home loss to eventual runners-up Inter Milan – Celtic also drew 1-1 at the Allianz Arena in their February play-off tie.
Chelsea returned to Premier League action after the international break by drawing 2-2 across town, hosts Brentford claiming a contentious stoppage-time equaliser after Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo looked to have turned the game on its head.
The world champions are now targeting a seventh successive away win in Europe for the first time. The current run equals the six in a row achieved in the 2003/04 Champions League campaign.
The History
For the second season running Chelsea’s European adventure includes an excursion to Germany. Matchday four of the Blues’ successful 2024/25 Conference League campaign was a 2-0 victory at Heidenheim.
That was the first-ever match between Chelsea and Heidenheim, but we had faced Bundesliga sides 27 times previously, and had been winless in the previous three away games. In fact, only clubs from Spain (15 times) and Italy (10) have beaten the Blues more frequently than Bayern and their countryfolk (seven).
The Londoners have, though, won seven of the past 11 Champions League matches against German teams - plus two draws and two defeats.
TSV Munich became the first to host the Blues in March 1966, a seesaw 2-2 Fairs Cup quarter-final match played on a carpet of Bavarian snow. The Blues won 1-0 in London to reach our first European semi-final.
The most recent encounter came in the 2022/23 round of 16, where the Londoners recovered from a 1-0 hit in the away leg to beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 on aggregate, thanks to goals by Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz (from the spot) either side of half-time.
The Blues’ biggest win in Germany was recorded at Schalke in November 2014, a 5-0 group-stage thrashing featuring five different goalscorers.
There is no doubt about the Londoners’ most famous success in the land of lederhosen though. That was the unforgettable drama of 19 May 2012, when we bettered Bayern on their own ground. Didier Drogba drilled home the winning shootout penalty to deliver the first of our glorious Champions League triumphs.
Know this...
Opta’s Supercomputer gives Chelsea a 55.8 per cent chance of finishing in the top eight of the Champions League table and 30.8 per cent for Bayern Munich.
These two European giants avoided each other in the FIFA Club World Cup, Kompany’s side losing their quarter-final 2-0 to Paris Saint-Germain, the team the Londoners famously thrashed 3-0 in the 13 July final.
Bayern occupy second place in UEFA’s coefficient rankings and are currently top of Germany’s 18-strong Bundesliga.
The Blues have reached the knockout rounds in each of our past eight Champions League appearances.
Bayern striker Harry Kane has suffered 11 losses to the Londoners and been booked five times in those games, in both instances his most against any opposition.
Chelsea are the only club in history to have won all six major UEFA trophies and are the current holders of the Conference League and Club World Cup.
The soul-stirring Champions League anthem has a German-English flavour. Adopted Londoner George Frideric Handel (born in Saxony) composed Zadok the Priest, but it was adapted for UEFA by Crystal Palace fan Tony Britten, originally recorded by the capital’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and sung by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Champions League regulations
Champions League matches are played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except for this opening midweek, when some are staged on Thursday, and the final league round, when all will take place simultaneously on Wednesday 28 January.
Each of the 36 participating clubs will play eight different opponents in the initial league stage and their standings will appear on a single table. Teams finishing in the top eight qualify directly for the round of 16, while those in ninth to 24th place can join them via two-legged play-off games in February. Those placed 25th or lower exit the competition.
Last season 16 points sufficed for Aston Villa to finish eighth, while Bruges qualified for the play-offs in 24th place with 11 points.
Teams tied in the table on points are separated by goal difference, then goals scored, away goals, number of wins, away wins or, finally, alphabetical order.
UEFA treats loan agreements the same as permanent transfers, so Nicolas Jackson is eligible to play for Bayern Munich against his parent club Chelsea.