On Friday, February 27, also the 126th anniversary of Bayern Munich’s founding as a club, the Bavarians found out their UEFA Champions League fate. In the draw, the Bayern Munich Champions League path from the Round of 16 up to a hypothetical final became clear
Months ago, when we wrote about what die Roten would need for a memorable season, we said that the luck of the draw in the Champions League would be a factor. Now we know that Bayern will not have that on their side.
The Bayern Munich Champions League Path: An Extremely Treacherous Road to Budapest
The Bayern Munich Champions League path is such that a Budapest final at the end of May is now only a distant dream. The Bavarians will not have an all-German Round of 16 matchup against Bayer Leverkusen, which would have been possible.
Instead, they’ll face Italian side Atalanta for the first time ever. The team from Bergamo had a thrilling playoff comeback against Borussia Dortmund, which was decided by a penalty as the last kick of the game.
The Bavarians are likely favourites to go through to the quarterfinals, but it will be far from easy. If they do advance, though, the winners of the tie between Manchester City and Real Madrid will face them in the last eight.
It is likely that if Bayern get that far, they will be the underdogs by a long way to reach the semifinals. They will have the advantage of playing the second leg at home, because of their second–place finish in the league phase.
Even so, the Bavarians would need everything to go their way to advance past City or Real Madrid in a potential two-legged tie.
In the unlikely case they were to advance against one of those two heavyweights of the European game, they would take on either holders PSG, Chelsea, Galatasaray, or Liverpool.
The good thing about that is that they have already shown that they can defeat PSG and Chelsea in the league phase of the competition.
Great Expectations
As six-time winners of Europe’s most prestigious club competition, there are always major expectations for Bayern Munich in the Champions League. They last won it in 2020, while only reaching the semifinals once since then.
Reaching the final four would be ideal, but having such difficult opponents in their path to get there makes it all the more difficult.
The best thing for them to do would of course be to take it one game at a time. The next Bayern Munich Champions League match is away at Atalanta. It will be crucial to get a good result there, something Dortmund miserably failed to do this week.
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The Vincent Kompany Factor
There is no doubt that the young coach’s man-management skills are extraordinary and that he has succeeded in turning this difficult group of stars into a unit, a team of players who fight for each other on the field.
They have a team spirit that has only been there on very rare occasions at the club in the last 30 years.
The Bayern Munich Champions League performances are, at the end of the day, the biggest thing Kompany will be judged by, rightly or wrongly, and indeed likely wrongly. But that’s simply what it’s like to work at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Main Photo
Credit: IMAGO / Sven Simon
Recording Date: 27.02.2026
