FC Viktoria Plzeň respects — but does not fear — Bayern Munich ahead of Champions League match

Bayern Munich and FC Viktoria Plzeň will square off and the Czech First League club is well-aware of what it will be up against.

“We are facing a hugely difficult opponent, perhaps the biggest favorite in the entire Champions League. It’s difficult to open the game against such team. We won’t change anything: compact at the back, quick counter-attacks, rely on set pieces,” FC Viktoria Plzeň coach Michal Bílek said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “(Jamal) Musiala, (Sadio) Mané, (Leroy) Sané, (Serge) Gnabry, the quality is huge. Huge pace, they are very well equipped technically. We have to be very careful with all Bayern’s attacking players, they have a quick transition to attack, we have to deal with that. Two players have COVID (Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Müller), but it’s not such a huge loss for Bayern, even though they are great players. They have equivalent replacements for them, we are not counting on Bayern being significantly weaker.”

Despite all of that aforementioned talent, Bílek has seen Bayern Munich’s recent struggles — and he does not buy the “crisis” narrative.

“It’s true Bayern lost a few times in the Bundesliga. But all the matches were similar, the opponent defended carefully, the goalkeeper helped a lot. Bayern also had a bit of bad luck. If we want to think about success tomorrow, we have to present ourselves the same way,” said Bílek. “As I said — all the games they lost, Bayern were significantly better, but the finishing was not what they would have liked. We have an extremely difficult game ahead of us, even though Bayern stumbled a few times this season.”

Meanwhile, FC Viktoria Plzeň defender Lukáš Hejda acknowledged that his squad is not afraid of Bayern Munich, but the Czech side does understand what they are up against.

“I wouldn’t say we are afraid of them, but all the teams in our group are extra class. It’s hard to defend against them and we have to try to do our best tomorrow,” Hejda said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “Bayern have lost some points in the league this season, but they created several chances in every match. They have great quality and we know what we will be facing. It will be a very difficult test for us.”

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