Galatasaray vs Bayern Munich prediction: EUROPE: Champions League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-10-23 16:45.
Galatasaray looked set to be outsiders to progress when they were drawn in UEFA Champions League (UCL) Group A alongside Copenhagen, Manchester United and opponents here, Bayern Munich. But a memorable 3-2 win at Old Trafford in the last round combined with a fightback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 against Copenhagen in gameweek one has given them a solid platform to reach the knockout stages of this competition for the first time in ten years.
Those games have contributed to the Turkish giants piecing together an impressive run of 17 games unbeaten across all competitions this season (W14, D3), the most recent of which was a 2-1 home win against rivals Beşiktaş to maintain their spot at the top of the Süper Lig. Confidence that they can keep that run going should be high here, but no win against a Bundesliga visitor in Istanbul since a 1-0 success over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup (D5, L3) illustrates the difficulty of the task ahead of them.
Bayern were predicted to finish as group winners and reach the knockout stages for a 15th successive season with relative ease, and two wins from two so far only affirms those expectations. After beating Manchester United at home in gameweek one, they secured a 2-1 victory on the road at Copenhagen, which is a win that’s continued a trend of them scoring at least two goals in all their competitive away games so far this season (W5, D1).
The German champions also scored 2+ goals in their last visit to Turkey, when they beat Galatasaray’s neighbours Beşiktaş 3-1 during the 2017/18 edition of this competition. That extended their unbeaten record against Turkish sides to six matches (W5, D1), with two of those games coming against their hosts here 51 years ago (W1, D1).
Key battle: Old Tottenham teammates go H2H here as Galatasaray’s Davinson Sánchez looks to try and keep Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane quiet. The central defender has picked up a yellow card in each of his last two matches for club and country, while Kane has scored three goals across his last two matches on the international and domestic stage.
Hot stat: Galatasaray have lost just one of their last ten home matches across all European competitions (W6, D3).