Bayern, Haifa ready to lock horns

German giants Bayern Munich and Israel’s Maccabi Haifa clash in their opening Group A Champions League clash on Tuesday buoyed by convincing domestic wins at the weekend.

While Bayern got ready for the trip to Israel by hammering Borussia Dortmund 5-1, Haifa bounced back from conceeding an early goal to enjoy a 3-1 win over Hapoel Ramat-Gan, who were promoted to Israel’s top league last season.

This is Haifa’s second appearance in the Champions League proper but in 2002-03 they played home matches at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus, so Bayern can expect a warm reception at Tel Aviv’s Ramat Gan stadium.

Elisha Levi’s men are seeking to become the first Israeli club to progress from the group stage but Louis van Gaal’s Bayern are unlikely to be daunted having played at the Ramat Gan once before – beating Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC 1-0 in the 2004/05 group stage.

Maccabi are third in the Israeli Premier League, while Bayern are fifth after Thomas Mueller, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday, hit two late goals in Dortmund.

The win over Dortmund was Bayern’s highest ever score against Borussia and coach Louis van Gaal will want his team to get off to a good start in Group A which they share with their Israeli opponents, Bordeaux and Juventus.

Bayern take virtually a full strength side to Tel Aviv, but Germany striker Miroslav Klose has been left behind to boost his fitness.

Klose, 31, came off the bench to score twice against Azerbaijan in last Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier as Germany sealed a 4-0 win, but van Gaal left the striker out of Saturday’s squad to face Borussia Dortmund.

Klose, who took longer than expected to get over a leg injury in the summer, will now spend this week in Munich on a tailored sports rehab training programme, designed to boost his fitness level.

“I’m still not at 100 percent, even after scoring two goals (for Germany),” said Klose.

“I need fitness to play decent football, and I’m a long way short of that. If I travel to our upcoming games, I won?t be able to train as much. This is the best solution.”

He has been omitted from the squad for Tuesday’s game unless there are any injuries from Saturday among the Bayern substitutes.

“In that case, we’ll obviously include Klose,” commented Van Gaal.

Klose has good memories of playing against Israeli teams. He scored a 15-minute hat-trick for Germany in a 7-1 victory against Israel in Kaiserslautern in February 2002.