Repeat of last season’s Champions League final will be fascinating

On Wednesday night two of the biggest teams in European football will meet in the last 16 of the Champions League.

European champions Inter host German giants Bayern Munich at the Giuseppe Meazza in a repeat of last season’s Champions League final.

Turnaround

Both sides are giants in the European game and last season saw them enjoy fantastic campaigns.

That campaign finished with Inter beating the Bavarians 2-0 in the final and completing an unprecedented clean sweep of trophies.

This campaign couldn’t be more different than last season for the pair. Inter have collected the World Club Cup but that was about as good as it got under Spaniard Rafa Benitez in his six months in charge of the club.

When Inter relieved Benitez of his duties the Nerazzurri were struggling and were even outside the Champions League spots in Serie A. This lead to the appointment of ex-AC Milan boss Leonardo. The fans didn’t seem to appreciate his appointment.

However the Brazilian seems to have brought back the confidence of last season and Inter have risen to third in Serie A and are currently just five points behind leaders AC. The team are almost unrecognisable from the team that played under Benitez.

Patchy

Until recently Bayern supporters haven’t had much to shout about either. The club are currently third in the German Bundesliga 13 points behind leaders Dortmund. Not winning the Bundesliga title is considered failure at ‘FC Hollywood’.

The Bavarian club have been inconsistent this season and for a chunk of the season were themselves outside the Champions League spots in the German top flight.

Boss Louis Van Gaal has had to put up with up with lots of in fighting behind the scenes at the club but it seems the team have finally found some decent form. Their form may not be good enough to help them regain their Bundesliga crown but it will help them in Europe’s elite competition.

Priorities

With both clubs in good form the tie should be really close. For Bayern it now looks like a Champions League victory is more likely than a Bundesliga triumph. Inter however are now back in the Serie A title race.

The question is can Inter do what they did last season and win the double of Serie A title and Champions League? Inter of last season under Jose Mourinho were stronger mentally than this season, although Leonardo has now got them in far better shape than Benitez.

Exciting

For me this is second only to the Barcelona vs Arsenal clash for tie of the round for neutral fans. It should be a great tie for the neutral. In the last few months Bayern have been scoring for fun. One of the reasons Bayern are so free-scoring is the form of club record signing Mario Gomez.

The ex-Stuttgart striker has scored 27 Bundesliga goals and also notched up six strikes in the Champions League this season. The 25 year-old was an injury doubt for the clash with the European champions but has now been declared fit.

Inter are top scorers in Serie A and were involved in some of the most entertaining clashes in the group stage, including an exhilarating 4-3 victory over 10-men Tottenham at the Giuseppe Meazza. They are anything but the stereotypical boring Italian side that some accused them of being last season.

Progress

I think this tie will be a very close one. Bayern will be going all out for revenge against the Italians.  However with Inter in such good form I believe that the Nerazzurri will progress into the quarter-finals of the competition. Whether their good form will be good enough to take them all the way to the trophy remains to be seen.

Who will progress from the Inter vs Bayern Champions League tie?