Benfica will be without injured first-choice goalkeeper Julio Cesar, while Bayern are missing Netherlands captain Arjen Robben and defender Medhi Benatia.
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“Bayern certainly wanted to win 5-0 but we played superbly”, midfielder Nicolas Gaitan told reporters.
Early on, it looked like Bayern was in store for a walkover.
Arturo Vidal scored after just two minutes for Bayern Munich.
“There are no favourites – favourites are normally the team with the better stats but this does not count for anything”.
Bayern Munich have knocked out Benfica in each of their three previous home/away encounters in European competition (1975/76 European Cup, 1981/82 European Cup, 1995/96 UEFA Cup).
The Spanish striker, who now has 11 goals in 15 games against Barca, was unfortunately sent off shortly after, seeing two yellow cards in the space of six minutes.
And the visitors almost secured an unlikely draw only for Jonas’ second half effort to be well blocked by Javi Martinez.
Missed chances continued to be the story as the game approached the final whistle.
Arturo Vidal’s headed goal just 110 seconds into the game put the Bavarian giants on the board, and that proved to be enough for the hosts.
No, nothing is coming easy at all in the Champions League for Pep and Bayern. While Bayern Munich Vs Benfica will take place at Allianz-Arena (Munich).
Benfica would slowly start to pick things up a bit and start to try to find a way back into the match, but every chance they had went south in some way.
One switch of play caught out the entire Benfica back-line and, after Ribery and Lewandowski exchanged passes, Juan Bernat curled in a cross for Vidal, who had timed his run into the box perfectly to head the ball past Ederson.
Vitoria looked as if he would last only a few weeks in the job after Benfica began the season by losing three times to neighbours Sporting and were beaten by arch-rivals Porto.
“So I am very, very happy with the way we played”.
When asked if he believes a 1-0 lead is a unsafe scoreline to take into the second leg, Guardiola denied that was necessarily the case.
“That depends on our performance in Lisbon”, he said.
Winger Douglas Costa was also asked about their Champions League opponents and he spoke about how his Brazilian compatriots were up for the game.
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Guardiola led Barcelona to 14 trophies in a hugely successful four-year spell but his tenure at Bayern will be judged on success in the Champions League, where semifinal defeats to Real Madrid and former club Barcelona represent his biggest disappointments at the club.
