Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich remain one of the fixed reference points of German football: founded in 1900, housed in the Allianz Arena, and rarely allowed the luxury of being treated as anything other than a benchmark. In the 2026-27 season they sit third in the Bundesliga, with Champions League league phase football alongside domestic cup commitments that have already taken them to the DFB-Pokal second round and the DFL-Supercup final.

The scale is familiar. Their squad is valued at around £823.5m by Transfermarkt, spread across 34 players with an average age of 24. That gives them the profile of a side built both for immediate pressure and sustained control, rather than one being patched together for a single campaign.

Their home numbers are severe: an average of six goals scored and 0.5 conceded per match, with a clear pattern of heavy scoring and little given away. Away from home the picture is more restrained, at 1.3 goals scored and one conceded per match, which makes the contrast hard to ignore. They are not always rapid starters either, having scored the first goal inside 20 minutes in five of 19 league matches.

Michael Olise leads their scoring with eight goals, ahead of Harry Kane on six. Nathaniel Brown, Jamal Musiala and Ismael Saibari have each added two, giving Bayern a spread beyond the obvious central threat. Recent league form has been solid rather than flawless: a 2-2 draw at Augsburg followed a 7-0 home win over Union Berlin, with earlier wins against Elversberg, Stuttgart and Cologne set against a goalless draw at Schalke 04.

For Celtic supporters, Bayern are a neutral opponent only in the administrative sense. They are a high-resource, high-output side with particular force at home, but their away form and occasional slow starts offer the more useful points of reference.