Why Yacine Brahimi Is the Porto Player Bayern Must Stop in Champions League

On Wednesday Bayern Munich take the next step in their quest for another historic treble-winning season and the first European Cup of the Pep Guardiola reign when they face Porto in the Champions League. 

The Bavarian giants will undoubtedly be considered strong favourites to win the tie outright, over the course of the two legs, yet that doesn't mean the first encounter between the two sides at the Estadio do Dragao will go in favour of the German champions. 

Although Guardiola does retain the majority of his squad for the trip to Portugal, the club did confirm April 13 that Bastian Schweinsteiger and Franck Ribery did not travel with the team and that Jerome Boateng may return to the starting XI after sitting out the past game due to injury. 

Favourites Bayern may well be, but they won't expect a pleasant time of things against Julen Lopetegui's side Wednesday night on the biggest of stages. 

To add to Guardiola's anguish ahead of the tie, we must of course concede that Porto are an exceptional side in their own right. Lopetegui's team have done well to maintain an undefeated run throughout the competition this season, beating opponents such as Shakhtar Donetsk and Athletic Club. They are certainly no pushovers. 

Francisco Seco/Associated Press

The Portuguese side undoubtedly have a number of talented players, yet on Wednesday it will be Algerian international Yacine Brahimi who may well end up causing the most anguish for Bayern's defence and any hopes they may have of walking away with a result. 

The 25-year-old forward has spent most of this season playing on the left of Porto's front three, yet at times he has played through the middle as a No. 10 and as a central midfielder, where he has scored an impressive five goals and three assists in just seven Champions League appearances, according to WhoScored.

When we take a look at where Brahimi has scored from this season, via the Squawka graphic below, we see that he enjoys cutting in from the left wing and really exploiting that space between the right-back and the corresponding right-hand central defender, an area of the field that may be rather vulnerable Wednesday night. 

Squawka

Even if Boateng were to return to the team and play in his usual position of right-sided central defender, he would undoubtedly be somewhat off the pace and alongside Rafinha at right-back. Rafinha, despite doing relatively well throughout this season, is anything but a composed, defensive full-back. 

If Lopetegui is determined to take advantage of playing the first leg at home and putting a few goals past Bayern, then putting Behrami up against Rafinha may be his best route to ultimately finding a way past Manuel Neuer's goals. 

Similarly, travelling fans will be wary of Bayern's ability to ship goals against sides that have been set up to hit Guardiola's high line on the break. Manchester City did it brilliantly in the group stages, and CSKA Moscow offered a real threat with their pace when Bayern made the trip through to Russia. 

In truth, Bayern are likely to play a very limited, careful game, which may mean the team sit further back, but under Guardiola there is only one true way of playing their game. Space will develop behind the Bayern defence, and that's where Brahimi and his teammates in attack will hope to exploit.