Bayern Munich's Champions League Hopes Hang on Return of Arjen Robben and Others

Although Wednesday night brought with it a news cycle that was undoubtedly dominated by the news of Jurgen Klopp's decision to leave Borussia Dortmund, Germany's biggest club, Bayern Munich, did their best to once again steal the back pages for the following day. 

Pep Guardiola's team are used to outshining their black-and-yellow counterparts, yet the coverage the Bavarian giants will receive on Thursday will be far from welcome or indeed helpful. The German champions were beaten 3-1 in Porto on Wednesday. Very well beaten, in fact. 

This tie is, of course, far from done. Bayern were able to grab a vital away goal and could well turn the tide quite easily with two clear goals in front of their own fans at the Allianz Arena next Tuesday. Add to that the simple fact that their manager has always had a habit of drifting through away games in the confidence of tying things up at home and you have a situation, as bad as it may be, that can be salvaged. 

However, for Bayern to do that they must ensure they have some of their key players back for the second leg. For all the training and coaching Guardiola so clearly does, this Bavarian B team simply aren't up to the task of performing at the highest level in Europe. 

Aside from a glaring mistake from Jerome Boateng—one of Bayern's best players this season and easily the best defender at the club—for the third goal, the defensive unit was left exposed by the inadequacies of two particular players: Xabi Alonso and Dante. 

The Spaniard was asked to play as the holding midfielder and to split the two central defenders when Bayern were in possession, yet this was a ploy Julen Lopetegui's side had clearly worked on, as the home side sent their attacking players to press Alonso whenever they could. 

This led to the penalty in the third minute, which ultimately allowed Ricardo Quaresma to put his team in the lead, after Jackson Martinez pounced on Alonso's slow possession of the ball and was able to intercept and charge through on Manuel Neuer. 

Paulo Duarte/Associated Press

Yet rather than a one-off lapse in concentration, this was a mistake in judgement that we've seen all too often from Alonso this season. The central midfielder lost the ball on a number of occasions at the Estadio do Dragao on Wednesday night and did well to characterise the lack of composure throughout the side. It was most notable against Manchester City, too, when Alonso turned and passed the ball directly to Stevan Jovetic, who then played Sergio Aguero in to score his team's second of the night. 

With few exceptions, Alonso has often found himself as the prime cause of anguish within this side throughout its Champions League campaign this season. 

Another player who will undoubtedly be replaced come next Tuesday will be the aforementioned Dante, who also managed to offer up a goalscoring opportunity for Porto when he miscontrolled the ball and allowed Quaresma to dispossess and score with utter ease in the 10th minute. 

The Brazilian central defender has had a number of opportunities to play back into Guardiola's squad this season, yet each time he looks cumbersome and out of ideas. Long gone is the defender upon which Jupp Heynckes built a title-winning squad. 

Both of these players will hopefully be replaced in the coming second leg by Bastian Schweinsteiger and Holger Badstuber respectively. The former will undoubtedly come in and offer much more bite and cohesion in midfield, while the latter has already proved himself as an ideal partner alongside Boateng in defence.

Yet what of Bayern's attack? As we watched over a defence that was languishing before our very eyes, little attention or indeed criticism was being applied to the manner in which Guardiola's team simply failed to attack Porto on the night. 

The only actual chance that led to a goal was when Boateng, the central defender, found himself on the right wing following a corner and drilled a cross into the Porto box, where he found a lingering Thiago Alcantara at the back post.  

Aside from that we had two headed chances from the Bavarian team—Robert Lewandowski's effort in the eighth minute and Dante's in the 92nd—to show for Bayern's strength in attack. It wasn't good enough and will undoubtedly need improving next week in the second leg. 

What Guardiola's side truly miss is the catalyst that is Arjen Robben playing on the left and offering goals and assists from his wing. The Dutch international has contributed an incredible 19 goals and eight assists for Bayern this season, according to WhoScored.com, and was sorely missed against Porto on the night. 

When Robben (or indeed Franck Ribery) are unavailable, Guardiola tends to revert back to a 4-3-3 that has Mario Gotze and Thomas Muller both playing off Lewandowski yet neither truly hold their position on either wing. Instead Muller floats around the final third, as he often does so well, and Gotze tends to stick more central, offering very little space on each wing aside from the bombing efforts of Juan Bernat and Rafinha from full-back positions. 

Aside from the obvious goals and assists, it's Robben's ability to dance past defenders and drag an entire back line out of position from his role on the right-hand side that often proves so vital to how other attacking players find space in the final third. On Wednesday we never saw Muller, Gotze or indeed Lewandowski take any defender on or drag anyone out of position, and that ultimately led to Bayern really struggling to break through the Porto defence. 

In truth the only fortunate goal on the night was, in fact, Thiago's in the 28th minute. Porto had got their tactics spot-on, and it took a wild cross from a central defender to finally get the ball past the Portuguese defence and into the Porto net. 

If Robben can recover in time—which may be incredibly doubtful considering he only started his rehab training earlier this week, according to the Bundesliga website—then such wing play may ultimately prove to be the difference between Bayern turning this tie in their favour or another disappointing evening on the European stage for Guardiola. 

@sbienkowski