The group of death gets underway on Wednesday night, with Villarreal hosting Bayern Munich and Manchester City playing at home to Napoli.

Despite being regular in Champions League group stages, Villarreal face a tough task this season, meaning that the Spaniards have got to start the campaign brightly in order to stand any chance of making it to knockout stages.

The Yellow Submarine have experienced some unexpected problems this term, having won just one of their four competitive games, with the 5:0 defeat at Camp Nou acting as a major blow to the players’ confidence.

There are no doubts that this team have a lot of potential, but they appear to be far away from the desired form and that is something Bayern will be looking to exploit.

Juan Carlos Garrido’s side did show some improvement in the weekend’s clash with Sevilla, having come really close to victory despite playing with ten men for more than an hour.

Taking that into consideration as well as Bayern’s impressive scoring form, odds of 1.67 (2/3) offered by Ladbrokes on both teams to score do look tempting.

Nilmar should return to the starting line-up after being rested against Sevilla, but Angel Lopez remains sidelined.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Diego Lopez – Mario, Gonzalo, Musacchio, Oriol – Valero, Bruno, Marchena, Cani – Rossi, Nilmar.

Every time Bayern Munich fail to win the Bundesliga title, the club management splashes a lot of cash so as to make sure that doesn’t happen again, and this summer was no different.

Realizing that shaky back line was the main reason behind numerous problems last term, the club managed to significantly reinforce that part of the team by bringing Manuel Neuer, Rafinha and Jerome Boateng.

The heavy summer spending couldn’t prevent Bayern from losing their opening Bundesliga fixture to Borussia M’Gladbach, but the Bavarians soon showed how much they have improved by winning next six games in all competitions.

Not only did Bayern win last six games, but they managed to keep a clean sheet in every one of those matches, so they are now 3.00 (2/1) with Ladbrokes to make it seven in a row. The Bavarians are also 2.30 (13/10) with Stan James to claim maximum points at El Madrigal.

Arjen Robben misses out through injury, whereas Daniel van Buyten should start at the heart of defence, with Jerome Boateng moving to right-back.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Neuer – Boateng, Van Buyten, Badstuber, Lahm – Schweinsteiger, Gustavo – Muller, Kroos, Ribery – Gomez.