Bayern home form causes CFR concern

FC Bayern München will be looking to make it six home wins in a row in the UEFA Champions League when they welcome CFR 1907 Cluj to Bavaria on Matchday 3.

• Louis van Gaal's men recorded four straight home successes en route to last season's final and opened this campaign with a 2-0 victory against AS Roma. They then won 2-1 at FC Basel 1893 in their second Group E outing thanks to Bastian Schweinsteiger's late goal.

• Sorin Cârţu's visitors, by contrast, are aiming to bounce back after losing 2-1 at Roma on Matchday 2 having opened by defeating Basel by the same scoreline. If they are to take anything from their first visit to Germany, however, they will have to find a remedy for their recent travel sickness in Europe.

Match background
• Since winning their first UEFA Champions League group stage match at Roma in September 2008, CFR have recorded six defeats and one draw on the road.

• While the visitors have never played Bundesliga opposition before, Bayern are unbeaten in six matches against Romanian teams with three wins; two of their three draws came in Munich.

• Bayern's most recent encounter with a Romanian club came in the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League group stage against FC Steaua Bucureşti. Daniel Van Buyten earned them a 1-0 away win before Miroslav Klose (2) and Luca Toni struck in a 3-0 success in Munich.

• Prior to that they had won two home-and-away ties against Romanian sides; they beat FC Universitatea Craiova in the 1981/82 European Champion Clubs' Cup quarter-final – with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, now chairman of Bayern's board, scoring in a first-leg victory in Romania – and Steaua in the 1971/72 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final.

Team ties
• As a young player at AFC Ajax, Bayern coach Van Gaal worked under Romanian coach Ştefan Kovács. Kovács, who played for CFR in the late 1940s, died in Cluj 12 days before Van Gaal led Ajax to their fourth European crown in May 1995.

• CFR owner Arpad Paszkany lived in Munich for several years and still has a house there.

• Philipp Lahm scored Germany's 88th-minute goal in a 5-1 friendly defeat by Romania in Bucharest in April 2004.

• Christian Nerlinger, Bayern's sporting director, scored an 86th-minute equaliser for Germany in a 1-1 friendly draw with Romania in Malta in September 1998.

• Franck Ribéry played under one of Romania's greatest footballers, Gheorghe Hagi, after signing for Galatasaray AŞ in 2005. He scored for France in a 2-2 FIFA World Cup qualifying draw in Romania in October 2008, which featured Gabriel Mureşan in the home lineup.

• Arjen Robben played in the Netherlands' 2-0 defeat of Romania at UEFA EURO 2008. He had earlier scored in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win against the same opponents in June 2005.

• Hugo Alcântara was in the CF Os Belenenses side that lost away (0-1) and home (0-2) to Bayern in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round.

• Dominique Kivuvu was part of the NEC Nijmegen team that suffered home (0-3) and away (0-1) defeats by Ivica Olić's old side Hamburger SV in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32 – the Croatia forward scoring in both legs.