Bayern bid to tighten grip on Group D

FC Bayern München will look to strengthen their position at the top of Group D when they welcome bottom club FC Viktoria Plzeň on matchday three.

• Josep Guardiola's holders have performed like champions in beating PFC CSKA Moskva and Manchester City FC and now take on the group's least experienced team, Plzeň.

• After two defeats so far, the Czech champions already find themselves with a mountain to climb – and a visit to a city where they lost 6-1 on their only previous visit is a daunting prospect for Pavel Vrba's side.

Past meetings
• Bayern earned a 7-1 aggregate victory when the teams met in the 1971/72 European Cup Winners' Cup first round. Wolfgang Sühnholz hit the only goal of the first leg in Plzen and Bayern doubled their aggregate lead in the first minute of the return through Gerd Müller. Although Ivan Bican equalised, Bayern ran out 6-1 winners with Franz Krauthausen, Wilhelm Hoffmann (2), Franz Roth and Müller again scoring. Bayern's current club president, Uli Hoeness, featured in both games.

Match background
• Bayern have won 13 of their last 15 home UEFA Champions League fixtures in Munich, most recently a 3-0 success against CSKA on matchday one.

• Plzeň had been on a seven-match unbeaten streak on the road in UEFA competition prior to their 3-2 defeat at CSKA last time out.

• This is Bayern's first encounter with Czech opposition since the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League first group stage when they met AC Sparta Praha, drawing 0-0 in Munich and winning 1-0 in Prague thanks to a Jiří Novotný own goal.

• Bayern have never lost at home to Czech opposition and their overall record reads W7 D2 L1. That solitary defeat was a 2-1 loss at FC Baník Ostrava in the 1976/77 European Champion Clubs' Cup second round but even then they won the return leg 5-0.

• Plzeň's only other meeting with Bundesliga opposition came in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League round of 32 against FC Schalke 04. After Vladimir Darida scored in a 1-1 home draw, the return in Germany went to extra time after František Rajtoral equalised two minutes from the end to make it 1-1. However, Schalke eventually ran out 3-1 winners thanks to a Klaas-Jan Huntelaar hat-trick.

Team ties
• Plzeň faced Guardiola's FC Barcelona in their debut group stage campaign in 2011/12, meeting on matchdays three and four, and losing 2-0 away and 4-0 at home.

• As a player, Guardiola faced AC Sparta Praha with Barcelona in the group stage of the 1991/92 European Cup, winning 3-2 at home and losing 1-0 away. When he faced Sparta with Barcelona again – in the second group stage in 1999/2000 – he scored his only UEFA Champions League goal in a 5-0 home victory and also featured in a 2-1 success in Prague.

• With Spain in 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifying, Guardiola played in a goalless away draw with the Czech Republic and a 1-0 home victory.

• As assistant manager of Slovakia, Vrba saw his team lose 2-1 against Germany in a UEFA EURO 2008 qualifier in Hamburg, with Philipp Lahm in the opposition lineup.

• Milan Petržela made 12 Bundesliga appearances for FC Augsburg in 2012/13, appearing as a late substitute in a 2-0 home loss to Bayern last December.

• Roman Hubník was at Hertha BSC Berlin from 2010 to 2013 and suffered two heavy defeats against Bayern in 2011/12, losing 4-0 away and 6-0 at home.

• Javi Martínez helped Spain win 2-0 at a Czech Republic side including Hubník and Daniel Kolář in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying.

• Hubník scored for the Czech Republic in a 3-1 friendly defeat of Daniel Van Buyten's Belgium in 2009.

• Marek Bakoš was in the Slovakia side beaten 2-0 away by Arjen Robben's Netherlands in a May 2012 friendly.

• Radim Řezník and Tomáš Hořava faced Mario Götze in the Czech Republic's 1-1 home draw with Germany in a 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier.

• Mario Mandžukić's GNK Dinamo Zagreb team overcame Matúš Kozáčik’s Sparta Praha on away goals in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup first round.

• Marián Čišovský played for FC Timişoara in their 2-0 aggregate loss to VfB Stuttgart in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League play-offs.

• Pavel Horváth has won just once in seven visits to Germany over the last 15 years – 2-1 at 1. FC Kaiserslautern with FK Teplice in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup first round.

• Horváth first faced Bundesliga opposition in March 1998, with SK Slavia Praha in a 2-0 defeat against Stuttgart in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals. He was in the Czech Republic side beaten 3-2 in Germany in a June 2000 friendly, the year of his only previous UEFA Champions League trip to Germany – Sporting Clube de Portugal's 3-2 loss at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the first group stage.