Bayern v Ajax facts

The top two in the embryonic Group E table come face to face in Germany as Bayern München welcome Ajax on matchday two.

• While Bayern opened their campaign with a 2-0 victory at Benfica, Ajax marked their first game in the UEFA Champions League proper for four years in style, defeating AEK Athens 3-0 in Amsterdam to end the Greek side's 14-match unbeaten European run.

Previous meetings
• Two of European football's most famous names, this will be the clubs' ninth fixture – and home sides have traditionally held the upper hand. Of the eight previous contests, six have ended in a home victory, with the other two matches drawn.

• The most recent encounters came in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage, Bayern winning 4-0 in Munich – Dutch international striker Roy Makaay contributing a hat-trick – before a 2-2 draw in the Netherlands.

• That, however, is Bayern's only success in the last five matches between the pair; Ajax have won two in that sequence, most recently a 5-2 semi-final second leg success in their victorious 1994/95 UEFA Champions League campaign.

Form guide
Bayern
• Champions of Germany for a record 28th time last season – with a landmark sixth successive Bundesliga title – Bayern are in the group stage for the 22nd time.

• The Munich club have reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals or better in each of the last seven seasons. They last failed to progress from the initial group section in 2002/03, although they missed out altogether on the UEFA Champions League in 2007/08.

• For the second year in a row Bayern's campaign was ended by Real Madrid in 2017/18, via a 4-3 aggregate semi-final defeat.

• Bayern won their first four home games in 2017/18, before drawing with Sevilla in the quarter-final second leg and losing to Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg.

• The Madrid defeat was Bayern's first European home loss since going down to the same opponents in the 2016/17 semi-finals – which ended Bayern's UEFA Champions League record of 16 successive home victories.

• Bayern have never lost at home to a Dutch club and won their last four matches in Munich, most recently beating PSV Eindhoven 4-1 in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stage. Ajax are the last Eredivisie visitors to leave Munich undefeated, with a goalless draw in that 1994/95 semi-final – one of only two occasions in ten home games against Dutch clubs where Bayern have failed to emerge victorious.

Ajax
• Second in the Eredivisie last season, Ajax are in the UEFA Champions League group stage for the 14th time, but the first since 2014/15. Then their campaign ended in the group stage, for the fifth year in a row; they finished third on each occasion and have not progressed from their section since 2005/06.

• Ajax's 2017/18 European campaign lasted only two ties, losing to Nice in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round before a 4-2 aggregate defeat against Rosenborg (0-1 home, 2-3 away) that extended their winless run in continental competition to six matches (D2 L4).

• However, Ajax are unbeaten in Europe in 2018/19, beating Sturm Graz home (2-0) and away (3-1) in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round and Standard Liège 5-2 on aggregate in the third qualifying round (2-2 away, 3-0 home) before overcoming Dynamo Kyiv 3-1 in the play-offs (3-1 home, 0-0 away) and then defeating AEK on matchday one.

• The 3-1 win at Sturm ended Ajax's eight-match run without a European away win (D4 L4); they have drawn both away games since.

• Ajax have lost their last two away games in the UEFA Champions League proper, and have not won away in the group stage since a 2-0 success at Dinamo Zagreb in October 2011; their subsequent record is D4 L6.

• The Amsterdammers have lost on four of their last five trips to Germany although the most recent, a 3-2 defeat at Schalke in the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League quarter-final second leg, completed a 4-3 aggregate success.

Links and trivia
• Ajax coach Erik ten Hag was coach of Bayern's B team between 2013 and 2014, winning the Regionalliga Bayern in 2014.

• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was a Schalke player between 2010 and 2017, scoring 82 goals in 175 Bundesliga appearances.

• Robert Lewandowski scored three times against Ajax for Dortmund in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League group stage; the German club won 1-0 at home and 4-1 away.

• Has played in the Netherlands:
Arjen Robben (Groningen 2000–02, PSV Eindhoven 2002–04)

• Have played together:
Manuel Neuer & Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 2010/11)
Leon Goretzka & Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 2013–17)

• International team-mates:
David Alaba & Maximilian Wöber (Austria)

• Arjen Robben, Daley Blind and Huntelaar were all part of the Netherlands squad that finished third at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Latest news

Bayern
• Summer transfers
In: Leon Goretzka (Schalke), Alphonso Davies (Vancouver, from 1 January 2019)
Out: Tom Starke (retired), Niklas Dorsch (Heidenheim), Douglas Costa (Juventus, loan made permanent), Arturo Vidal (Barcelona), Sebastian Rudy (Schalke), Juan Bernat (Paris)

• Thomas Müller made his 100th appearance in the UEFA Champions League on matchday one.

• Niko Kovač claimed silverware in his first competitive game as Bayern coach with a 5-0 defeat of his former club Eintracht Frankfurt in the German Super Cup on 12 August – the third year in a row the Munich club have won the competition following three successive defeats.

• Bayern won their first six games of this season in all competitions – having lost their last two in 2017/18 – before a 1-1 draw at home to Augsburg on 25 September.

• A 2-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin followed on Friday evening, Bayern's first away loss in the Bundesliga since a 2-1 reverse at RB Leipzig on 18 March.

• Corentin Tolisso, part of the victorious France squad at this summer's FIFA World Cup, suffered torn cruciate ligaments in his right knee in the 3-1 win against Bayer Leverkusen on 15 September and will be absent for several months.

• Rafinha also picked up an injury against Leverkusen, suffering a partial ligament tear in his left ankle, and has not played since.

• Kingsley Coman suffered an ankle injury in a 3-1 win against Hoffenheim on 24 August, the first day of the Bundesliga season, and will be out for around three months after surgery.

• Robert Lewandowski scored three times in the German Super Cup against Eintracht and has eight goals in eight appearances for Bayern this season.

Ajax
• Summer transfers
In: Hassane Bandé (Mechelen), Daley Blind (Manchester United), Dušan Tadić (Southampton), Zakaria Labyad (Utrecht)
Out: Justin Kluivert (Roma), Mitchell Dijks (Bologna), Nick Viergever (PSV Eindhoven), Siem de Jong (Sydney FC, loan), Mateo Cassierra (Groningen, loan)

• Ajax's 15-match unbeaten run (W12 D3) in all competitions stretching back to 15 April was ended by a 3-0 Eredivisie defeat at PSV Eindhoven on 23 September, halting a four-match winning league streak.

• On 26 September Ajax reached the Dutch Cup round of 32 with a 7-0 win away to amateur side Te Werve. Ryan Gravenberch – who had become the club's youngest player with his appearance against PSV three days earlier – became Ajax's youngest ever scorer at the age of 16 years 133 days. The teenager succeeds Clarence Seedorf, who was 16 years 361 days when he scored on 28 March 1993 against Vitesse.

• Kasper Dolberg scored in the cup game, and was also on target in Saturday's 2-0 win at Fortuna Sittard. Midfielder Hakim Ziyech also scored at the weekend, and has three goals in his last five Eredivisie outings.

• Ajax's new signing Hassane Bandé is expected to be out until the winter break after suffering a calf injury in a friendly against Anderlecht in early July. Joël Veltman has not played since suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury on 19 April.