Depleted Bayern Host Perfect Arsenal as Injury-Hit United Face Como on Champions League Wednesday

MUNICH · COMO · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2026

The Champions League does not wait for anyone’s treatment room, and Wednesday night is the proof. Bayern Munich — unbeaten at home in this competition’s group and league phases since December 2013, a run of 39 matches — welcome Arsenal to the Allianz Arena missing their most electric winger, their most gifted playmaker and their captain, and possibly without their head coach on the touchline or their goalkeeper behind the defence. Arsenal, meanwhile, arrive having won both of their league-phase games without conceding a goal, chasing a 15th straight win at this stage of the competition. Something has to bend.

And that is only the headline act. Two hours earlier in Italy, Manchester United — winless in six, 13th in the Premier League, and missing nine first-team players — play a Champions League away game against a Como side living its first-ever season at this level and loving it. After Tuesday’s 40-goal chaos, headlined by Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-2 win over Barcelona and Liverpool’s comeback against Villarreal, Matchday 3 closes with nine more games. Here is the state of play.

Bayern, held together by tape

Start with the absentees, because Bayern’s team news reads like a hospital ward round. Michael Olise is suspended after his sending-off in last week’s 3-3 draw at Viking — a second yellow card for throwing the ball away, a dismissal his own coach called entirely the player’s fault. Jamal Musiala is out with a thigh injury suffered on international duty, with around another week of recovery to go. Manuel Neuer, who has missed Bayern’s last two matches with a foot problem, has trained for two days but remains a decision for matchday, with Jonas Urbig on standby. And Vincent Kompany himself is a doubt: the Bayern head coach has a viral infection that has affected his legs, missed Tuesday’s press conference, and is being assessed day by day.

“Vince has had a virus, and it is important for him to rest,” assistant coach Aaron Danks told reporters, in quotes carried by Reuters. “So he is at home. We are taking it day by day. He will play his role in the game whether in the Allianz Arena or not.” Danks was equally honest about Neuer and the rest: no decision yet, and no guarantees. “The key will be decided on small margins,” he added. “We want them to play fearless and express themselves.”

On Wednesday morning came the heaviest news of all. Bayern confirmed that Joshua Kimmich is not in the squad after a death in his immediate family, and asked that the family’s privacy and grief be respected. Previously echoes that request and offers its condolences; football comes a distant second, and Kimmich’s absence will simply be noted here, not analysed.

What remains is still Bayern. Harry Kane leads the line, and Kane against Arsenal is one of European football’s most reliable subplots: Bayern’s own matchday notes count 15 goals in 22 career appearances against the club that released him as a nine-year-old. Luis Díaz, who scored a hat-trick in Saturday’s 6-1 Bundesliga demolition of RB Leipzig, carries the threat Olise would normally provide from the flank, and 18-year-old Lennart Karl is favoured to take Olise’s place on the right. Bayern have scored 25 goals in their last six matches in all competitions. The catch, as Arsenal’s own tactical analysis noted, is at the other end: Kompany’s side have kept clean sheets in only three of their ten games this season, and Viking — Viking — put three past them last week.

Arsenal, who cannot stop winning

If Bayern are the story of absence, Arsenal are the story of relentlessness. A 1-0 win at Napoli and a 3-0 home win over Lille have them on six points with a clean sheet apiece; extend the run backwards and Mikel Arteta’s side have won 14 consecutive league-phase matches, the competition’s outstanding streak, and are unbeaten in eight straight Champions League away games, keeping five clean sheets in that run. The last meeting between these two, in November 2025, finished 3-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates, with Jurriën Timber, Noni Madueke — Saturday’s late match-winner at Nottingham Forest — and Gabriel Martinelli scoring. Across Bayern’s last 23 Champions League matches, Arsenal are the only side to beat them by more than one goal.

“I’m really looking forward to the game,” Arteta said, in quotes published by Arsenal FC. “This is the stage, this is the kind of team, this is the kind of coach, this is the kind of club, the kind of stadium that you want to be involved in. We have prepared the game with lots of enthusiasm, and really thrive to come here and win the game.”

Arsenal’s homework, per the club’s tactical preview, centres on Kane’s wandering: the England captain drops into midfield constantly, and the decision of whether a centre-back follows him or passes him on will shape the night. Bukayo Saka has his own footnote to chase — four of his 14 Champions League goals have come away from home, two of them at Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, and only Didier Drogba and Erling Haaland have ever scored away at Bayern, Madrid and PSG in this competition. Martin Zubimendi returns after the injury he picked up following the Leeds win. Saliba, Hincapié and Tzolis remain out, and Bayern’s home record — one defeat in their last 31 Champions League home matches — stands as the counterweight to all of it. Kick-off is 8pm in Munich, live in the UK on TNT Sports 1, with Italian referee Davide Massa in charge.

United take nine absentees to Lake Como

The early game is a stress test of a different kind. Manchester United’s trip to Como (12:45pm ET) comes with a squad list that barely fills a teamsheet: Benjamin Šeško, Patrick Dorgu, Manuel Ugarte, Marcus Rashford, Lisandro Martínez, Luke Shaw, Kobbie Mainoo and the ill Ayden Heaven are all out, and Leny Yoro is suspended after his red card in last week’s defeat at Atlético Madrid. Nine players, in a season where United have won twice in all competitions, have not won in six, and sit 13th in the Premier League with one win from seven.

“Licha’s not too bad but he’s not with us,” Michael Carrick said, in quotes carried by Sports Mole. “Kobbie we’re looking at ten days or so. Luke a little bit longer than that. Ayden ill, Marcus feeling a hip issue.” The one shaft of light is Matthijs de Ligt, available after a back injury that has cost him almost a year. “It’s great to have him back. He’s had such a long journey, 11 months or so. He’s been patient and has worked hard. We’re delighted to have him back, he’s ready,” Carrick said.

Como, coached by Cesc Fàbregas, will not be in a mood to sympathise. The Italian club marked its Champions League debut by beating RB Leipzig 4-1 and then lost a 3-2 thriller at Feyenoord; United opened by beating Sabah 4-0 before the Atlético defeat, so both clubs sit on three points and tonight’s winner takes a real hold on the play-off places. Como have their own absentees — Jesús Rodríguez, Trevoh Chalobah and Assane Diao among them — and United’s recent European travel record is grim reading: one win in their last ten Champions League away matches. At the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, against a home side playing the biggest home game in its history, that record needs a hero. Whether United’s patched-up defence has one is the question of the early window.

The rest of Wednesday, and where Tuesday left the table

The 3pm ET window is stacked behind the Allianz game: Real Madrid host RB Leipzig at the Bernabéu, Inter face Shakhtar Donetsk at San Siro, Aston Villa host Norwegian side Viking — Bayern’s tormentors last week — in Birmingham, Real Betis play Feyenoord in Seville, Club Brugge meet Lens, and Sporting CP host LASK. Lille v Galatasaray shares the early slot with Como v United.

They all chase the standard set on Tuesday. Paris Saint-Germain top the 36-team table on nine points, ahead of Liverpool on goal difference, after the holders beat Barcelona 4-2 in Paris; Liverpool’s own 4-3 comeback against Villarreal also brought them to nine. Manchester City are the best of the rest among the English clubs on six, having put five past AEK Athens. The top eight at the end of January go straight to the last 16; places nine to 24 go to the play-offs. Every point banked in October is a February problem avoided.

Stateside tonight: Cincinnati’s game in hand

The domestic game offers one fixture with real weight tonight. FC Cincinnati host D.C. United in Cincinnati (7pm ET), and in MLS’s own playoff forecast — the bracket as it would set today, updated by MLSsoccer.com this week — Cincinnati hold the Eastern Conference’s ninth and final post-season place, which would send them to a wild-card match at Red Bull New York. Nashville SC, the East’s No. 1 seed in the forecast and the Supporters’ Shield leaders, would play the wild-card winner; Inter Miami are the East’s No. 2 seed, Vancouver lead the West, and the current Western wild-card pairing is LA Galaxy against Colorado.

Cincinnati lost the Hell is Real derby 2-0 at home to Columbus on Sunday, so tonight is both a response and an opportunity: points banked now are places defended later. Chicago, for the record, have already clinched their play-off berth despite losing at New England last weekend — back-to-back post-season trips for the Fire for the first time since 2009, per the club. The regular season runs to Decision Day on November 7, the wild-card matches open the playoffs on November 18, and MLS Cup is set for December 18. Between now and then, nights like tonight in Cincinnati are where the bracket quietly gets written.