Title holders Bayern Munich take on Viktoria Plzen on matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League at the Allianz Arena.

Josep Guardiola has already familiarized himself with the opposition when he was still with FC Barcelona.

"I have a lot of respect for our opponents. I saw them against Manchester City and they performed very well in the first half," Guardiola told uefa.com.

"They have some excellent players and play nice football. The team has changed a bit since I was at Barcelona [who played Plzeň in the 2011/12 group stage] but their philosophy remains the same."

The Spanish manager needs his squad to bounce back from the woes that they have suffered in the Bundesliga.

"In the Bundesliga recently, we have been poor in the first half but I don't expect this to happen tomorrow," he intimated.

Meanwhile, Plzen boss Pavel Vrba knows that they will be facing a giant in Bayern, but feels that his squad will not hand in a win to the latter in a silver platter.

"There is a very difficult game ahead of us, and to be very honest my feelings are quite intense," he revealed.

"Anything could happen. Perhaps we will be able to get a 0-0 draw. Perhaps we will lose. Football is still full of surprises. You never know what will happen."

Plzen has gone a long way since they faced Barcelona in the Champions League two years ago and Vrba thinks that their experiences could help them on Tuesday.

"We have improved a lot since the matches against Barça; we score a lot more goals now, but of course Bayern will put us under a lot of pressure. Guardiola will also have a good game plan and will know how to put us into trouble," said Vrba.

"We won't play a very offensive style, but we will try to be proactive. We will attempt to keep the ball and surprise our opponents once in a while. Of course we want to survive this group stage."

Starting 11:

Bayern Munich: Neuer; Rafinha, Kirchhoff, v. Buyten, Alaba; Lahm; Robben, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Ribery; Mandzukic

Viktoria Plzen: Kozacik; Rojtoral, Cisovsky, Prochazka, Reznick; Horvath, Horava; Petrzela, Kolar, Kovarik; Bakos

Schedule and Free Live Online Streaming (Link will be provided an hour before kick-off):

October 24, 2013 - 4:45 am (AEST)

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