Nine Champions League titles, two elite sides and one mouth-watering semi-final – Barcelona’s last four clash with Bayern Munich has all the makings of a modern classic as Pep Guardiola is reunited with his old club for the first time since leaving the Catalan giants in 2012.

In that farewell season, the Spaniard saw his Barcelona side eliminated from the competition at this exact stage after they were on the receiving end of a 7-0 aggregate thrashing from Jupp Heynckes men – and what Guardiola wouldn’t give for a repeat scoreline as his side look to claim a sixth title.

Bayern’s quarter-final against Porto certainly indicated that the German champions are in the right kind of form to rack up such a margin given they stormed back from a 3-1 first leg deficit to win 7-4 on aggregate, but with Barcelona also easing past Paris Saint-Germain by five goals to one, it looks unlikely that their hosts on Tuesday night will be anywhere near as accommodating in this fixture.

The bookmakers seem to agree and have named Bayern Munich at fairly preposterous odds of 3/1 to win on the night and 11/10 to reach the final, while Barcelona go into the game as odds-on favourites on both counts at 19/20 to win the first leg of the tie and 11/13 to qualify on aggregate.

Of course, we all know how difficult it is to go and get a result in the Camp Nou, and Barcelona’s home form in the Champions League this season can certainly attest to that. The La Liga leaders have won all five games that they’ve played in the Catalan capital by an aggregate scoreline of 10-2, keeping three clean sheets in the process. Luis Enrique’s side are 2/1 to do so again and 11/4 to win to nil, with under 2.5 goals – a margin which has settled three of those wins – available at 23/20.

Bayern, meanwhile, are no slouches away from home themselves given a 3-2 defeat to Manchester City in the group stage and a shock 3-1 reverse in the first leg against Porto represent their only away losses in this year’s Champions League, and they also notched a crushing 7-1 win at Roma’s Stadio Olimpico. They are priced as big as 13/1 to win by a 2-1 scoreline and are 13/2 to win to nil, something which they have achieved in exactly half of their games in the competition this season.

Preventing Barcelona from scoring in front of their own fans is certainly a tall order – no team has managed it in the competition so far – so perhaps if we are to back Bayern Munich, we are better off taking a 1-1 draw at 7/1; though given they have failed to win both of their knock-out games away from home, a 2-1 reverse, which would keep them very much in the tie, looks the best bet at 17/2.