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#3 Bayern Munich
The Bavarian giants' season looked disastrous at the start with Carlo Ancelotti being fired after a humiliating 3-0 loss to PSG, but his replacement, Jupp Heynckes, has revitalised the club with 11 wins from 13 games which included a 3-1 win against PSG. This run of form has put them comfortably ahead in the Bundesliga and reasserted their status as a top club in Europe.
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Last season, Bayern were unlucky to be knocked out in the quarter-finals by Real with poor officiating to blame. They ended up playing extra-time with ten men after Arturo Vidal was wrongly sent off, so they were always likely to lose by that point but two offside goals compounded their misery.
Ancelotti was getting the minimum out of an extremely talented group of players reportedly because he focused on fitness and basic drills with the ball. This contrasted with in-depth tactical coaching as well as intense drills such as the rondo which were a key part of Pep Guardiola's time at the club.
With Heynckes, they have a manager who is able to get the best out of intelligent players such as Thiago Alcântara and Thomas Müller as well as more traditionally talented players such as Franck Ribéry and James Rodríguez. This mixture of different abilities and the squad depth that Bayern possess means that they have the potential to reach the final.
The best example of their potential is the win against PSG in which they pressed the ball intelligently as a team. They were comfortable at absorbing opposition pressure and restricted the number of chances that the Parisian outfit created, which is impressive considering their firepower. Most importantly, they had a clear gameplan which they executed perfectly. The performance was an impressive statement of intent for the rest of the season.
Bayern were lucky because they received one of the easier group winners in Besiktas. However, this will still be a tough tie and the Turkish outfit shouldn't be underestimated considering how they demolished the opponents in their group.
