By Mark Heys
November 6 2007

Bolton Wanderers will be facing arguably their toughest test of the UEFA Cup group stages when they take on German Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Thursday evening.

Munich currently lead the German league table by two points but their form has stuttered in recent games with them failing to score against Borussia Dortmund and Eintract Frankfurt in successive goalless draws.

Their last win ironically came against Crvena Zvezda in the UEFA Cup late last month when a stoppage time goal from young substitute Toni Kroos earned them a 3-2 win on the same night that the Wanderers shared out a 1-1 draw with Portuguese side Sporting Braga.

Bolton know they will have to give their all against a side who is renound in world football and boss Gary Megson has one or two injury problems going into the game.

Star striker Nicolas Anelka is a doubt for the Wanderers with the hamstring injury which has kept him out of the last two games and defender Abdoulaye Meite may also not make it having been substituted at half time against West Ham United due to a knee injury.

Full backs Joey O'Brien and Nicky Hunt are out with hamstring and shoulder injuries respectively so the Trotters face a dilemma about who should play at right back.

Further to this the experienced Ivan Campo is ineligable and the likes of Ricardo Vaz-Te and Blerim Dzemaili are out for the foreseeable future with knee injuries.

Winger Christian Wilhelmsson and striker Heidar Helguson may have an outside chance of making the squad despite having spent time on the sidelines in recent months.

El-Hadji Diouf will play his last match before serving a one match suspension after picking up the last of his five bookings for the season so far against West Ham.

Some sections of the Oman newspapers also claim that goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi will make a rare start at the expense of regular custodian Jussi Jaaskelainen, although this has yet to be confirmed by the club.

Bayern remain undefeated so far in the Bundesliga following their game against Frankfurt the last time out where they created over thirty shots but despite this they failed to find the target.

The twenty times German champions will be fronted by Miroslav Klose who has been linked with a move to the Premier League on numerous occasions in the past.

Veterans Oliver Kahn and Willy Sagnol join seasoned internationals such as Luca Toni and Mark Van Bommel in the Bayern squad and there are two names who Wanderers will know well who will also star for the Euro giants.

Defender Daniel Van Buyten had a short spell with the Trotters local rivals Manchester City in 2004 and midfielder Franck Ribery sent Bolton crashing out of this competition two seasons ago when playing for French outfit Olympique Marseille.

DID YOU KNOW?

Ex-German international Fredi Bobic played for Bolton in the 2001-2002 season and it was his hat trick over Ipswich Town which helped keep the club in the Premier League.

Bolton currently have German youth international Kevin Wolze on their books and he recently starred for his country in the Semi Finals of the World Youth Cup.

Former Bolton defender Kostas Konstantinidis was born in Germany yet represented Greece on over thirty occasions

Jay-Jay Okocha began his European career in Germany serving Bayer Neunkirchen and Eintract Frankfurt. Youri Djorkaeff also had a short spell in the Bundesliga with Kaiserlautern.