Aston Villa vs Bayern Munich live updates: Champions League ...

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John McGinn has been unavailable for Aston Villa since injuring his hamstring a week and a half ago against Wolves and he remains sidelined for another couple of weeks according to Unai Emery.

A similar issue has ruled Matty Cash out of this evening's match while long-term absentees Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara are both back in training following their respective knee injuries, but not fit to be involved today.

So Emery has the same squad available as he did on Sunday against Ipswich.

Meanwhile, Bayern topped the Champions League table after the first round of matches. They were rampant against Dinamo Zagreb, racking up a +7 goal difference with a 9-2 thrashing of the Croatian minnows.

The Germans were 3-0 up at half-time, and though Zagreb threatened a comeback after two goals in two minutes shortly after the interval, Bayern ran away with it in the end, with hotshot striker Harry Kane scoring four (twice from the penalty spot), and Michael Olise grabbing two.

Like Villa, they could only manage a draw domestically at the weekend. They drew 1-1 with reigning German champions Bayer Leverkusen after Aleksandar Pavlovic cancelled out Robert Andrich's opener.

Vincent Kompany's side top the Bundesliga with 13 points from their first five games, one point ahead of second-placed Eintracht Frankfurt and two ahead of RB Leizpig in third.

A fortnight ago, Aston Villa played at Europe's top table for the first time since the European Cup (which they won in 1982) was renamed to the Champions League

And it was a comfortable win for Unai Emery's side. Away to Swiss side Young Boys, goals from Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey, and Amadou Onana saw them triumph 3-0. You can recap all the action as it happened, play-by-play, with The Athletic's live blog covering the match here.

They were less successful in the Premier League at the weekend, though. A double from Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap meant Villa could only draw 2-2 against the promoted side, with strikes from Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins securing a point in Suffolk.

GO FURTHER

Aston Villa’s strange, surreal and memorable return to the Champions League

So what games are on the agenda for this evening?

Today at 5:45pm BST, 12:45pm EDT, 9.45am PDT

Today at 8pm BST, 3pm EDT, 12pm/midday PDT

Yesterday marked the first of two consecutive days where he get nine — yes, nine — Champions League matches.

There were particularly emphatic wins for Brest, Barcelona, Dortmund, Inter and Manchester City while Arsenal made light work of PSG in north London.

Villa Park, Birmingham

Playing host to the travelling Bayern fans tonight is the sizeable, historic Villa Park stadium in England's self-described 'second city'.

Opened in 1897 and with a capacity of 42,640, it is one of English football's most storied grounds.

Imagine the din in there tonight if Villa score...

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Want to tune in to the action on TV? You can do so via the channels below, without foregoing this live blog, of course.

Kick-off comes your way at 8pm local time (BST).

For those of you Stateside, that is 3pm EDT and 12pm PDT.

Hello everyone and welcome to The Athletic, where we're covering a fascinating Champions League match tonight: Aston Villa vs Bayern Munich.

Both teams won their opening matches a couple of weeks ago, but tonight will be a tougher test for both of them.

It's Unai Emery vs Vincent Kompany in the Pepe Reina derby — let's get into it!