Close encounter

Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal played down the injury problems facing his team ahead of Tuesday's Champions League semi-final second leg in Lyon.

Van Gaal told a news conference he did not know if injured defenders Martin Demichelis, Daniel Van Buyten and Diego Contento would recover in time for Tuesday's crunch match.

"I've come here with 17 players and I can only field 11 so if I miss the three others, I'll still have 14 available players," Van Gaal said.

Bayern will also be without Franck Ribery, who was sent off in the first leg match at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

Bayern may be on course for another Bundesliga title this season, but only managed a draw against lowly Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday. However, a similar result on Tuesday would book their place in the Champions League final on May 22 in Madrid.

"We are not the kind of team whose aim is just to avoid conceding goals when we enter the field. I've never told my players to play like that since the beginning of the season and I won't start now," Van Gaalsaid.

Fellow Dutchman Mark van Bommel was also optimistic about his team's chances of reaching the final.

"We have often conceded goals in away games this season but that's not a problem because even if we concede six goals tomorrow and we score five, we're through," the Bayern captain said.

Keeping a clean sheet would be enough to see Bayern through to the final, the team said on its website, but Van Gaal is looking for an away goal: “We don’t have the team to play for a clean sheet. We’ve not tried that all season, and we won’t try it tomorrow.”

"When I was a coach in the Netherlands and my team had to play against a German one, I used to tell my players that they had to be ready to play until the very end of the game.

French underdogs

Despite the French side's status as underdogs, Bayern players have a lot of lot of respect for Lyon after they gained a shock second-leg draw against Real Madrid saw them progress to the quarter-finals, where they eased past Bordeaux.

"1-0 is obviously helpful, but it's not over yet. We'll need all the determination we have,” said Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Goalkeeper Jörg Butt called on the team to produce a top performance.

"We can't take anything for granted. Lyon have a very good team, and they knocked out Real Madrid. We'll have to work hard for 90 minutes, maybe even 120," he said.

Lyon coach Claude Puel warned Bayern they would be facing a different side in Tuesday's second-leg semi-final.

"Bayern feel confident, that's fair enough... but we know we are able to overcome any European opponent if we play at our real level," Puel told reporters.

"We've had to go through difficult moments this season in the Champions League and we've always been able to raise our level each time we had to," he added.

nrt/Reuters/dpa

Editor: Rob Turner