Barcelona new boy Lewandowski battles old Bayern Munich partner Muller

Thomas Muller turns 33 on Tuesday. He will greet the milestone with his usual wide grin and plenty of chatter before focusing on the highest-profile fixture yet of his 15th season as a senior Bayern Munich player, a Champions League collision with Barcelona.

And turning up for the birthday will be the greatest ally of Muller’s storied career.

The difference is that, unlike in any of past eight Septembers, Robert Lewandowski will be coming to Muller’s home turf of Munich’s Allianz Arena as a guest, wearing the jersey not of Bayern in whose colours he partnered Muller 332 times, but of Barca who the prolific Pole joined in the summer.

The welcome given to him by Muller, the talkative MC of Bayern’s dressing-room, will be warm. Though the reactions of some in the 70,000-plus crowd may be more mixed.

Lewandowski, 34, stands one place off the top of the German champions’ all-time goalscorers’ list. But he left at least a year earlier than supporters, teammates, the head coach Julian Nagelsmann and most of the club’s executives wanted him to.

How much is Lewandowski missed? A glance at the Bundesliga table suggests the club’s coup in bringing in a high-class replacement, Sadio Mane from Liverpool, has not achieved the smoothest of transitions yet. Bayern sit third in the table and have drawn their last three domestic fixtures.

Bayern Munich attacker Sadio Mane at the Saebener Strasse training ground on the eve of their Uefa Champions League match against Barcelona at Allianz Arena. Getty

It marks a poorer start to a campaign than any Lewandowski experienced in his eight years at Bayern. Muller has to go back all the way to 2010 to recall such a low yield of points – 12 – from an opening six matches.

Muller was angry, he told