Holder Chelsea hosts Spanish giant Real Madrid, while Bayern travels to Villarreal for their Champions League quarterfinals first-leg matches Wednesday.
The Blues will try to look past their on and off-field problems with the club up for sale as Thomas Tuchel's boys prepare for Real in a rematch from last season's semifinals.
In the meanwhile, Real Madrid – the current Spanish league leader – will want to put up a better showing against Chelsea than last season, when the 13-time champion was held to a draw at home and beaten 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea goes into the match reeling from its heaviest defeat of the season, but Tuchel's battle-hardened ability to keep his players focused should ensure his side is ready for the latest test of its resilience.
While Saturday's shock 4-1 home defeat against Brentford was hardly ideal preparation for the quarterfinal first leg, Tuchel has dealt with worse setbacks during a turbulent period for his club.
When Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the British government for his alleged links with Russian President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine, the Blues were plunged into a financial meltdown that threatened to engulf the team.
Aware his players cannot afford to feel sorry for themselves with Real's visit to Stamford Bridge looming, Tuchel tried to downplay the extent of the Brentford defeat.
"After so many wins and so many good results, I will now refuse to make a drama out of it. Why should we?" he said.
Challenging Chelsea to respond against La Liga leaders Real, Tuchel said: "It's hard to take because it's very unusual for us what happened. It's a summary of strange events but it's on us and it's our fault.
"We will dig in and try to find out why it was like this. There are some reasons which we can put on us and we will analyze and digest it. There is nothing else."
In the other quarterfinal Wednesday, Bundesliga giant Bayern will visit Villarreal, who only qualified for the Champions League by winning last season's Europa League.
The Spanish side has been the biggest surprise so far, getting through to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2009. Eliminating Juventus in the last 16 shows how dangerous Unai Emery's team could be against Bayern, which is looking to become European champion for a seventh time.
It knows its chances of advancing past Bayern Munich in the Champions League will depend largely on whether it can successfully contain Robert Lewandowski.
And hopes are high considering the team’s recent success against another top striker, Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic.
Villarreal defender Pau Torres said the squad has enough experience facing some of the world’s top forwards and will be ready for the task.
"These are the challenges we enjoy,” Torres told Marca TV. "Each striker has his style and we will make sure we know how to make things difficult for Lewandowski. He is a very complete striker. Sometimes it seems like he’s not doing much, but in the end he’s always a threat.”
Villarreal, however, is coming off its second consecutive Spanish league defeat – a 2-0 loss at second-to-last-place Levante, when Emery didn't rest many of his regular starters.
"Villarreal has a coach with a lot of experience at winning on the international stage,” Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said. "The team is very experienced and we will need to figure out how to break them down."
Bayern made it to the last eight 10 times in the last 11 seasons. The team is playing in the quarterfinals for a record 20th time.
The second leg is next week in Munich.
