Bayern Münich obviously didn't know, or care, at the time but the Bavarians actually helped cause the modern revival, and acknowledged excellence, of their rivals on Tuesday – FC Barcelona.

Given the huge importance of these two clubs to European football across the decades (21 Uefa and four world club trophies between them), it's surprising that Bayern and Barça have enjoyed only six competitive meetings (with the Spaniards winning just once). But one catalysed the start of the Catalan's re-invention and another marked the natural culmination of that process.

Tuesday in the AllianzArena is all about qualification for Wembley. You can be sure of technical excellence, and a wall of Bavarian bravado blaring down from the stands. But these two clubs now share more than divides them – and that dates from April 1996.

Johan Cruyff's Barcelona had suffered a patchy defence of their Spanish title and had just lost to eventual league winners Atlético Madrid in the Spanish Cup final after extra time.

The Uefa Cup semi-final against a Bayern of Otto Rehhagel, Jurgen Klinsmann, Oliver Kahn, Lothar Matthaus and Didi Hamman offered redemption – a prospect augmented by a 2-2 first leg in Munich.

Two weeks later goals from Markus Babbel and Marcel Witeczek at the Camp Nou (versus a late reply from Ivan De La Peña) eliminated the Catalans and Cruyff was given four more matches before being sacked in the changing rooms of the training ground.

Famously, Cruyff´s lawyer, Joan Laporta, was so outraged that within months he had started a protest group (Elefante Blau) which took him, within a mere seven years, from ordinary fan to club president. Cruyff was reinstated as the club's philosophical brain, Frank Rijkaard, Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Rafa Marquez were signed, Xavi, Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Victor Valdés were given wings.

Cruyff and Laporta begat Pep Guardiola and Barcelona erupted. By April 2009, it was Bayern again as Barça sought to reach the Champions League semi-final in Guardiola's first season as manager. Messi, Eto'o and Thierry Henry ripped Klinsmann's side to shreds, 4-0, in what Laporta thought was "the best 45 minutes of football in this club's history".

On the night, Franz Beckenbauer admitted: "In that first half I've never, ever suffered so much in my life." His director general, Karl Heinz-Rummenigge added: "We are out. At half time I saw Udo Lattek (legendary coach of both Bayern and Germany) crying – I don't know whether it was fury or sadness. Bayern is a proud club and tonight our pride has been trampled."

It was the first time Bayern had been thumped 4-0 in the European Cup since Lattek's side with Paul Breitner, Gerd Müller, Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier lost by that margin to Cruyff and Ajax in 1973.

From that day to this, via former Barça coach Louis Van Gaal, to the production of technically gifted and quick players like Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos. reliance on flying wing-backs like Dante, David Alaba and Phillip Lahm, a record transfer fee spent on Javi Martinez and now the recruitment of Pep Guardiola, Bayern have attempted to suck the best out of the modern Barça project. And good luck to them.

Jupp Heynckes' team is on the road to allying the muscle, height and stamina which is emblematic of the best Germany and England can produce, to the technique and pace of Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben, Kroos, Müller and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Partly because Bayern have been so imperious, so defensively sound and, dammit, apparently unstoppable in recent months and partly because Barça don't defend as well as they did across the pitch back in 2009, the Bavarians have been installed as favourites. Is Messi fully fit? Who will partner Gerard Piqué in central defence? Can Sergio Busquets add order rather than his 'second to everything' displays against Paris St Germain?

These are litmus tests for Barcelona's chances of surviving in Bavaria this week. However Heynckes (who boasts a tremendous record against Barca while coaching Tenerife and Athletic Bilbao) retains a healthy level of respect for his opponents. "You only need to use one word to describe Messi: Phenomenon," he admits. "But I've watched Barça closely in recent years and the way this team plays is absolutely fascinating. What they have done to modern football is extraordinary. They stand out for their unity, for the cumulation of their skills and they have Messi. But they keep on churning out five-star talents like Cristian Tello. So impressive."

Some will want to mark this down as the true beginning of the Bayern era, and the end of Barça's. We shall see.

The other tie has bright talent dotted all over it like confetti at a wedding. But, until kick-off, the coaches have proved adept at knowing where the camera is.

José Mourinho is, almost certainly, Chelsea-bound. But he really didn't appreciate the president of his son's club, Canillas, revealing that the Special One told him: "I won't be here next season." Nor has Mourinho enjoyed the ebullience of Borussia Dortmund's Jürgen Klopp. A legitimate candidate to succeed the Special One in Madrid, Klopp has held court for the last two weeks with the kind of aplomb with which Mourinho once dazzled England. "He's spoken about us every single day since beating Málaga while I haven't opened my mouth once," Mourinho complained on Friday. The King is dead, long live King Klopp?