It is not a reunion that any Bayern Munich fan will be relishing when Robert Lewandowski returns to the Allianz Arena on Tuesday.
Just a few months ago they were cheering goal after goal the Poland striker was scoring for their team, something he had done with tremendous consistency ever since arriving from Borussia Dortmund.
Then came the news none of them will have wanted to hear, that Lewandowski wanted a new challenge.
After a surprising amount of unpleasantness between player and club during the transfer window, the 34-year-old got his wish and made the move to Barcelona for a reported fee of €50million.
With a sense of inevitability as the balls were opened by former Barca midfielder Yaya Toure during the draw for the group stage of the Champions League, who should Bayern be joined by in Group C along with Inter and Viktoria Plzen? Of course, Barcelona.
Ahead of Lewandowski lining up on the opposing side in Munich, Stats Perform has taken a look at what he achieved at Bayern, and how both parties have adapted in the early stages of the new campaign.
The man they called "Lewan-goal-ski" (well, Thomas Muller did)
Of course, Bayern could not feel too bad about having their main goalscorer taken from them, considering that is exactly what they did to chief Bundesliga rivals Dortmund when they signed Lewandowski on a free transfer in 2014.
Inevitably, it turned out to be a key move as BVB fell away after struggling to replace him, while Lewandowski went on to score an exceptional number of goals at his new home.
Overall, he scored 344 goals and recorded 57 assists in 375 appearances for Bayern, and in the 2020-21 campaign, he broke Gerd Muller's long-standing Bundesliga record by scoring 41 times in a single season, while his 43 league goals in 2021 serve as the record for a calendar year in Germany's top tier.
Last season, Lewandowski scored 50 goals across all competitions, the most across Europe's top five leagues, as Bayern lifted their 10th Bundesliga title in a row.
In all, he won eight league titles, three DFB-Pokal's, as well as a Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
After that, it was 'Lewan-gone-ski', as team-mate Thomas Muller may well have called him after his departure, before holding far too long for applause.
What is 11 minus a nine?
With arguably the best number nine in the game gone, Bayern head coach Julian Nagelsmann wanted to evolve his team, making them less reliant on one figure for so many goals and spreading the responsibility.
Sadio Mane joined from Liverpool as the de facto replacement, and before the DFL-Super Cup win against RB Leipzig, Nagelsmann admitted: "When we agreed to Barcelona's offer [for Lewandowski], it was planned that we might not sign anyone else for this position."
The theory was that the likes of Mane, Leroy Sane, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry, fresh from signing a new contract, could increase their output in front of goal, while the ever reliable Muller and the increasingly promising Jamal Musiala would also be potent sources.
Things certainly started well enough with a 5-3 win against Leipzig, followed by a 6-1 thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt in their opening Bundesliga game.
After a 2-0 victory at home to Wolfsburg, Bayern put seven past Bochum and talk of a lack of goals could not have been further from anyone's lips.
However, three draws in a row in the league against Borussia Monchengladbach, Union Berlin and Stuttgart have followed, which has seen Union emerge as the surprise Bundesliga leaders after six games.
In those games, Bayern have scored a total of 19 goals, with 10 different scorers, registering 12 points in the Bundesliga.
By comparison, in their first six league games last season when Lewandowski was still front and centre for them, they scored 23 goals, though with only seven different scorers, and the Pole providing seven goals of his own, and had 16 points after five wins and just one draw.
In their opening Champions League game, though, Nagelsmann's men put in a terrific performance as they beat Inter 2-0 at San Siro, with their second goal in particular showcasing the sort of passing and moving around the box that feels more possible when you don't have an orthodox number nine as the obvious target.
Lewandowski picks up in Spain where he left off in Germany
Though it took a bit of, shall we say, moving things around so Barcelona could register their new star striker, along with a number of other signings in the transfer window, there has been very little adaptation needed for Lewandowski in LaLiga.
He has already scored six goals in his first five league games, making him the fastest player to reach that figure in the competition in the 21st century.
The forward also has two assists, which makes him the joint-fastest to have been involved in eight goals in the 21st century, alongside former Barca players Rafael van der Vaart in 2008 and Cesc Fabregas in 2011.
Lewandowski also added three more goals to his impressive total in the Champions League with a hat-trick in Barca's 5-1 win against Viktoria Plzen at Camp Nou last week.
That made him outright third in the competition's all-time leading scorers with 89 goals in 107 appearances, behind only Lionel Messi (125 goals in 157 games) and Cristiano Ronaldo (140 goals in 183 games).
Of course, Lewandowski has recent history of this fixture, playing for Bayern as they beat Barca 3-0 home and away in last season's Champions League group stage, scoring twice in the first game in Spain.
It played a big part in the Catalan giants being dumped out of the competition at that stage for the first time in over 20 years, but with Lewandowski on board, Xavi's side will be hoping he can fire them to the round of 16 and beyond, just as he did so regularly for Bayern.
Lewandowski has already started to do so with his treble against Plzen, but will he be able to make an impact again when he faces his former club, or will Bayern be able to prove they have started to move on without him?
Injured Barcelona star Yamal withdraws from Spain squad
Spain will be without star winger Lamine Yamal for their upcoming Nations League games against Denmark and Switzerland.
Yamal starred for La Roja at Euro 2024 and has been exceptional for Barcelona so far this season.
The teenager has already provided a LaLiga-leading seven assists this term, while his 12 goal contributions rank joint-third in Spain's top tier, behind club-mates Robert Lewandowski (16) and Raphinha (13).
Yamal has also attempted (84) and completed (34) more dribbles than any other player in LaLiga in 2024-25, while Barca's two league defeats have come in matches in which the attacker did not start; a 4-2 loss at Osasuna in September, and a 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Indeed, injured Yamal was left out of Hansi Flick's squad against La Real, and Spain have now called up Bryan Gil in his place, and Barcelona confirmed on Monday that the 17-year-old has suffered a grade one high ankle sprain, and will be out of action for up to three weeks.
Luis de la Fuente's team are top of their Nations League group, with 10 points from their four matches.
La Roja face Denmark on Friday before hosting Switzerland on November 18.
Should Spain collect one more win from their final two matches of 2024, then they will set a new national record for the number of victories in all competitions in a single calendar year. surpassing the 10 they managed in 2009.
Barca also confirmed that Lewandowski will need 10 days out of action after suffering a back injury, meaning he will sit out Poland's matches against Portugal and Scotland.
Premier League MD11: Lucky winners and unlucky losers
The final international break of 2024 is here, and we can safely say the Premier League is starting to take shape.
Opta's supercomputer now has Liverpool, who are five points clear at the top following their win over Aston Villa on Saturday, as the favourites to go on and win the title.
Manchester City lost a fourth straight game in all competitions as they went down 2-1 at Brighton, while Chelsea and Arsenal are third and fourth respectively after sharing the points.
When assessing the underlying metrics, it looks like Sunday's draw at Stamford Bridge was a fair result, but that was not the case across the board this weekend.
Here, we pick out the lucky winners and unlucky losers from matchday 11.
Lucky winners: Manchester United
Manchester United are now under new management, with Ruben Amorim officially starting as head coach on Monday. But interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy ensured he went out with a high as the Red Devils beat Leicester City 3-0 on Sunday.
However, it is fair to say United were rather fortunate to net three times at Old Trafford, with the data suggesting they did not even create chances worthy of one goal, never mind three.
United's expected goals (xG) was 0.69, the third-lowest total in the league this weekend and behind Leicester's 0.77.
Bruno Fernandes scored one and set up another on his 250th appearance for the club, either side of Victor Kristiansen's own goal, but from 13 shots, United, who had only 17 touches in Leicester's box, really did not create much in the way of quality opportunities.
Indeed, their attacking quality instead told, with Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho finishing well. At the other end, Leicester failed to make their moments count, despite hitting the target with five of their six shots.
Spare a thought for Erik ten Hag, given when he was in charge, United's attack was underperforming. Now Amorim just needs to pick up where Van Nistelrooy left off...
Unlucky losers: Manchester City
Man City are suddenly the crisis club, having lost four straight games for the first time since August 2006. Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, has lost four games in a row in all competitions for the very first time in his managerial career.
Erling Haaland also lost a Premier League match in which he scored a goal for the very first time, having put City ahead before Joao Pedro and Matt O'Riley clinched the points for Brighton.
Brighton finished with 2.29 xG, so they did deserve to score at least twice. However, City can still consider themselves unfortunate, given their 2.22 xG was the third-highest of any team across the weekend.
Their post-shot expected goals on target (xGoT) also rose to 2.98, showing that Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was on fine form.
City also created five big chances, missing four of them, and hit the woodwork once. That being said, they conceded eight big chances, with Brighton letting them off for six of those, so it was not a good day at the office for Guardiola.
Unlucky losers: Bournemouth
If Man City were unfortunate, then the team to have created the highest xG (2.61) this past weekend – Bournemouth – can consider themselves hard done by.
Andoni Iraola claimed his team were worthy of the three points against Brentford, despite the Cherries losing 3-2, and the underlying metrics suggest the Spaniard was fair in his assessment.
Only Tottenham (35 in their loss against Ipswich Town) had more touches in the opponent's box than Bournemouth's 34 at the Gtech Community Stadium, but Iraola's side were made to pay for some dismal finishing.
Their xGoT dropped to 1.68, while Brentford's rose from 1.48 xG to 1.84 xGoT – essentially, the level of finishing from Brentford's players increased the likelihood they would score, while Bournemouth's finishing was below what would have been anticipated based on the quality of chances they had. That is further backed up by the fact the Cherries only got three of their 15 attempts on target.
Flick offers no excuses after Barcelona deservedly beaten
Hansi Flick did not offer any excuses after Barcelona's poor performance in their shock 1-0 defeat away to Real Sociedad on Sunday evening.
Sheraldo Becker scored the only goal for the hosts in the first half, with Barca offering little while searching for a comeback.
The defeat ended Barcelona's run of seven straight victories in all competitions, although they remain six points ahead of Real Madrid – who have a game in hand – at the top of LaLiga.
"Today was not our day," Flick told a press conference.
"I think we have to accept this result because they played decisively. It's clear, there are no excuses. We didn't create enough chances.
"We started well with the ball, I was happy, but then we started to suffer and their goal came. We also made some bad decisions and that's something we have to live with."
Barcelona had scored in every game they had played in all competitions this season until Sunday, although they did not even manage a shot on target at the Reale Arena.
It is just the second time they have failed to do so since at least the 2003-04 season, after a match against Malaga in September 2014.
Real Sociedad arguably could have won by a wider margin after creating 14 chances and generating 1.85 expected goals (xG). The Barcelona defence made plenty of errors, which was something that concerned Flick.
"The responsibility for the defeat is ours. We could and should have played much better," Flick said.
"We haven't held possession of the ball the way we wanted and suffered. But the games we have played before have been fantastic, and I appreciate what the team has done so far this season.
"We tried until the last second, united, and I told the team that. But today we weren't strong enough to deserve a better result."
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