Barcelona midfielder Arturo Vidal said, Thursday, that his team
is still the best in the world and will beat Bayern Munich in
the Champions League quarter-finals on Friday, “if (the Catalan
team) plays his way.”
Bayern Munich is a strong candidate to beat Barcelona after
winning the domestic double in the League and the German
Cup, as well as crushing Chelsea 7-1 in aggregate matches in
the round of sixteen, while Barca has not achieved a remarkable
achievement so far this season.
Notable names expected Bayern to win before the scheduled
match in Lisbon, including legend Lothar Matthews, who said,
“I think that Bayern cannot lose in the face of the current
Barcelona squad, unless he makes many mistakes and faces
many obstacles.”
But Chilean midfielder Vidal, who defended Bayern’s colors
between 2015 and 2018, said his current Barcelona team is still
going strong with the presence of Lionel Messi, the six-time
best player in the world.
“Bayern will enter the match with confidence, but he knows tha
t tomorrow he will not face a competitor from the German
League. He will play Barcelona,” he said.
He continued: “I understand the pessimism, but we are the best
team in the world. The problem is that we do not always show
this on the field, and we lost the league recently. But we have
Messi and the best players in the world and we want to prove ourselves.”
Messi starred in the 3-1 victory over Napoli in the second leg of
the round of sixteen, but the Argentine player’s goal (three
goals) in the current edition of the tournament may be
disappointing compared to Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski,
who scored 13 times.
Vidal praised his former teammate, but rejected legend
Matthews’ claim that the Polish striker was better than Messi.
“Lewandowski is an exceptional and very dangerous player and
a goaltender who does not shed his dust … It will be very
difficult to stop him, but it is impossible to compare him with
Messi, who came from another planet,” as he put it.
