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Mark van Bommel: Bayern Munich Would Have Preferred Manchester United

Barcelona await Bayern Munich in the quarter-final of the Champions and Mark van Bommel would rather have played anyone else.

Mar 26, 2009 9:11:45 AM

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Van Bommel of Bayern (AFP)

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Mark van Bommel

Mark van Bommel has revealed that Bayern Munich would have preferred to have been drawn against Manchester United than Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The Netherlands international midfielder thinks that his former club are currently the best in the world and, although the focus is Lionel Messi, he knows that they have a team full of stars.

Barca have bemoaned the fact that they will be away in the second leg, however, Van Bommel thinks that will only count if Bayern can gain a good result in Camp Nou.

"If they win by three or four goals in Camp Nou it will be worth nothing,” he said. “It will only count if we can record a good result in Camp Nou.

"We would like a 1-0 [victory] but even scoring and keeping them close would be good. It would be best not to lose.

"We would have preferred to play Manchester United. We know that we have been drawn against the best team in the world.

"You never know [what might happen] in football, but we are realists and we think more about winning the Bundesliga than the Champions League. But that does not mean we will not give everything against Barca because we still dream about European glory.”

While Barcelona are said to have a dependency on Lionel Messi, Bayern are said to rely on the ability of Franck Ribery. Van Bommel thinks that is not always the case

"He is certainly a very important player for us and at times it can appear that we depend on how he plays," he continued.

"But without Ribery we have won three games and some by good scores - like the 7-1 game against Sporting in the Champions League."

Picking out the best player for Barcelona is no easy task, but Van Bommel pinpointed Xavi and Andres Iniesta as he knows how they can dictate how Barca play.

"We need to stop [Samuel] Eto'o, [Thierry] Henry, Iniesta, Xavi, [Rafael] Marquez, [Carles] Puyol..." he joked.

"But Xavi and Iniesta are both very good. Between the two of them they create the rhythm of the game. They are very quick at moving the ball and, best of all, they are rarely hurried.

"That is not easy and when I played with them it was like they played in slow motion at times."

Lucas Brown, Goal.com

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