Salgado Wants Real Madrid To Avoid Bayern In Champions League

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Michel Salgado - Real Madrid (Goal.com)

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As Friday’s draw to determine the fixture for the Champions League last 16 looms closer, Real Madrid defender Michel Salgado has pin-pointed the one rival he regards as his side’s bogey team.

Having already faced one continental arch-nemesis in the group stage in the shape of Juventus, Los Merengues face the prospect of being paired with numerous other familiar foes in the round of 16, including Manchester United and Bayern Munich. And it’s the latter that Salgado desperately wants to avoid.

“The one team that I do not want to meet is Bayern Munich. They are the worst possible opponent we can face in a two-legged game,” he said during an interview with radio program, Onda Cero.

“I have played them five times already and when you go up against them in an elimination match, they are the most complicated rival.

“It’s never possible to eliminate them completely,” he added.

But the 33 year old rightback has some reason to feel confident if they do end up on a collision course with the Bavarian behemoths. He believes that the arrival of Juande Ramos as the new blancos coach has rejuvenated the team.

“Juande took a huge risk by coming here because he arrived at a very difficult period at the club.

“But he has broken the negative streak that we were going through. We have demonstrated in his first two games in charge that we can play a whole lot better and we are going to continue to embrace this change that has already taken place,” he stressed.

Finally, Salgado assured that there was no revolt between the players and Juande’s predecessor, Germany’s own Bernd Schuster.

“With Bernd, we never had any kind of problems and there was never any confrontation. He simply ran out of ideas

“It’s true that he did not speak to us after we were eliminated from the Copa del Rey [to third division side, Real Union] but he told us later it was to motivate us,” he explained.

Real Madrid will wrap up 2008 with a highly anticipated clash with Valencia in La Liga on Saturday.

KS Leong, Goal.com