Bayern are back on top of the Bundesliga, and are now keen to continue re-establishing their credentials at the top table of the European game. Coach Louis van Gaal and his men were in confident mood when they set off on Tuesday for the Champions League quarter-final return leg away to Manchester United. “Making the semi-finals would be a tremendous achievement, but elite sportspeople always want to win everything,” Van Gaal told the pre-match news conference at the team hotel, the Marriott Worsley Park Country Club, located around half an hour from United’s Old Trafford home.
“The Bundesliga title is the priority for the club and for us, but if you’re within sight of a semi-final, you’ve got to believe in your chance. And we believe in ourselves,” declared Mark van Bommel. Making the last four at the expense of a leading English and European club of the calibre of United would rate as Bayern’s biggest success on the European stage since winning the competition nine years ago. Munich have not progressed further than the quarter-finals since then.
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