Wednesday, 9 December 2015

'No English team can get near Barcelona'

EXCLUSIVE: Victor Munoz says Manchester City are the pick of the Premier League clubs at the moment, but believes none of them would give the Blaugrana a good game

Former Barcelona player Victor Munoz believes no English team has any chance of beating the Catalan club in the Champions League this season.

Barca meet Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday night, having already sealed their place in the second round of the competition, and the treble winners will be the team to avoid in the last 16 next February.


Premier League sides have struggled in the Champions League so far this season, with Manchester United eliminated at the hands of Wolfsburg on Tuesday and both Chelsea and Arsenal facing potential exits ahead of their fixtures with Porto and Olympiacos respectively. 
"If I was Barcelona, I would want to avoid Real Madrid and Bayern," Munoz told Goal in an exclusive interview. "Those teams you would only want to meet in the final.

"But as for the rest, I don't think there's a single English team that can take on Barcelona at the moment. I would say the strongest is Manchester City, but I don't think they could knock out Barcelona. No Italian team could either."

The former Getafe and Zaragoza coach believes Bayern are the nearest to Barca on current form, but still sees Madrid as a threat later in the competition.

"Barcelona are the champions and as such, they are the biggest favourite," he said. "Real Madrid are there too and Bayern, who are probably the closest to Barcelona at the moment."
Luis Enrique's side face another German team, Leverkusen, on Wednesday and Munoz is sure Barca will set out to win it - even though they have already sealed qualification as group winners.

"The game doesn't mean much for Barcelona, but Luis Enrique will pick a team to win it - I have no doubt about that," he said.

"It's a Champions League game and for everything Barcelona represents in the football world, they have to try to win it."

No comments: