Vidal Tips Barca for S’final in Blockbuster Clash with Bayern

*UEFAinsists no repeat of ‘Final Eight’

Ahead of this evening’s Champions League quarter final clash at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon between Barcelona and Bayern Munich, midfielder of the Spanish giants, Arturo Vidal, believes the Catalans remain the best team in the world on their day and will overcome Bayern Munich in the blockbuster clash.

Bayern are heavy favourites to beat Barca after sweeping to a domestic double of the Bundesliga and Cup as well as swatting Chelsea aside 7-1 on aggregate in the last 16, while the Catalans ended the season empty handed.

The build-up to the match in Lisbon has seen a number of high profile figures back Bayern, including Germany great Lothar Matthaus, who said the Bavarians would have “to do a lot of things badly to lose to this Barca”.

But Chilean midfielder Vidal, who played for Bayern between 2015 and 2018, said his side were still as strong as ever on their day, not least because they have six-times world player of the year Lionel Messi leading the way.

“Bayern will be confident but they must know that on Friday they’re not playing any old team in the Bundesliga, they’re playing against Barca,” Vidal told a virtual news conference yesterday.

“I understand the pessimism but we are the best team in the world. The problem is that we don’t always show it on the pitch and we recently lost the league. But we have Leo, we have the best players and we want to prove ourselves,” boasts the Chilean.

Messi was at his irresistible best in his side’s 3-1 win over Napoli in the last-16 second leg but the Argentine’s goal statistics (3) in this year’s competition make for poor reading next to Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski, who has netted 13 times.

Vidal tipped his hat to his former team mate but dismissed the claim, made by Matthaus, that the Polish forward was better than Messi.

“Lewandowski is extraordinary, very dangerous, an insatiable goalscorer,” he said.

“It’s going to be very difficult to stop him but it’s impossible to compare him with Messi, who is from another planet.

“But you could say that Lewandowski is the best striker in the world alongside Luis Suarez,” concludes Vidal.

Meanwhile, the ‘Final Eight’ format for the Champions League will not be repeated in future, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin announced yesterday saying it is “impossible” to find space in an already packed calendar.

“This tournament might be interesting in the future, but I don’t think we can do it, because the calendar is so dense,” Ceferin said in Lisbon, where this season’s Champions League is being played to a conclusion.

“I don’t know where I can put a tournament for a week or two in May. I think it’s impossible,” he said.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, UEFA was busy contemplating changes to the format of the Champions League from 2024 onwards.

This year, all ties from the quarterfinals onwards are being played as one-off matches behind closed doors in the Portuguese capital as UEFA rushes to finish the competition after an enforced hiatus of five months because of the pandemic.

This season’s final was supposed to be played in Istanbul at the end of May. Now it will go ahead in an empty Estadio da Luz on August 23, with the Turkish city having been awarded the hosting of next year’s final instead.

But that is subject to the pandemic being under control by then.

“I am optimistic by nature, and I think that things will get better into next year and we will have normal football back, good old football with spectators, so we don’t have a Plan B,” Ceferin said.

“You have to know that until March we didn’t have any plan, and then we had a Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, so we will adapt but I am sure the world cannot stop forever because of this virus,” added Ceferin, the Slovenian who became president of European football’s governing body in 2016.

“I expect a vaccine, as soon as possible I hope, so no, we don’t have a plan to do the same competition next year.”

Ceferin was speaking the day after Paris Saint-Germain beat Atalanta 2-1 in a dramatic first quarterfinal of the competition.

The ‘Final Eight’ is taking place in strict conditions, including regular testing and the number of people entering stadiums kept to a minimum.

Yesterday, Atletico Madrid played RB Leipzig in the second quarterfinal, with the Spaniards arriving in Portugal after a scare at the weekend when it was revealed two of their players had tested positive for COVID-19.

Ceferin said he was always confident the Champions League would be completed, along with the Europa League, which is being played to a finish in similar conditions in Germany.

“I was sure that we would do this. I had moments of nervousness but I never gave up on the project,” he said.

“At the moment, now all the teams are in Portugal and in a bubble’, I am much calmer. Because when they are at home, and they meet family and friends, it is always a risk,” concludes the UEFA Chief.