Thomas Müller has pretty much seen it all in his many years at Bayern. The 34-year-old has appeared in the Champions League final four times with the club. Ahead of Wednesday’s semi-final second leg away at Real Madrid, we spoke to our No.25 as he looks back on the special energy from the first leg and the decisive millimetres in this battle to get to Wembley.
Interview with Thomas Müller
Servus, Thomas! There was an amazing atmosphere in the Allianz Arena in the first leg. What was your experience of it?
Thomas Müller: “It was very special. We’ve often had a similar huge atmosphere, especially in decisive Champions League knockout games. But the welcome at the stadium in particular was special. It was so loud – you could feel all the enthusiasm and energy. We were pushed and boosted. It was really great what the Bayern fans put together. It’s a shame we didn’t win, but the performance was at least good. Now it’s about getting over the line in Madrid.”
Wednesday will be your sixth appearance at the Bernabeu. What’s so special about that stadium?
“I’m excited to see what it’ll be like. The stadium has just been renovated. What fascinates me so much about the Bernabeu is that it’s right in the centre of the city. You’re just in some neighbourhood, go round the next block and suddenly there’s an 80,000-seater stadium there. Football is really important in Madrid. You see that as well at games like this. For me personally it simulates your performance.”
What role can the Bayern fans there play?
“Just when you think the stadium belongs to Real Madrid, it’s especially important that the unfaltering Bavarians pop up and give that white backdrop some dollops of red. We’ve experienced it there often before, especially when we progressed on penalties in 2012. The whole stand was there. It’ll definitely be an important factor.”
What are you expecting of Real in the second leg?
“There are a lot of sides to Real. They can drop back, have no problem also defending. But they know that they have excellent players on the counter. That concept has been seen to work enough times. It’s no coincidence that they’ve constantly been in the semi-finals in recent years. Real are so dangerous, but you can also play against them. Whether they’re beatable for us will be decided by whether we can put the ball away or not.”
What will progress to the final come down to on Wednesday?
“It’ll be an even game, on a knife’s edge. A lot in football comes down to being clinical. We also had two big chances in the second half against Stuttgart when it was 1-1. If you put chances away, you win. If not, you lose. That’s what it’ll come down to. It’s about millimetres, whether we’re clinical and can take them in the moments where we create our chances. That’s it.”
Take a trip down memory lane from Bayern’s past visits to the Bernabeu:
