Champions League: Bayern Munich treble aim

Bastian Schweinsteiger hopes to drink to more Bayern success in the Champions League final. Picture: AP

Bayern can complete part two of a possible treble with victory and go into the clash with Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund as clear favourites.

Jupp Heynckes’ side finished 25 points ahead of Dortmund as league champions and have the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) final to come at the start of June. “We’ve taken a massive stride towards perfection and we’re aiming for a perfect performance in the final,” Schweinsteiger said. “For me, the decisive factor will be everyone working hard and running for the others when we don’t have the ball. If we play to our potential, it’s very hard for anyone to win against us.”

Schweinsteiger believes the absence of injured midfielder Mario Goetze has weakened Dortmund ahead of the final The 20-year-old Goetze, who will join Bayern at the end of the season in a surprise deal worth a reported €37 million, has been nursing a muscle injury that has ruled him out of the biggest game of his career so far.

“When players like Goetze drop out, maybe the team gets a little weaker,” Schweinsteiger said on the eve of Bayern’s departure for London. “It would have been the biggest game of his career so I sympathise with him. However Dortmund will put out 11 players who will give 100 per cent for the cause.”

The absence of Goetze may hurt Dortmund but many of the fans had questioned whether the Germany international would be able to deal with playing against his future team on such a big occasion. “We respect Borussia Dortmund but I believe it’s down to us if we win or lose,” added Schweinsteiger.”

Bayern are chasing an unprecedented treble of titles for a German club after winning the Bundesliga in record fashion. They also take on VfB Stuttgart in the cup final on 1 June.

Meanwhile, Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller has called on his side to go down in history like the 1997 team by upsetting the odds to win the Champions League.

Dortmund are the underdogs for the Wembley meeting with Bayern just as they were when Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side, which  included former Scotland and Celtic midfielder Paul Lambert, beat defending champions  Juventus 3-1 to win the title 16 years ago. Weidenfeller, dubbed the “best non-international goalkeeper” by the German media, said in an interview with Kicker magazine: “Everyone still speaks today with unbelievable admiration about the 1997 team.

“Should we now also succeed in lifting the trophy in London, we would probably achieve a similar status. Champions League winners – that would be the best for the club and for us.”

Weidenfeller, who was in brilliant form in the semi-final second leg against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, is expected to be in for a busy night at Wembley but claims he is ready for anything Bayern throw at him. “We have extensive video material,” he added. “And, moreover, we know Bayern. No matter what happens in the final, nothing can surprise us.”

Weidenfeller is also confident the team can cope without playmaker Goetze. “It goes without saying that with him we have a different quality,” he said.

“But everything shouldn’t rest on him. In the DFB-Pokal final in 2012 Mario also didn’t play.” On that occasion, Dortmund ran out 5-2 winners against Bayern with the help of a Robert Lewandowski hat-trick.

l Berlin will stage the Champions League final for the first time in 2015 and Warsaw will host the Europa League final. “Two beautiful venues for our finals for 2015,” said Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantin.

The 2015 match, at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, will be the first European final in the German capital which hosted the Olympic Games in 1936 and the 2006 World Cup final. Two German cities have previously staged the Champions League final with Munich hosting it three times in 1993, 1997 and 2012 and Gelsenkirchen in 2004. Dortmund and Hamburg have hosted the Uefa Cup, now the Europa League, final since it was switched to a single-match final in 1998.

Uefa last year awarded the 2014 Champions League final to Lisbon and the Europa League final to Turin.

Big nations can get five spots

CHANGES to the Champions League could see Europe’s big nations, including England, having up to five teams in Uefa’s top club competition.

From 2015, the Europa League winners, as well as the European champions, will qualify automatically for the following season’s Champions League, Uefa sources have confirmed. But they will no longer take a place from the Premier League if they finish outside of the top four – as happened controversially with Tottenham last season when Chelsea won the Champions League but finished sixth.

The rule change was agreed by Uefa’s executive committee yesterday and will be announced at the European governing body’s Congress in London today. Five clubs will be a maximum and, in the unlikely event of clubs from the same country winning the Champions League and Europa League and both finishing out of the domestic qualifying places, they would still qualify for the Champions League but the side finishing fourth would miss out. The move is designed to make the Europa League more attractive and answer concern from the European Clubs’ Association that the chance of the Europa League winners taking a place from the domestic league was unacceptably high.

The managing director of one ECA club said: “It is unfair for clubs who think they have qualified through their league to be denied because another club has won the Champions League or Europa League.”